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  #1  
Old 05-31-2017, 03:18 AM
OliveCorduroy OliveCorduroy is offline
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Default In a rut...what to do?

So awhile back I post posted a couple of posts saying that I was working on my open chords and barre chords with the intent of mastering them so I can move on to working on embellishing them. I also posted that I had an interest in learning and working on triads, and if that was a good idea - and the answer was yes from the forum.

Well, I stuck with my first goal of trying to master my open chords and barre chords, and I can say that I can make with the chord changes fairly well with some compentency at add embellishing the progressions by adding sus2 and sus4 chords. I'd say I am at 85% competent but the last 15% is going slowly and I feel like I am in a rut just practicing them.

I am not sure if this is a good idea but I think I would like to move on to another aspect of playing to freshen things up a bit. Any ideas would be welcomed. I was thinking about learning as song or two. Justinguitar has a Neil Young series and a couple of songs that interest me. I was also thinking of working on my triad shapes more diligently.

Is it a good idea to work on some other things to add some freshness to my playing? And are there some other areas that I am not thinking of that I could work on? For the most part I am a strummer and I like the aspects or rythym playing, not so much finger style but maybe arpeggios. Any comments would be great. Thanks, George
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Old 05-31-2017, 06:33 AM
dkstott dkstott is offline
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Find yourself a song that interests you. Make it fun!!

I wouldn't spend more than 15 minutes in each practice session on simply practicing playing open chords and Barre chord embellishment.

When practicing those chords, it's important to play the arpeggio to make sure every needed note is ringing clearly.

Set your metronome to a relaxed pace, start playing any songs 4 chord progression to the beat. Inject an occasional Barre chord arpeggio to make sure that you are fretting it properly.

Then the next best way to improve your playing the open and barre chords is by simply playing songs.

You'll be amazed at how varying your musical playing selection will improve your overall playing.
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Old 05-31-2017, 06:51 AM
perttime perttime is offline
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Sure. It cannot hurt to do things that interest you.

Rhythm playing is not necessarily restricted to chords or embellished chords. Rhythm is there in all music. If you play arpeggios, partial chords, or single note lines, the rhythm still needs to be there....
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Old 05-31-2017, 08:14 AM
Niko Nixon Niko Nixon is offline
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At the moment I've just started playing fingerstyle on the back of strumming basic chords. I'm learning some basic fingerstyle stuff but for fun I'm messing with the Stairway to Heaven intro, I started thumb picking but now I'm starting to introduce thumb and 3 fingers. Also I'm messing with basic 12 bar blues. So I practice fingerstyle for a while then just have fun....
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Old 05-31-2017, 09:32 AM
FwL FwL is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OliveCorduroy View Post
So awhile back I post posted a couple of posts saying that I was working on my open chords and barre chords with the intent of mastering them so I can move on to working on embellishing them. I also posted that I had an interest in learning and working on triads, and if that was a good idea - and the answer was yes from the forum.

Well, I stuck with my first goal of trying to master my open chords and barre chords, and I can say that I can make with the chord changes fairly well with some compentency at add embellishing the progressions by adding sus2 and sus4 chords. I'd say I am at 85% competent but the last 15% is going slowly and I feel like I am in a rut just practicing them.

I am not sure if this is a good idea but I think I would like to move on to another aspect of playing to freshen things up a bit. Any ideas would be welcomed. I was thinking about learning as song or two. Justinguitar has a Neil Young series and a couple of songs that interest me. I was also thinking of working on my triad shapes more diligently.

Is it a good idea to work on some other things to add some freshness to my playing? And are there some other areas that I am not thinking of that I could work on? For the most part I am a strummer and I like the aspects or rythym playing, not so much finger style but maybe arpeggios. Any comments would be great. Thanks, George

I'd say definitely learn songs that interest you. If you run into trouble within a song then practice those elements in isolation. That way your desire to play the song will drive your practice of general fundamentals.
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:00 AM
beninma beninma is offline
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I think we often get the impression you can "master" those open chords and barre chords way faster than it actually takes.

You probably need to get it out of your head and work on some other stuff that is different, when you come back to what you're frustrated with it will be easier. I've kind of been through this lately.

Some ideas:

- Play some blues stuff that is more 5 chords (2 strings) etc.. with some single note stuff mixed in.
- Work on playing with your fingers if you're using a pick and work on using a pick for a while if you're using your fingers.
- Work on the same chords you feel best at but do some stuff with alternating strings, etc.. muting, etc..
- Just work on some single note stuff
- Do something really different like pick up an electric guitar

I started taking lessons a while ago.. before I started lessons I was mostly doing the same thing you are doing, heavy focus on chords and strumming. My teacher kind of redirected me into more variety, including getting me into electric.. I have improved a lot faster (even my chords) this way and there is way less frustration.
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:32 AM
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TBman TBman is offline
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Neil Young songs that I like:

Tell Me Why - picking and strumming.
Old Man - mix of picking, strumming
Words - strumming
Needle and the Damage done - picking
Southern Man - strumming with nice lead at the end.

These are the tunes of Neil's that I played back in my late teens. I also played through a lot of the Harvest album. I think they would be worth giving a try if lessons are available.
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:36 AM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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When I'm in a musical rut, I find people to play music with. That usually gets the juices flowing again. Maybe you should consider joining a community music group?
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Old 05-31-2017, 03:32 PM
OliveCorduroy OliveCorduroy is offline
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Thank you all for your comments. It has helped me out a lot and by the sounds of it, it looks like I will focus on some songs for awhile. In my original post I indicated that I would like to play some Neil Young songs and I have found some.

There are four that interest me. All four of them primarily use all the chords I already know so that part of it will allow me to continue to work on chords but with practical applications. The songs have a bass run or two, single note picking, palm muting, hammer-ons, and some challenging strumming/picking techniques that Neil Young uses so I will certainly have my hands full working on these new aspects of playing. I look forward to it.

The four songs are Harvest, Heart of Gold, Old Man, and Rockin in the Free World.
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  #10  
Old 06-01-2017, 03:50 AM
OliveCorduroy OliveCorduroy is offline
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So my dive right in overly ambiguous approach by picking four songs to do has been replaced by working on just one song at a time. That is plenty to absorb at first. I am choosing Heart of Gold to start out with, with the others to follow.
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  #11  
Old 06-01-2017, 08:50 AM
Riverwolf Riverwolf is offline
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As in example only and may or may not apply-

I have been somewhat struggling for the last six months with the Bm chord.
I have joint issues and cannot play barres, so I am talking the four finger open version.
After 4.5 years I had never used this chord, it just never came up.
For some reason my brain and fingers are having a hard time with the fluid of this.
I have and still daily do perform hundreds of repetitions going from open Bm to various other fingerings.
I sometimes do this quietly and sometimes while watching TV.
But since I added two songs using this chord it is finally getting better.

Moral of the story? Play music, play songs, that is why we started this long strange trip.
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  #12  
Old 06-01-2017, 02:54 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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Try playing to a variety of backing tracks with different time signatures like 2/4, 3/4, 6/8 to work on different strumming patterns.
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  #13  
Old 06-01-2017, 03:29 PM
Alex6strings Alex6strings is offline
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Others have said but I'll say it again, make it fun, learn songs, make music. The great thing about being a guitar player is that you are one soon as you can finger a couple of chords. If you can manage 3 chords then you've got about 4 million songs to chose from.

Playing songs is what the guitar is about, imo beginners benefit from learning songs as they progress, relevant to their skills. The guitar isn't something you can one day all of a sudden do because you learned. The guitar is something you can do from the first strum and whilst it's a work in progress and skill levels vary immensely there are songs out there for everyone and lots of them.

Neil Young is a great choice for songs to learn. Not only are they achievable by most, they are dam good , rocking songs that you'll play forever.

Keep on rocking in the free world...!
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