Breaking Plateaus

M

maxabillion

New member
Ok here's one:

So I've been playing guitar for ten years. In the last two or three especially, I've made it my duty to improve my musicianship, playing ability, songwriting, singing, etc by any means necessary. For the last (woefully unemployed) nine or so months, I've played my instrument for 4-10 (usually 6 haha) hours a day, everyday (I'm a very driven burnout). As with anything, there are periods of somewhat rapid improvement, followed by grueling stretches of not much at all. Sure, my playing gets a touch more polished, or my fingers a hair stronger or faster, but nothing really groundbreaking during those 'between' times.

So here's the question, or what I will turn into a topic of discussion:

How do you break plateaus of playing your instrument?

One of the best things I did for my guitar playing was learning how to play piano. I can now clearly separate harmony in my head (usually) and it has helped with my songwriting (and more intricate singing-while-playing), which has dramatically changed the way I think of the guitar as a piece of a whole. Also, learning jazz really opened up my eyes as to the possibilities of chords, melodies, rhythms, etc. (Mind you, I am still quite an amateur at both piano, and jazz).

But now I find myself in a lull. I still play many hours a day (and night) but my playing has been on this most recent plateau for quite some time. I know it is a process that takes time, but I would love to hear of any of your journeys, advice, techniques, practice regimens, or thoughts on what every musician should know and do to continually push the boundary of what is presently possible.
 
I find that when I hit one of those "I'm not getting anywhere" plateaus a couple of things help me.

First (and easiest) put the guitar down and walk away for a few days and allow myself to be interested in something else for a while

Second (and usually harder) come back to the guitar and completely break out of the norm of what I would usually do. I've grabbed some sheet music written for piano or violin or choir, something like that in styles I'd never normally mess around in and learn to play a couple of pieces

It kind of opens things up again, it's not the same old practice routine but something fresh and I'm coming back to it after a few days break and it can sometimes take you in different directions.

It's worked for me but of course YMMV
 
Second (and usually harder) come back to the guitar and completely break out of the norm of what I would usually do. I've grabbed some sheet music written for piano or violin or choir, something like that in styles I'd never normally mess around in and learn to play a couple of pieces
Click to expand...

I think what the previous poster says is from personal experience leaning in the right direction. It's possibly doing what you have always done in particular areas of playing that often comes up against a wall. Maybe teach yourself some picking styles that you don't have a good grasp of, learn synthetic and diminished scales which break away from the usual melodic and harmonic major and minor scales. Be brutally honest and find aspects of your playing which might benefit from taking them back to bare bones and re learning them to make them a better foundation on which to build your techniques, as I'm sure we all have started out allowing areas of our playing to become habitually less than ideal through taking a short cut or two. I find it useful to think of melodies from songs and then use note memory to find the intervals which make up those melodies and then play them in various positions on the fret board in a number of keys. That exercise helps a great deal when composing one's own melodic riffs, as does taking a common progression and playing it into a recorder and then explore scales in each of their positions on the neck to find all the useful notes which can be played with that progression. Pretty much anything that's outside of your comfort zone.

all the best

Tim
 
Two things have kept me improving over the years. First is playing in bands (read other musicians) in front of people. Nothing makes you concentrate like fucking up in front of 200 people. And playing with lots of GOOD musicians will make you step up your game and you can steal licks.
Second is recording myself. Listening to yourself in the third person is VERY instructional. You can here what's working and most important, what's not. This alone has made me a much better player. I used to worry about how many notes I could fit in a bar. Now I feel it's about the notes I don't play and the space between notes. Now I try to groom lead phrases more carefully.
 
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What Trackrat said - playing with others. Get into a band, or at least jam with other players. If you feel like it, go out and do some solo open mics, or even some street busking. Perfecting your techniques at home is like cutting down a tree in the middle of a forest - yes, it makes a sound, but you're the only one who hears it!
 
If I don't seem to be improving. I just learn a few songs or play the drums (another instrument) for a while. Learning how to play the kit has really helped me on my rhythm personally.
 
Yeah, I definitely made huge leaps and bounds when I started recording myself. I found immediately that my playing was sloppy (especially dynamically) and recording myself has done wonders to improve my ear for timing and tone as well.

Finding quality musicians is a thing easier said than done. I've jammed with probably 25 different people/bands in my area over the last year since I moved here, and all but two dudes (who had previous band commitments) were struggling pretty bad. And I'm of the school of thought that everyone has something to teach, but for example, I had to tune more than one of their instruments for them because they did not know how (although they had claimed that 'music was their life' and that they had 'been playing forever'). Jamming with good musicians is an experience unlike anything else, but its a rare one indeed.

I've been currently trying to learn to read music, and I'm making some progress but its slow - I know that in the long run its pretty essential of a skill to have, but as on now, its just a whole new thing to learn!

Any particular books or websites help you? (especially with learning out-of-the-ordinary scales like Phrasemaker said)
 
When I was taking lessons my teacher said he would sometimes pick a scale or a few notes and just force himself to stick to those X amount of notes and just try as many variations as possible, after about 10 minutes or so he would come up with new ideas and styles.

I would think that learning a new song might help, or picking some particular mode you don't usually use and just practicing it over and over.

Maybe new picking patterns too -

IDK - I haven't been playing for 10 years so these things might not work for you - they seem to help me though :)
 
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