How to "unlearn"

BrizzleRocker

So I've been playing for over 30 years and have probably picked up some bad habits and tend to fall into the well trodden path.

If I'm ever going to use these damn fiddles again does anyone have any tips on how to unlearn those overused moves and reset the muscle memory?

Switch625

Sorry couldn't resist posting this

CarpeDiem

Book some guitar lessons so that the tutor can assess your playing, and help to correct anything that would make you play better.

Try learning new material which is a different style/genre than you would usually play.

Join a band as playing with others is the best way to take you out of your comfort zone, and you can learn a lot in the process.

relic245

This is about changing habits. First you have to be specific.

What is the reality (the current situation)
What do you want instead? 

Start doing the new behaviour to wire it in - it will be tough at first. 

An example is "I have a bad habit of wrapping my thumb over the top of the neck on an F barre chord" **

What I want instead is to use my index finger to do the barre. At first it will be hard, your fingers wont want to go there. You may even have to physically position your hand. With repetition this becomes the new norm. 

It's no different with anything you want to change. 

What is the unwanted behaviour (the more specific the better)
What do you want the new behaviour to be (the more specific the better)

Start doing it. 

** I'm not arguing the merits of using finger over the wrap around method - it's just an example. 

merlin

DMT may help.... 

guitarjack66

Maybe instead of unlearn you simply just learn other things on top of what you already know? More than one way of skinning a cat etc.

grappagreen

I've done this many times and am actually doing it again.

Some good advice here.

The most important things to solidify modified techniques are;

• Go slowly with the new technique - I mean as slow as is necessary to embed and control it.
• Be present in your mind at all times. You must focus all of your mental attention to the thing you want to change.
• Use a mirror or a computer with webcam in front of you so that you can look at what you are doing and constantly validate that you are doing it correctly

The good news is that this reprogramming is much faster than the initial programming. In my experience I've been able to change fundamental things in a pretty short period of time and the results have been worth it.

Good luck

Si

CE1

Focus on a single aspect you wish to change and the repetition as mentioned above. Do specific repeated exercises to concentrate on that one thing until embedded.

PAL

Learn to play something you don't normally play. Try a piece of guitar music you wouldn't normally play. 

MentalSharps

@BrizzleRocker ;;; "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" by Jamie Andreas is very good, I think it's aimed at people who have hit plateau's with their playing.

It's in depth about developing focused attention on exactly what your fingers are doing in microscopic detail, in order to re-train (unlearn) bad habits that create tension. 

She's a very good writer/educator and it's all very well observed and explained.

I believe she has a video series option as well on her website, various options for online learning.

Barney

Rather than unlearning something I think it's more to do with looking at what you have and see how can improve it ...so iff your picking is bad for example see how you can improve on that and work on ways of doing it ....same with scales or whatever ...iff you are playing wrong notes find out where and fix them 

Tannin

Some things are very difficult to unlearn. What makes it harder still is that in some cases these bad techniques are ones you rely on to do what you do. As soon as you stop doing the bad thing, your playing gets much worse. (Yes, it is supposed to get better eventually, but that might take a very long time.)

Example: no-one ever taught me how to hold a plectrum, and for years (decades actually) I held it with three fingers, like a pencil. The result: perennial difficulties getting good, consistent tone. Yes, there are good players who hold a pick that way - Jerry Garcia was one - but they are exceptions to the general rule. So I tried to learn to hold a pick the normal way. Tried many times. It never, ever worked. The only instrument I was actually any good at was bass, which (of course) I played without a pick.

Then I switched to fingerstyle for everything. Finger and thumb to start with, then two fingers, then three, sometimes four. I can't hold a pick the wrong way because I don't use one at all. Night and day difference. I'm a much, much better player. No bad habits to unlearn, I could just learn a whole new right hand technique from scratch. Never looked back. 

What I'm getting at here is that, if it is at all possible, look for ways to do something completely different, look to learn things that don't trigger old bad habits and old ingrained reflexes.   

Mellish

I've no idea how to unlearn. 

When starting out it's important to go slow to get it right. You don't want to practice what's wrong