i aren't getting any better

[gibsonguy09]

I have benn playin gutar for almost 3 years now and i haven't improved any for almost like 8 months!! A mi doing somi wrong..should i try a different approach to playing.. i take lessons at the GAC(guitar attention center) adn i havne' improved for a while

 

[Middleman]

Scales and chords, practice em. Get a new album and work out all the guitar parts. Jam with other people who are better than you are. Lots of ways of jump starting your skills.

 

[Dave_M]

Define "not better". What is it you want to accomplish that you're not acheiving? If its speed you want, then get a metronome and work on your picking and hand coordination. If its theory related and you're not progressing then you need to memorize and internalize the rudiments. Know how to build any major scale in your sleep. Know the relative minor right off the top of your head without giving it any thought. If its just tunes you want to learn then maybe you'll want to do some ear training or learn how to sight read the sheet music.

 

[azraelswings]

I have benn playin gutar for almost 3 years now and i haven't improved any for almost like 8 months!! A mi doing somi wrong..should i try a different approach to playing.. i take lessons at the GAC(guitar attention center) adn i havne' improved for a while

Some random ideas:

Jump into a new style you've never played before, funk, jazz, blahblahblah

Arrange pieces for other instruments for guitar.

Try playing scales and scalar patterns with a metronome, slowly raising the rate at which you play them.

Search for new chord voicings.

Write up a daily or weekly practice schedule and stick with it. Start every day by warming up, and work on every area of your playing you want to improve on, such as solo-string playing, rhythm and chords, improvising, writing, ear training. If this starts to become a chore, make sure you give yourself a break, maybe by jamming for fun on weekends.

Hope these ideas help!

 

[gibsonguy09]

thanks ya'll i will try that. I have been practicing all of my scales adns stuff adn tremelo picking. I am working on a DIo CD right now. I figured out stand up adn shout That is easy though. I have a really good friends who got me into guitar he helps me sometimes. We jam together alot.

 

[gibsonguy09]

I am a metal head/punk rocker

 

[Scrubucket7]

ive been playing for about 5 years now and havent really seen an improvement in my playing either. Ive played in a couple punk bands that had very simple songs. The last time i realized i was getting good was when i joined my schools jazz band. Playing a different style helped me alot. Since then, i got kicked out of school, or else i would probably be twice as good from playing everyday in school. So...what im tryin to say is, azraelswings is right, try a new style, and try to find the right people to jam with. Itll help you out alot.

 

[Cyrokk]

I have benn playin gutar for almost 3 years now and i haven't improved any for almost like 8 months!!

For most people, improvement comes in a series of plateaus: when you start, the learning curve is huge but once you get past the fundamentals, you begin to improve at a moderate pace and you think "wow, I'm getting the hang of this, I will kick ass in no time at all!".

And then the improvement stops and you are stuck in a rut of non-improvement for what seems like an eternity. The brain takes time to develop when it comes to skills, and some skills really put that area of your brain to the task so that it will demand time to get it's nueron patterns in order (or something like that. I'm a guitarist, not a neorologist).

Just because you aren't seeing improvement doesn't mean that it's not happing and that's the end for you. You just have to keep on playing and working towards your goals knowing that you'll get there eventually-just not as soon as you'd like- and you'll get much more out of the instrument by using the skills you know now to have fun.

You say you are into metal, so if you are facing speed issues then technique is extrememly important: if it hurts to play fast, then you are doing it wrong. I too play metal and I used to get frustrated by the brick wall I was hitting. I realized that I wasn't applying the right technique and once I corrected it, my improvement went through the roof. I'm now trying to make up all the lost time and frustration.

You'll get there, just be patient.

 

[gibsonguy09]

You say you are into metal, so if you are facing speed issues then technique is extrememly important: if it hurts to play fast, then you are doing it wrong. I too play metal and I used to get frustrated by the brick wall I was hitting. I realized that I wasn't applying the right technique and once I corrected it, my improvement went through the roof. I'm now trying to make up all the lost time and frustration.

You'll get there, just be patient.

I Might try adn expirement with different technics. I use tremelo picking alot.

 

[spiderman2812]

howdy

i've got this book i picked up called guitar scale guru it's pretty sweet got it at a barnes and knobles. Anyway when i get like that i tend to go over scales and beat up on myself about how much i suck and i've been playing for about 15 years so good luck and don't give yourself a black eye in the process.

 

[Buck62]

I have benn playin gutar for almost 3 years now and i haven't improved any for almost like 8 months!! A mi doing somi wrong..should i try a different approach to playing.. i take lessons at the GAC(guitar attention center) adn i havne' improved for a while

I'd work on the spelling and punctuation first, then the guitar.

 

[gibsonguy09]

I'd work on the spelling and punctuation first, then the guitar.

i don't care! aobut tht stuff i am just typing to tupe fast adn don't hav time to do all of tht junk.
^
period..lol...j/m

 

[juststartingout]

i don't care! aobut tht stuff i am just typing to tupe fast adn don't hav time to do all of tht junk.
^
period..lol...j/m

So how long have you been working on your grammer, 10-15 years. If you can't accomplish that in 15 years, why do you expect to be a guitar player in 1 year.

 

[onlyfingers]

So how long have you been working on your grammer, 10-15 years. If you can't accomplish that in 15 years, why do you expect to be a guitar player in 1 year.

try "grammar"

 

[famous beagle]

So how long have you been working on your grammer, 10-15 years. If you can't accomplish that in 15 years, why do you expect to be a guitar player in 1 year.

Not to mention the fact that he puncuated two questions with periods

 

[Dani Pace]

We have all heard of "writers block" when new ideas just wont materalize. We guitarists get something similar which i call "pickers block" when we just don't seem to make any progress, no matter how hard we try. Just keep playing and this will pass. Don't limit yourself, this is a good time to experiment with different styles of music. The fastest way out of a slump is to expand your horrizons. Associate with musicians who you consider better than yourself, and learn from them. More than 40 years of playing has taught me that these periods of no progress come and go, and when they finally go there is usualy a period of remarkable progress and improvement.

 

[Larry Gude]

gibson guy...

...I'll leave Handwriting and Punctuation 101 to others.

As a few folks mentioned, do something different, IE get our of your routine.

Suggestions: (things that have gotten me over dull spots)

Don't play for a week or two.

You said you've got some Dio down pretty good. Play leads over what you know if you haven't learned them yet.

Play something totally different for a week or two, in your case, get a pop acoustic book and learn some Jimmy Buffet or John Denver (harder than you might think!)

Find a song or two you like that are over your head a bit and break 'em down, listen to it over and over and get it RIGHT, concentrate on HEARING it and playing it correctly. You want it to challenge you, not defeat you.

When you're watching TV, try to figure out commercials or play along with a movies musical score.

Get you a DVD of something you can't do, titles like "How I'm paying for my Guitar Institute Tuition Until the World Recognizes My Brilliance" or whatever. I've yet to NOT learn at least something from every instructional video I've ever looked at.

If you're doing the same things routinely, it's gonna get stale. Don't turn your nose up at anything. Anything you do outside of that is naturally gonna add to your guitar vocabulary, round out your ability and make the old stuff fresh again when you get back to it. Instead of just knowing it, you'll master it and move on from there.


The short version of this is "When what you're doing isn't working, do something else".

 

[gibsonguy09]

Thanks larry. Who cares about how i use my punctuation. Also woh cares about my grammar, I hurry and don't care(see i can type fine if i want to).

 

[gibsonguy09]

So how long have you been working on your grammer, 10-15 years. If you can't accomplish that in 15 years, why do you expect to be a guitar player in 1 year.

Correct me if i am wrong but that really doesn't answer my question?

 

[Rokket]

Correct me if i am wrong but that really doesn't answer my question?

Not to put words in his mouth, but:

I think he was referring to your capacity to learn. Everyone has a different capacity. Some learn fast and remember, some not so fast. Some forget what they learned if they get away from it for a time.

Also, if someone is lazy in one aspect of their life, what's to say that they are not lazy across the board. I find that a lot of guitar playing, or really any instrument, is in the attention to the smallest details. You can't skip over them, or you will not be as effective...