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Instead I'm concentrating on doing what I enjoy - which is playing rock songs, ideally with other people - in the hope that getting better happens as a side effect.
If it doesn't, I'm still having a good time!
Context is perhaps relevant - I'm early 50s and been playing 2 years so I don't have the runway or available practice time (business, kids etc) to be the next EVH. It is what it is.
I always think about practise as working on things I don't know ..it's the only way to improvement beyond what you do at the moment
Probably a good place to start is learn the 5 minor pentatonic shapes iff you don't already know them and start using them to improvise the same way as you would with the standard one most people use ..ie A minor 5th position
I will use a parallel situation to make and explain my point:
Thirty odd years ago I took up golf. I am pretty seriously disabled but took to the game with gusto. Lessons, practice - I did the lot. Despite everything, new clubs etc., I was at best a hacker on the course. Sometimes middling, most times awful.
About five years ago I was on the point of giving up golf. I found it hard to motivate myself to get out to play and I felt it was a waste paying an annual sub but only playing a few times each year. So I spent some time thinking about golf. And what it is that I enjoyed the most from the game. The answer: I enjoyed the exercise and the fresh air also the company of like minded individuals for the few hours the round takes. I enjoyed too the feeling of hitting a good shot and of racking up the odd par on the course. What I also discovered in this 'think in' is that winning prizes or being considered a decent golfer by my companions, had absolutely no attraction or importance. I reset my priorities accordingly and am now really enjoying golf again. Playing without the added pressure of trying to make this putt or hit that fairway. I realized too that I was very uptight and a bag of nerves before starting a round and only got to relax on the back nine. The quest for greater distance from the tee has been compensated by the increased accuracy of a fairway wood. My drivers and long irons all ended up in a charity shop.
To put my golfing experiences into a guitar context, it is necessary for the OP to think about his playing and why he continues to play guitar. The idea of getting better or improving is impossible to define let alone quantify. Does 'better' mean faster??? A lot of us play for our own enjoyment but if you are not enjoying your playing, something is wrong. In my experience of guitar playing and now bass too, a lot of enjoyment is to be had from playing music with a few friends. Once every few weeks is enough. We play a lot of old songs and standards, none too exacting or demanding, and have a laugh especially when something goes wrong! These get-togethers give us a sense of focus, a goal even if it is only to learn the intro to something. But most importantly it is fun. Something that a player playing on his own to backing tracks loses out on. You will learn more about music as a result and your guitar playing will improve. And be fun. Nothing wrong with that.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
You’ve inferred quite a lot from my initial post, but I’m afraid precisely all of it is wrong.
Playing guitar is still very much fun for me, and my very first post defined exactly how I would see myself as being ‘better’ - know how to play more scales, in multiple positions; learn some more chords, and know enough theory to know why one particular scale will work when I improvise vs. why another won’t work.
I've been trying it too. I looked up Hah Joe covers on YouTube and just tried copying other people licks. It's an easy way to bust out of the same old stuff I always play.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
- CAGED
- Major Triads
- Major Triads + 7
- Major Triads + 2
- Major Triads + 6
- Major Triads + 4
- Minor Triads
- Minor Triads + 7
- Minor Triads + 2
- Minor Triads + 6
- Minor Triads + 4
- Chords Inversions
Scales:
- Ionian mode
- Aeolian mode
- Mixolydian mode
- 3nps - three notes per string system
Here you go, you are set for at least a year.
each to their own of course, it's interesting how players look for different things from their learning experiences.
Justin's beginner course is not just for brand new players ... those that have played for a little while but with 'unstructured' learning can and have learned incredibly valuable skills and basic techniques that will be of massive benefit later. Work through the beginner course online - using the skills you have to fast track - but spend time on it and make sure you have all those techniques and don't cheat yourself by missing out on something fundamental for your skill-set.
https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/1-beginner-guitar-course
https://www.justinguitar.com/songs
Then make sure your strumming techniques are good with a lot of different patterns.
https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/practical-music-theory
Then go Intermediate.
https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/2-intermediate-foundations
Then pick a style module.
https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/3-intermediate-modules
Then go advanced.
https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/4-advanced-modules
The better you are at the basics the better you will be so make sure you take your time to get things right. You may need to unlearn and relearn some ong-lived 'bad' habits.
These can be as intimidating as you want them to be. Working out the three chords in a three chord song or an entire Vai instrumental or some happy point in-between.
Take the 12 bar blues for example. Chords are I, IV, V. A7, D7, E7 in the key of A. Practice these so called simple chords until you really have them down. Play them in the dark just to confirm that you have them. Do the same for the other keys. Remember simple is not always easy. No guitarist was ever run off the stage for (correctly) playing simple chords or no bassist for playing (simple) root notes. Walk before you try to run. Our (guitarists) problem is that we want to sprint before we have learned to jog. This applies to any skill you might need.....
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
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