What do you guys do to stay motivated? What do you practice?

[Charles]

So I'm sitting at a bit of a plateau these days. I don't feel like I'm improving at a rate constant to the amount of practice I'm putting in (4-5 hours a day) and it's bugging me.

I'm looking for a shredder I can study who's versatile enough that if I practice his tunes and learn them well, it'll translate over to other works (I.E cover band, my main money making gig..) I want to do. My main method of learning tunes is tabs, but if the tunes are simple, chord driven affairs I'll use my ears. Lead lines are hard for me to transcribe by ear. If anyone can suggest a guy to study I'd appreciate it.

What else do you guys suggest I do? I've learned all five positions of the major, minor and pentatonic scale, and while I can improv around using these, I just feel unoriginal and uninspired. My technique is pretty sound, alt-picking lines up to 208 (16th notes), but when I shred in an improvisational situation, I find myself just basically running scale fragments or scales. I do read music fairly proficiently, so this isn't a concern for me.

In short, I want to be versed in improvising, but I also want to be a learned musician, capable of playing many styles.

Anyone suggest where to go from here with practicing? What do you guys usually practice?

 

[eleven59]

I'd say practice improvising and ear training.

Put on a song, any song, and try to learn the vocal lines (this will do wonders for your phrasing as well), then try to come up with a harmony part, then try to come up with completely new melodic ideas over the chord progression (this last one's best when done over an instrumental backing track).

Sometimes I'll just put on the radio to a random station and try to play along to whatever comes on, sometimes trying to learn what they're playing by ear, other times trying to come up with something interesting that goes along with it.

 

[stuh84]

Basically, it sounds like you need to dedicate some time to NOT practicing, either through being in a band and working on riffs with people, or just jamming over backing tracks and the like.

You say your technique is pretty sound, but only mention speed. Just making sure, how is your bending, vibrato and the like? They are what I find makes the difference between scalar patterns, and lead lines. If you have them down then sweet, but if say, you listen to them, and then listen to someone like George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen, Doug Steele who frequents this forum, Brian May, and how they make a note scream, and find you can't match that, then I'd say work on that.

Other than that, I'd say look into the basics of styles, I can do a few things from pretty much every style I want to, whether its jazz, blues, metal, funk, fingerpicked classical, or anything really, I don't sound like the best in the styles, but I can do something convincing in all of them, just from learning the basics.

Finally, learn some theory if you dont know it, so you know how and why chords work together, what can be used as passing notes, and what sort of moods the modes cause, and other scales too.

 

[Psyclapse]

I've been playing for about 12 years and I am in no way as good as I should be for having played that long. I was in a band for too long that didn't really exercise my potential or even challenge me and I ended up in a stagnant state of playing, so I got really unmotivated... Even more so when I quit that band.

But thankfully, an old friend of mine got me to join a sweet-ass metal band and I'm back in the saddle. The only problem is, I can't solo that well. So I started taking lessons again, and it's kind of embarrassing because my teacher works with a lot of 8-12 year old kids at a local music store but he's extremely talented.

He's helped a lot in the theory/technique department but also in helping me discover new ways of playing. It's difficult to describe but sometimes you just need another perspective and maybe lessons could be good for you. And it sounds like you would want to find someone who is well versed in more musical styles than shred, like jazz, classical and even country, so you can really expand your horizons.

So just go out and take a few lessons from different teachers and if anything sticks, maybe that will be what you really need to break out.

 

[detectivepope]

i stop playing for a week, come up with some musical ideas from what goes on around me. after that i listen to lots of different kinds of music.

another one i do is avoid playing other peoples music but thats not for everyone

as far as practice goes i find too much playing can take the fun out.

 

[Nick]

my practice comes from learning songs from bands i like which i find difficult to play.

funnily enough last night was the first time in a long time i was motivated to do this and i learned 'Stabbing to Purge Dissimulation' by All shall Perish.

I generally get bored if i know i am going to be able to play a song and so get halfway through and forget about it because i lose interest but sometimes i get a song where i feel it would really improve my skills to be able to play it start to finish like the above track.

I would love to have a guy that sat down with me to teach me to solo and beat fuck out me when i didnt practice because my lead playing sucks and id love to improve at that but lack motivation :sad:

 

[Charles]

I'd love to get a good teacher, but because I'm in boarding school that's unfortunately not a reality.

Judging from the responses here, it sounds almost like I'm overstressing this and that I need to just go have fun, alright, thanks guys!

 

[CrashRG]

playing in a band always helped me progress more than i would by myself i feel. im kind of in the same boat as Psyclapse......I've been playing since '94 but i dont feel like im the player i should be. I blame part of it on the fact that the town i grew up in, didnt really have any decent guitar teachers......they were good, but they didnt really want to teach kids to play. they just wanted to teach basic chords so you could fucking play mary had a little lamb.

my advice is try to find a band or a group of people to jam with and just have fun. if it works for you the way it works for me, their playing should rub off on you.

 

[Psyclapse]

my advice is try to find a band or a group of people to jam with and just have fun. if it works for you the way it works for me, their playing should rub off on you.

Exactly, I meant to say something along those lines but I had a mild brain fart. Crash is right because the other guitarist in my band is also very talented but we each have our areas that we lack in and want to better them. He's a machine when it comes to picking whereas I prefer a more legato approach to some riffing. So we're able to feed off of each other and learn from one another's different expertise.

Charles, are there other people that play guitar/bass/drums in that boarding school that you would be able to jam with?

 

[Maniacal]

Learn 3 note per string pentatonics
Learn all the melodic minor modes and arpeggios, then play these over a normal 2-5-1 to get an outside sound

Then mix your already vast pentatonic knowledge with melodic minor, dorian, half whole diminished over a 2-5-1

there are so many things you can do wth something as simple as 2-5-1 that you can never really run out of ideas

If your playing sounds boring and predictable, stop using pentatonics for a while and use dorian instead, or melodic minor.

A good exercise is to put on a smooth, love making backing track and sing a melody then play it on the guitar. This is excellent for your inner ear and for true improvising, as opposed to playing licks.

 

[Tomii Sonic]

I have to go with out hearing anything for a week- to reset my brain-
If not everything blends together and becomes emotionless and sterile.
I rely on angst to drive me- when I write and practice I mostly think of times that I have been hurt, betrayed, or treated like an insect-
Combine that with caffeine, and occasionally a cig or cigar(I only smoke on rare occasion for an extra bit of head rush with my coffee...not trying to talk you into smoking-LOL) but I find it propels me into the place I need to be!!!

 

[Demeyes]

I'd say practice improvising and ear training.

Put on a song, any song, and try to learn the vocal lines (this will do wonders for your phrasing as well), then try to come up with a harmony part, then try to come up with completely new melodic ideas over the chord progression (this last one's best when done over an instrumental backing track).

Sometimes I'll just put on the radio to a random station and try to play along to whatever comes on, sometimes trying to learn what they're playing by ear, other times trying to come up with something interesting that goes along with it.

I'd agree with this. It sounds like you can play well you just need to break from your routine and get applying your knowledge. I like to put on some random songs and I try and improvie over it. These are songs I don't know at all so I have to figure out the progression and then start playing over it. I does wonders for your ability to use your skills and to try out ideas as well as developing your ear.
Also the band thing sounds like it could work for you. I know that for me it really helped solidify my playing. Loads of people I know can play but are poor at keeping time due to never playing with a drummer, it sounds in time when they jam on their own. Also you can learn vital things from feeding off other musicians and responding to their playing.
Something else worth trying is recording. If you get a few pieces of recording gear, and some drum programming software then you can start laying down ideas. You'd be able to make your own backing tracks, solo over them and then listen back to critique your own playing. It can do wonders and you can experiment as much as you like without anyone else hearing it.

 

[auxioluck]

I typically take a break for about a week, and start letting my mind wander more. When I get a melody in my head, or a rhythm, or riff, I record it as a voice memo in my phone, because I'll just forget it later.

I find one melody I like, and I usually write around it rather than starting a song with it. I'll restructure a song 5 or 6 times before I an happy with it.

Taking a break and just letting the inspiration come is the best way to explain it. The music isn't in your brain, it's all around you. I had to take time to really learn that.

 

[AgentWalrus]

maniacal has the right idea. as a jazz guy im always learning something new. for me the greatest way to improve is by transcribing. sometimes ill just click on youtube and just listen to scott henderson and just learn his lines and rhythms. youtube forces your ear to become very on point. rewinding is horrendous and the sound quality and video quality is usually bad so in a sense it becomes a completely auditory experience. ill then take those licks and put my spin on them etc... change rhythms add notes continue passages etc...

 

[TimothyLeary]

Try to stop practice and just listen music. Any kind you like. Listen some ambient or deep jazz music. It will force you to hear not only the guitar, but all the harmonys and melody, cause it has much more space to music breath and is not so based on guitar licks and pentatonic/anyscale licks...

If you practice very much you enter in automatic mode, you stop hearing what you play, you just play...

If you stop making sex for a week or two but you see porno everyday, your mind will be full of ideas to make sex when you start again. Transpose this to music.

 

[Charles]

I am in a blues trio as well as a cover band. The cover band does more gigs and makes more money, but I find it doesn't really challenge me. The blues trio is a challenge, but not in the area I'm looking to go.

I'm sure I could work something out with the existing musicians to jam, but I find that even when I play with these bands I'm not very inspired.

I think I'm gonna start moving towards modes and the stuff Maniacal suggested. Learn some other scales and mix them in with pentatonics as well as learn the 3 note per string stuff.

 

[Uroborus]

Get a guitar grimore I open up mine daily when practicing

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Some of the things I do:

Listen to all kinds of music imaginable. Literally everything even with music without a guitar. I play piano/keyboards and listen to tons of film/video game scores, hell I even scored a local christmas theatre play last year. Arranging carols was fun as all hell.

On that note, play and jam with as many musos as you can. I play in a metallica tribute band that doubles as a thrash/death metal band, a gospel rnb group, play bass in a prog pscychedelic power trio as well as starting another band playing straight up rock (with elements of swing and electronica). Playing with musos better than you is also a great learning experience.

Try to listen to all the instruments playing and see if you can play along and understand what they're doing. I love doing this to dense rich instrumentated music like trance, big band jazz and so forth. Then try to come with a harmony (as already mentioned) or complimentary line or whatever.

Put down your guitar and go out and enjoy life. Non musical things around you (both positive and negative) can inspire to perform well or even better write new music. You may lose technique but it's worth the new found vigour and perspective.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

You have to want to stay interested, you can't will yourself into it. I've been in a few music classes that had a number of students that just didn't have it in them. They wanted to be great singers or guitarists or theorists, but they never looked at what they had and made due. Because I'm so focused on advancing my theoretical knowledge, I hardly write actual music, though I have all the tools for doing so. You know your technique, so why not immerse yourself in a new discipline, maybe some new music?

 

[darren]

I deliberately don't practice, so every time i pick up the guitar, it's fresh and new. Nothing like that panic of not knowing WTF you're doing to keep it exciting!