Practice recommendations

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by rollypolly

thanks guys , great suggestions here. My problem has always been , after I set a few goals I practice towards that goal for weeks or months and then find myself just noodling over and over on it and not progressing beyond it. An open mic or jam/playing partner would set some goals beyond just myself which would help.

I actually recently started in person lessons and I think that will be a good first step towards playing with and in front of someone.

I will definitely look at Tommy Emmanuel's lessons. I'm studying a Daryl Kellie book right now and it's great.

All the things you are doing are great and will serve you as long as you keep making music. I'd recommend, however, to start to learn some songs you like. I realize your goal is to improvise, but I think we can learn a lot from learning others songs and solos. For instance, way back, I learned dire straits "sultants of swing". The solo at the end took me a long time, but in the process of learning it, I started to understand that when the chord in the song changed, I needed to be changing my solo to match it. Before that, I was just a penatonic noodler. I probably read that I needed to be doing that a bunch of times in a book before hand, but it was that practical experience that helped me to understand. In other words, scaqles are great, but learning songs will show you how to use them.

[hatamoto]

Originally Posted by rollypolly

thanks guys , great suggestions here. My problem has always been , after I set a few goals I practice towards that goal for weeks or months and then find myself just noodling over and over on it and not progressing beyond it. An open mic or jam/playing partner would set some goals beyond just myself which would help.

I actually recently started in person lessons and I think that will be a good first step towards playing with and in front of someone.

I will definitely look at Tommy Emmanuel's lessons. I'm studying a Daryl Kellie book right now and it's great.

I may have missed it, but I'm still not sure what your goals are. Is it techniques? Creative side and composition? I would also call myself an intermediate player and I know exactly how you felt when I was in that rut. In fact I'm kinda in a mini rut myself right now but I can see progress. I believe when we're at this stage, things just move slowly so don't give up.

And yes, I know exactly how practicing something for months and months and finding yourself noodling the same thing again. I think the key is to really think about and be extra attentive to what you're doing. You need to have an idea in your head, keep time in your head, phrase in your head before you actually play the instrument. We mostly love to just pick up the guitar and expect to fire off multiple scales and arpeggios and expect to sound good but it doesn't work that way. Try to sing inside your head.

My goal has always been that I wanted to play melodically and just be able freely flow and play ideas and sound good. I also wanted to start making my own music. You need to be two, three steps ahead before you even start fretting and plucking.

Year 1 for me was all about music theory.

Year 2 was then fine tuning, like connecting scales with arpeggios, following chord tones when soloing, applying harmony etc.

I'm halfway through year 2 and I've felt tremendous progress. I record myself alot so I can skim back and see my history.

You have alot in your disposal already and you have chops, you just need to learn how to dial back, stay in the pocket and really really listen to what you're playing and treat it like singing. In fact, I would even argue that you shouldn't learn anymore licks or arpeggios. You should dive in to the rabbit hole of making something very musical out of the simplest chord progressions in your repertoire. Expand a 145 chord progression as much as you can. Take a simple 3 note lick and expand the phrasing. Play with as much inversions and right hand rhythm patterns as you can to make a nice fingerstyle motif and expand that.

Bring lots of limitations to yourself and work with what you have and only that. I think 99% of the time, it's all about honing the proper mindset before even picking up the guitar. Think globally, think in terms of music and try to avoid guitar-centric things like "oh here's a cool pentatonic lick", "here's a cool arpeggio you can use in 2-5-1". "50 cool licks". Those things are so specific and if you rely on those, you'll just find yourself going in circles and just reacting to the music because you're just waiting for that certain 2-5-1 sequence, or that certain chord where you can use that cool A minor lick you just learned. I'm not saying this is you, I'm just highlighting what I'm encountering with other players who get fixated on very specific things and fail to see the big picture.

I think that once you understand that all these musical concepts are all connected, then you can see the big picture and work on being creative and actually start to see the guitar as merely a tool to express music.

I think it also helps making your own compositions. You really start to understand things this way.

When you take courses, see how it all relates back to your goals and how you can apply it to achieve those goals. I can't emphasize this enough. Whatever you learn, always relate it back to how you can use it musically. All the arpeggios and scale runs become useless if you don't know how to apply it in the first place. It's just like learning a new word but you don't know how to use it in a sentence. I used to think that by taking this or that lesson, I expect things to just magically happen. It doesn't work that way. You have to put in the time and reflect a lot. Play lots with ideas no matter how simple or stupid it may be. Play lots of classics or covers that you like and pay attention to why they chose to use those chords, voicings etc. You'll learn a lot about yourself and how you digest information. It behooves you to really be attentive on how you learn because those are hints when it's time to take private lessons again so you know exactly what to say to the instructor.

Lastly, give yourself purpose. Always ask yourself, "after I achieve this, then what?". I used to just want to be able to play covers, then it turned into " I want to understand what's going on", and finally "I want to make my own music". I'm at this stage and it's really fun creating. Good luck, have fun, be persistent and keep on listening, you'll get there.