Stuck in a rut!!!!!

[Christoph]

Well, I don't know how to say this, but it seems that every time I pick up my guitar to practice I suck more than I did before. I'm just not making any forward progress. At the point I'm at though, it seems like there's just nothing more to learn. Shredding, scales, songs, arpeggios, blah! I've done them.

How can I get out of this rut?

[LEEtheV]

*Start writing your own songs and develop them to their logical conclusion....There are 100 KaBillion songz that haven't been written yet......THAT should keep you busy :D

[Led Zeppelin]

Learn a different style like jazz or blues.

[zepo]

Buy new gear that always gets me remotivated.

[zepo]

Have you tried playing the stuff you know with other people?? that always makes playing seem more fun

[Mike MacGuffie]

You might want to start messing around with drop tunings (DGDGBD)or (DADDAD)...seems to break up the daily practice thing. Plus the whole fretboard changes and you can learn new licks. Also, buy a Tele with a b-bender -- that'll keep you occupied for a while. Mike

[Christoph]

Yeah, jazz is always fun. But blues can get old real quick . . .. play a pentatonic scale here, then one here, blah blah.

I need to get another guitar so I can drop tune it, like you say. Drop tunings are really fun . . . especially drop tuning to C.

[Mike MacGuffie]

It's nice to have a second guitar for drop tunings -- especially considering the string breakage associated with switching back-and-forth from standard to drop to standard. Another cool tuning is take your low E-string and tune it up to an F note. Play everything out of C position. Michael Hedges used this on some tunes. It takes some time to get use to it; but it gives a different effect.

[Christoph]

Originally posted by Mike MacGuffie
. Another cool tuning is take your low E-string and tune it up to an F note. Play everything out of C position.

Dude, I just tried that. Everything I did sounded like crap. By C positon, do you mean to play open chords?

[Mike MacGuffie]

Ya....play an open Amin chord with the F drone. Play C triads, F traids...Heck that F note is the 7th of the G scale...play G licks. Sounds good when you play C major scale in thirds or fourths. Just play around with it. Use the F note as a drone. You can finger pick in thrids, playing a drop thumb style. Also, you can do the samething with this tuning CGDGBD (play out of C).

[loner92]

Go buy some Iced Earth albums, then try to learn them. Worked for me.

[Christoph]

I'll be honest. I have no idea who Iced Earth is.

[skee1]

Originally posted by Christoph

Well, I don't know how to say this, but it seems that every time I pick up my guitar to practice I suck more than I did before. I'm just not making any forward progress. At the point I'm at though, it seems like there's just nothing more to learn. Shredding, scales, songs, arpeggios, blah! I've done them.

How can I get out of this rut?
Sounds like you need to lay the guitar down for a,
few days then mabee play a pc-game or do something else,
sometimes you can over play plus practice to much.
I find after a few days of doing something else when,
i go back to playing guitar i enjoy it more.

>Mark Toman

[Christoph]

Actually Skee, I did just that. I put the darn thing down for two days, didn't play at all, and when I picked it up again yesterday, I could play pretty much anything I wanted.