Leaving mediocre behind

[penisaurus]

I have just realized I am a mediocre guitar player.

Let me tell you a little about myself first (you may skip this if you find yourself completely bored by my personal git history):

I have played guitar since I was 11 years old (I am currently 18). When I was first starting out, I took lessons, first from an amazing jazz/blues player that came to my house every Friday night for free. I feel like I gained an invaluable basis from him in that first year or so. After that was no longer, I began lessons at the local music shop. This allowed me to refine alot of the raw skills and feel that my first teacher had given me. I also started learning some new techniques that I had never done too much of in the past (ie. fingerpicking). All this time I had really only played electric git, but my dad has a bunch of guitars so I was also priveleged enough to pick up an acoustic whenever I wished. These lessons lasted for a while, I'm actually not sure for how long, but I just remember feeling like I wanted some time off from the lessons. Well I never restarted the lessons, and years have past. (End of personal git history)

I obviously still played and continued to enjoy the guitar since then, and I always considered myself a decent guitarist. I started telling myself, "What is the point of taking lessons if I can pretty much teach myself how to play any song that I have ever wanted to play?" I mean, I have never been one to really put a whole lot of emphasize on music theory either, even though I know a good teacher could teach me. It always just seemed a little too much like math class...

Anyway, I feel like I have hit a plateau, which I'm sure is something a lot of you more experienced players have gone through. And frankly, I hate it, I just feel empty, like I'll never be anything better than a mediocre player. I realized that I never really "practice" persay, I basically just learn songs and play ones I already know and make up my own stuff when I sit down to play the guitar. OK, I need to stop rambling, so please give me some advice....

Thanks

 

[M.Brane]

Don't sweat it!

Everybody goes through dry spells, and not everybody can be a virtuoso.

I learned mostly by ear. I have taken a few lessons (usually to bust out of a rut) but I think I learned the most by just playing with as many different people as possible. Even the simplest players have something to offer if you pay attention.

I grew up playing hard rock & metal, but have done everything from oldies to blues to folk to playing fretless bass in a bluegrass group. It's all relative.

Just get out there and play, play, play! It's the journey that's important, not the destination.

 

[Cyrokk]

M. Brane's advice is your best bet. It sounds like you either have been playing alone for too long, or the people you jam with are uninspiring, and therefore a good solution is to seek other people.

Hopefully this will be easy, but sometimes it's impossible to find musicians depending on where you live. I was seeking players for a long time and all I found were either beginners or snobs who for whatever reason did not feel the desire to do any collaboration..

If playing with others is not in the cards, then you could always learn another instrument, maybe sax or something. Also, have you played to the radio any? See if you can find a good jazz station and just jam to it, it will keep you on your toes and maybe open up some avenues.

And since you are on a recording bbs, are you recording any of your work? Is there anything in recording that might be appealing?

Also, you could just change the tuning on your instrument. Tune the strings in weird ways. You won't be relying so much on theory or patterns then.

Best of Luck

Cy

 

[JR#97]

I went through almost the exact thing you did except my guitar teacher sucked. I'm pretty mediocre on the electric although I definitely think I have a style. It's on the acoustic where I've really expanded my horizons. What did it for me was hearing stuff that I thought was 2 or more players playing at once. There's no way in hell a single player could do what I was hearing.... until I saw it for myself. The world of acoustic fingerstyle was opened up and I never looked back. Maybe you just need to find some kind of guitar music that just blows you away and you have to learn it.