Writing and playing within your skill level

[Stephenar19]

Partially for advice, partially just for the sake of discussion, but how do you all handle writing music that's within your skill level and ability?

I've been playing guitar fairly consistently for about 15 years now, but the fact of the matter is that I'm just not as good as I'd like to be. I can hear the riffs that I want to play in my head and I can come up with some interesting ideas, but it almost always results in me playing right at the edge of my skill level. This leads to inconsistent takes when recording which can quickly become a nightmare when trying to double track or god forbid quad+ track.

Of course I can dial down on my tempo, forego techniques that I haven't mastered, and use simpler timed riffs that I can record more reliably, but that usually results in music that I think sounds bland and uninspired.

I imagine this gap exists for just about everyone out there, so for those of you who make your own music, how do you manage it? Do you have any tips on making "easier" passages more exciting? Do you use editing tricks to fudge parts that you don't have down pat?

 

[jaxadam]

Do you use editing tricks to fudge parts that you don't have down pat?

No.

 

[Stephenar19]

No.

Yeah, not something I would do either, but I can definitely see the temptation when you're so close and just want something 10bpm faster

 

[RevDrucifer]

I spent 6 hours last week trying to get one pass at a riff I wrote that’s clean enough to keep as a take. Then I have to double it. It’s still not ’there’, so I’m going to keep at it until it is.

This will be my 30th year playing guitar, my motivation has changed through the years of why I continue playing, but lately it’s come right back to the original motivations that kept me playing once I started learning; it feels fucking amazing conquering these little challenges. There is no better accomplishment for me, because these are my personal goals and not the goals the rest of the world believes I should obtain.

There are aspects of recording I try to keep old school, going for full takes and not relying on editing to get the job done are the biggest. It’s only going to make me a better guitar player/musician at the end of the day.

But that’s me, not everyone is the same and some are more pragmatic in the end result being the only important part and it doesn’t matter how they get there. Despite the fact I’m not playing in a band currently, I always have this mentality in my head that I have to be able to perform what I write live and I dig maintaining that mentality.

Lastly, I’m often using my studio as a place to force myself into improving. Almost every solo I write I have to practice for a day or two before I can track it, that’s nearly the only improvement-related practice I get in these days.

 

[Stephenar19]

Sounds like we have a similar mentality. I've been writing parts out, transferring them over into guitar pro, and then practicing them until I can play them at speed. The whole process is rewarding from a personal goals standpoint for sure, but terribly inefficient if the end goal is to produce music quickly.

 

[jaxadam]

My problem is I just don’t write songs. I just practice licks, and they end up becoming songs!

So if I had a discography, it would be a bunch of weird practice patterns in the form of pseudo songs.

 

[Crungy]

This

There are aspects of recording I try to keep old school, going for full takes and not relying on editing to get the job done are the biggest. It’s only going to make me a better guitar player/musician at the end of the day.

And this

Lastly, I’m often using my studio as a place to force myself into improving. Almost every solo I write I have to practice for a day or two before I can track it, that’s nearly the only improvement-related practice I get in these days.

That's how I approach things as well. I've never really done leads that are even in the ballpark of being shreddy, but this helped immensely. Recording full take after full take (x50) really helped me focus on what I needed to improve on to get things sounding better.

For rhythm parts, I will punch in on sections if I just can't nail it in one take. That's helpful to me so I have a decent baseline take and can try improving from there.

 

[gnoll]

I practice the things I've written. I have to so I do it.

And now I'm at a point where I can mostly play what I write without ages of practice.

But... The only reason I have the skills I have is because of facing this kind of problem. If I had never been writing/playing with a band I would still be terrible, since all my "practice" would have been aimless noodling.

Sometimes something is truly impossible though. Then I program midi and let a synth do it.

 

[The Pierce Paradox]

Recording is where I tend to grow as a player. Writing ideas above your current skill level forces you to learn them and play them cleanly. It can be slow and painful at times. What helps me is writing out the idea with a midi synth and following that so I know what I should be doing.

 

[The Pierce Paradox]

Recording is where I tend to grow as a player. Writing ideas above your current skill level forces you to learn them and play them cleanly. It can be slow and painful at times. What helps me is writing out the idea with a midi synth and following that so I know what I should be doing.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I'm not a purist about editing/studio tricks, although I still approach them as a way to augment a performance rather than "fix" it. I have no problem nudging notes around or doing punch-ins for a cleaner end result, but I find it's only worth it to do the editing work if the original take was already pretty dang close.

I've already made a rough demo and done a lot of practicing by the time I feel ready to lay down the final takes for a song. I enjoy playing along to my songs after I've recorded them, and all the practicing/repetition during the recording process makes that a lot easier for material where I had to push my limits at the time. Recording in general has helped make me a better player since it puts a spotlight on my bad habits and shortcomings

 

[gh0styboi]

Honestly, it's not even something that factors into my process. At all. I just write what I hear - or what I want to hear - and if I can't play it, I practice that bit until I can and then track it. Writing within your skill level is comfortable, but it doesn't help you improve if that's your goal. I've never been one to sit down and run scales or drills etc, but I definitely see the value in using parts of someone else's stuff to improve things. I used a ton of little sections from Angel Vivaldi's albums as etudes to improve certain things about my playing.

But as far as writing music goes, skill level isn't a factor in terms of 'should I write or record this?'

And no, no editing tricks. I'd rather sound like shit than sound great because I tracked it at 40bpm less than what I mixed it out at.

 

[Mboogie7]

Practice practice practice.

 

[feilong29]

So, I pushed myself to stop doing cover songs and start writing my own music, which was not too hard, but recording them was a whole other hurdle. Far too often I found myself writing outside of my skill level, which turned into frustration, so I began to "work with what I got" for a bit and maximize my capabilities and it produced some very satisfying results. So after doing that for a bit, I decided to challenge myself and start writing above my level again, and pushing myself to practice and improve--it's a slow process, but it helps a whole lot.

All that to say, maximize what you can do at your current level and start introducing stuff that is above your level--it's like setting little milestones for yourself.

 

[budda]

Read about protest the hero going from “a calculated use of sound” to “kezia”. That was a leap for them. I havent written past what I can play for a while, though I may get to try it in the new project.

 

[Stephenar19]

Read about protest the hero going from “a calculated use of sound” to “kezia”. That was a leap for them. I havent written past what I can play for a while, though I may get to try it in the new project.

I'll have to dig around for that, was it an interview? I've always been a big fan of those guys

 

[budda]

I'll have to dig around for that, was it an interview? I've always been a big fan of those guys

Im sure it was asked lol.

 

[STRHelvete]

As a songwriter, every now and then I come up with something I can't play easily. I just do it enough until I can. That's it. Honestly it doesn't happen often because I'm putting guitar into something and I want it to fit, so it's natural that I'd more than likely play within my skillset because it's what's in me to do. On the rare moments it happens it's usually not something I can never play, it's just getting my brain and fingers to get on the same page.

There HAVE been times where I have "faked" a riff using editing but that's honestly just so I can get the idea down before I forget it. For the sake of having it sound good in the song (because it has to be double tracked), I learn to play it correctly before the guitar tracks are finalized. By the time the song is finished I'm able to play it well enough.
Because I'm usually the kind of person who practices as they write/record I'm usually "levelling up" when I'm in the middle of writing songs. I've never been the type to sit around practicing for hours. If I'm holding my guitar I'm either just dicking around or I'm writing a song. I've found that's it's a natural evolution in that as I progress as a songwriter, my guitar playing has to progress in order to keep up. I've never come to a point in a song where I need some Steve Vai type shit because I don't write for that nor can I play it..BUT times where I had to beef up my lead work and whatnot I just did it enough to where I was able to. I hate to get all internet alpha Chad about it but honestly it's just "get good". Can't play it? Work on it until you can. That's really all you can do and honestly I think that's what makes you progress as a player.


Oh and here's a good songwriting tip. If you play within your means and you feel the song suffers, who cares? It's not like you've got a record label breathing down your neck to give them an album and millions of fans speculating that you died or something. There's no real pressure. Put the song on a shelf and come back when you've got the chops. You've got time. If your brain is writing checks your fingers can't cash, just hold off until you can do it. Sometimes you'll level up and come back to a song to put the "real" guitar work on it and realize you don't need to. That song was a snapshot of a moment of time in your ability and there's no reason to revisit. Just write something new with your new skills. There's no race, no competition and no prize to be won. Just do what you can an enjoy the climb to where you wanna be. The journey is just as important, if not moreso, than the destination.

 

[Drew]

Another take here - A lot of famous "pro" musicians known for being extremely technically accomplished, have developed that reputation by playing things that actually xcome fairly easy to them, rather than writing and recording things that they find extremely challenging. There are exceptions, of course, but one of the things that was the most eye-opening about Troy Grady's work in "Cracking the Code" is that a lot of Yngwie's famous runs are things that are actually very easy for him to play given the mechanics of how his pickstroke works and when it's efficient for him to change strings, and that his whole style is based around things he can do pretty easily.

So, maybe try this - instead of writing things that are hard for you, write cool sounding things that come pretty easily. See what happens. It's certainly helped my own writing - I've gotten a LOT better at writing cool solos when I stopped trying to do it by composing it note by note and started just improvising until I came up with a run that sounded cool, then kept improvising until I found something else to add to it that sounded cool, etc etc etc until I eventually had a whole solo of things that I could have improvised in a single take, that were all comfortably within my wheelhouse of techniques and runs that felt fluid to me.

 

[Stiman]

I have spent most of my guitar playing years just learning covers and noodling. I think one of the biggest hurdles to song writing is that, when you suck at it, it's not very fun. With covers, there's a very clear path to follow to get to the end goal, and you can always make progress in each play session. Songwriting is hard, and even harder when you suck (it sucks to suck). But the only way to succeed is to push through, make sitting down to write music the goal, not the outcome of the session, because at first, there are a lot of fruitless sessions.

Anyway, I like what @Drew wrote about (or is alluding to), lean on your strengths.