hey there, i took a break from guitar awhile ago mostly due to frustration and a lack of direction.. i know its important to have goals and whatnot, but theres so many goals and what feels like so little success its difficult to stay on top of it all

im not starting a crybaby thread here just wanted some advice on improving my guitar playing with a technical aspect in mind... i dont know its just after a year and some change i thought my technical prowess would be at a bit higher level i guess, i play on and off though, some months 3-4 hours a day, then other months id be lucky if i put in 2 minutes or any time at all. from the first month till ive made great improvements but im thinking very soon im going to have to get lessons or ill never get any better - anyways i want to list a few problems ive been having of late, and any advice would be appreciated

covering songs i have alot of trouble with rhythm... ive gotten into a few different rhythms and i always seem to go back to them when i learn a new song, its just confusing when theres a chord change and one chord lasts for 1 beat, and all the others last for 4 or whatever... then theres divisions within that, and i never really learned the dududududud type thing where you keep your hand moving but dont play some of the beats... probably was a bad idea : P, also with elliott smith type songs and im sure there are other artists where theres a chord being played, but theres either palm muting or playing only like bottom strings for a second and then switching it up, i always get confused when i try to do this myself

when i take a break from guitar and come back... i forget alot.. mostly pattern type stuff, like ill forget a whole minor scale pattern or muff it up idk, same thing happens with chords that i dont play often like 9 chords, or diminished chords, ones where the fingerings arnt something you see in alot of songs - i think more generally its easier to say if i dont play a song for a very long time, i come back to it and it seems very foreign to me, maybe this is normal i dont know... but like hotel california, i had the intro down 99% perfect, i come back to the song a month and half later, and its almost as if im starting from scratch, i mean i know what play... but my fingers wont do it


anyway, aside from getting a teacher which is something ill be doing here in the next 2-3 months, any other advice or words of wisdom, zen whatever... would be nice.

Have you looked at Paul Gilberts School of Shred?

It was a thang he did in Total Guitar but it's on the interPDFnet. Definately sounds like you should do some of this, just sitting down for 2 hours a day playing scales. Suddenly those boring scales can be easily incorporated into the boring and repetitive songs you be playing!

stop smoking that seaweed and ur brain will send the right singles to ur fingers?

actually it was skyrim ruining my brain but Oo im over it now so back to business


btw bob, i looked for that but i cant find it... and i cant find interpdfnet either idk, ill check again but from ur post it sounds like their pdf files, but all i get when i look up paul gilbert stuff is dvds so idk

to be perfectly honest though i wouldnt mind trying out some of this shred type stuff... just for fun i guess to see if i could do it, but i dont really like playing with my electric so it would have to be acoustic shred..lol

best thing you can start learning alot of is blues stuff as it helps your timing insanely and obv gives you a way better feel of the sounds you want to come out from your playing

/obv scales are always good to learn too

This post was edited by chron3x on May 29 2012 02:31pm

Most technical things are about consistency. If you practice scales for twenty minutes every day you will progress much more smoothly than if you practice them for four hours once a week. You don't need to focus on it; you just need to do it. You'll get better at it just by repetition.

Only if you want to sound like blues.

I learned my modes, and picked a couple of them (Mixolydian/Phyrigian) i really dug the sound of and devoted my time to learning how to incorporate them into my playing.
Practicing with a metronome helps tremendously, no matter what you're trying to improve on.
Also, scales. The more you have in your bag of tricks, the better.

thanks all for the advice, most of it has come back already hehe

as far as technical things though, i think repetition and a metronome are a good place to start for me :/ hopefully in the next few months ill get myself a guitar teacher and find a little more direction. Even if i only take 10 lessons i think it will be a huge help for me

The modes of the major scale are just the start. Every scale that does not consist of only a single interval (whole tone, chromatic scale) has modes.