Kickstart stale playing

grappagreen

@DB1 ;
Don't worry mate - I was a shovelist for most of my guitar playing life and trod a very similar path..

The thing that kills me is that literally every decent guitar teacher I ever engaged with literally handed my the keys to do what I wanted to do and I threw them back. It pains me to say that I went for a lesson in my late 20's with a Jazz guitarist who basically played me a tape of Miles, gave me the tape and said 'work out a few of these lines and come back next week and play them to me' - I thought he was mad and never went back - doh!

I'm going to say something controversial now..

I think that the dreams and aspirations of many guitarists have been stolen by commerce and western thinking. Think about it. I'm not saying that there isn't a valid role for guitar educators (I'd prefer the term mentors) but the role should really be one of guiding a student down the path (and knowing what the path to success looks like). Of course we all need help with avoiding technical mistakes that will limit us in the future (possibly) or some wise advise on what to do next when hitting a wall but other than that it really is down to digging holes and becoming a hole digger; there is no other way. That's not to say that theory isn't useful - it's useful if you want to understand things but not if you want to do them.

Think of a time when guitar teaching products didn't exist. You simply had to grab the needle, pop the record player on 16/32 RPM and have a go. Sounds painfully slow (now pun intended) but you know what..

For those that think I'm mad probably the most amazing guitarist I've ever heard has said as much - I wasn't surprised to find out that before he dropped out of Oxford he studied language and if you listen to his wise words he alludes to music as a language.. anyone remember how they learned to speak?

Right, I'm off to look at some new guitars..

Si

Johnny333

@grappagreen Great posts, I'm going to give your top 5 musician study approach a shot! Thanks

everest

This is maybe less specific but when I've been in a slump I've got out a couple of times by getting excited about music, separate of actual guitar playing. Getting psyched about the actual tunes sometimes leads to grabbing tabs or learning new techniques, or just putting headphones on and trying to bash stuff out that sounds nice

It could be worth digging out some records like but haven't listened to in a while and try to get into them?

Brad

imalrightjack said:

Book a lesson with @Brad - he’s excellent. 

Don’t listen to this man  

kelpbeds

You need to listen to some new stuff (or maybe old stuff!) and get reinspired. Or check out some of the big players on Youtube who post lessons and get inspired that way. It needs to come through the music rather than the gear!