Anyone ever felt like they had to "re-invent the wheel" ?

[Prog_Freak]

Ok, bizarre title.
What I mean is how many players felt like they needed to "start back from square one" (well not THAT close to the starting point) and go completely back to the basics and just work them like a new guitarist/bassist (not "Smoke on the Water" riff and all down picking LAWL).
I wasn't happy with my playing, it had gotten a bit sloppy and I was going back to the same sloppy-assed "style" I did when I was younger (horrid lessons).
I pretty much started in Dec. 2014 with just Chromatic exercises, modes, and added a scale every 10 days (THIS time I DID take lesson's for a couple years and the teacher knew how to teach, unlike past "teachers" that only taught riffs, not theory, chord construction or related things like that), and have been following that daily regiment.
NO old songs no new ones, just Chromatic stuff, Modes, scales and chord variations and a new scale at intervals.
So my question again is has anyone ever do a "re-vamp/over haul" of their playing in a similar manner ????

 

[Abaddon9112]

I never really re-worked my guitar playing style, but I have done this sort of thing with bass. I got my first bass around the same time I started on guitar, so I've played both instruments for about ten years. But I never really learned "proper" bass technique and composition methods; just played it like I gigantic guitar pretty much, and only ever played on my own music.

But I've been working more on thinking of and playing the bass as its own entity the last couple years and I think I've improved quite a bit.

 

[burl]

yep, i ve done it like twice
first time i start it over again is for the theory, like the scale chords key kind of stuffs. no more nonsense riff just scales. start from the basic. it like re construct your thought about the music.
second time i just go back to more basic practice. to fix those bad habit i ve grown with in the past few years, feels painful, but after a few weeks i can achieve a better level.
i think my experience is more like repair the wheel rather than make a new one. for now it s just the fourth year i play guitar, start again seems not so difficult for me.
but the true thing what i know is, when you feel you cant progress any more but you still cant get what you want,DO FIND A TEACHER. tell they what you want to do and let they know how s your level right now. let they guide you to find your problem and fix it, being a better guitarist!

 

[Anant Naag]

I did this for 2 things
1: Theory : I realized obsessing over scales didn't help me, instead I started studying rhythms and licks. Changed techniques entirely, now its all in context of composition.

2: Techniques : I started playing fretless guitar which requires different techniques and approaches.

Its painful to work right from basics again but its a humbling experience and taught me importance of basics. Changing basics makes huge difference in tone, composition phrasing etc as compared to focusing on flashy techniques and licks.

 

[redstone]

All my life I felt like I had to re-invent the wheel haha. I restarted my alt picking technique from scratch 5 times over 15+ years. Not changing the position and grip but the whole mechanisms. Additionally, two of those experiences damaged my tendons severely and I had two loooong reeducations. Now I understand much more than anyone about that crap but I would never go back in time to teach my younger self. Because inventing or reinventing the wheel brings so much more than knowledge, or prestige if you're the first one ; it transforms the mind in a more functional way. It gives a really functional idea of the object, not just an idea of its function. And when you are the wheel, you're re-inventing yourself (/philo)

 

[RevDrucifer]

Yep, but in the total opposite way pretty much everyone's mentioned.

I grew up a hardcore Vai/Dream Theater fan, all into technical guitar stuff, solo guitar music, etc, but once I started singing I stopped caring almost immediately and the guitar just turned into something I use to .... around with. I go months without playing a note and my JEM is hanging on the wall less than 2 feet from me.

When I do play now, I spend some time noodling then open Garageband and start recording something. I almost never play unless I've got a song or idea I want to work on. It's really just a tool to write with. I have more fun singing and got better at that in a few years than I ever did playing guitar for 20.

 

[Prog_Freak]

I probably very much needed to just break the half-assed train/routine (Playing) LAWL.
Focusing on the hand mechanics adds a bit more to the recipe, using a metronome CONSTANTLY when ever I even pick up a guitar (found some great Android Apps, and Free computer programs) has really made a BIG difference.
One thing I've found from just doing chromatic exercises (1st finger at 15th fret, 2nd at 16, go across neck,down 1 fret, across neck, repeat to 1st fret and then reverse back to 15th fret) is I'm getting more aware of noticing intervals in music I listen to more than anything, Hell even stumbled across a LTE (Liquid Tension Experiment)/Petrucci "riff" and was like "HOLY F#CK !!!" (cue SImpsons intro music) when I was doing that exercise (doing 3 finger variations).
Well at the very least I'm getting much better riff/noodling ideas

 

[bloc]

A couple of weeks ago I realized I was only economy picking when moving from the high E to the low E, while simply alternate picking when going from the low E to the high E. Really had to slow down and make sure I was economy picking in both directions.

 

[asher]

This is part of what happens if I start to practice straight technique: I notice every problem, and my gut is to WANT to rebuild it, which would take forever and be infuriating.

 

[oompa]

yep. Aside from small ones, one major overhaul. I had played guitar for maybe 10 years ish and I had plenty of flaws, I knew about them but I could never be arsed fixing them since I was playing all the time or something.

Then I quit playing for maybe 2 years or so. After that I was utter crap, but then I was switching jobs and had nothing to do for maybe 3 months before starting at that new place, and since I had been knocked back so far I though I'd might as well just rework my technique from the beginning.

Long story short - best decision I ever made as a player.

I am left handed and my right hand technique was especially lacking, my precise control was crap and I was sloppy at higher speeds, I worked way too much from the elbow and had little precision in the wrist and poor control when switching between the two, I wasn't particularly economic and had no mode where I wasn't exaggerating my picking unnecessarily to some degree - and those are just a few flaws I knew I had

The reason was that I grew up listening to a lot of different stuff but mainly playing thrash/death etc as I started out at an early age and never took lessons, so I imitated players like Kerry King or Kirk Hammett who both have horrible right hand technique, I listened to all kinds of stuff and I clearly knew that Petrucci's and Di Meola's technique was so much less restraining, I just couldn't be arsed with the whole reworking thing.

After I reworked it, it was like a whole new level of playing opened up to me. It took a long time though, maybe a year or so until I could surpass my old "top" technically, but previously that was something like a plateau, now I just skipped past it and kept going sort of.

To simplify things, I took my more 'mature' understanding (compared to when I learned to play the first time around when I was like 10 or 11) of technique and simply decided to play the way I "wanted" to play in my head, no matter how ....ty it was or how long it took. I simply decided that every move I did came from my wrist alone (for a long time at first) and had minimal excess movement. It was a struggle, my entire sync was thrown off in the process. Miles of chromatics and string skipping later I started being comfortable with that, it was the new technique that came natural to me, and after that I went on to other things. More or less as if I had actually taken lessons by a strict but good teacher

Being much more economic about my movement though I could easily surpass that plateau I used to have though, sweeping suddenly became more of a natural extension rather than something I had to warm up 15mins specifically to do (and it still sounded sloppy) like it used to for example, just to name one thing off the top of my head.

Relative to my own previous skills I improved incredibly by reworking my technique. Can strongly recommend to anyone with a bit of patience or determination/stubbornness