What's your worst habit (on Guitar) ...lately?

It probably isn't my worst habit (on guitar), but lately I'm trying to focus on my expressional pauses. As someone around here has in their sig, the most important note is often the one not played.

I find I start out pretty good, but by 5 or 6 bars in, I'm trying to fill every beat then doubling on top of that, and so on. It's worst when I'm not using any kind of backing track. I feel compelled to fill in all the musical space.

That is something that takes a long time to rid of. For me, I run into that too and unfortunately even as a professional I would like to be much,much better at "phrasing"; which describes your issue. I have found the best way to work on this is to simply transcribe; learning some solos that you feel get the point across accurately and very expressively. You start to emulate those players you like and I feel with time it settles in that you can express yourself in a similar way.

Another exercise you can try is only playing "chord tones" while you solo. By "chord tones" I mean only playing notes in your solo that are part of the chords you are playing. For example, if you have a progression that is 2 bars of A major, than two bars of E major; than you only solo playing A, C#, E over the A, and only solo playing E, G#, and B over the E major. While this does not sound too exciting at first, this forces you to slow down and think a little bit about what your doing; which is not a bad thing. Here is a tutorial Anders Mouridsen did on this concept, utilizing the blues as a foundation;

http://guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=756

At any rate, those are a few examples that I think may help. Let me know if you have any more questions.

That's great! Some of tutorials are new since I went thru the courses. In any event I forget 90% anyway, so it's good to be to go back. :)

Again, I cannot say enough about the chord tone soloing concept. When this was introduced to me a few years ago; I was very intimidated but with time it began to settle in. Your ears with than gravitate towards those sounds and just practicing alone forces you to think a little more about what you are doing which again I don't think is a bad thing. You obviously don't want to over think about what you are doing, but you also need a good level of input in this way to get to where you are just "wanking" around on the guitar. Try this exercise to get it moving:

Here is a 4 Bar Progression:
{G - D - Ami - Emi}

The notes in these are chords are the following:
G - G, B, D
D - D, F#, A
Ami - A, C, E
Emi - E, G, B

Take this chord progression and record by whatever medium you can. Start the tempo slowly and than work your way up. Again, don't play any other notes other than what's in the chords. This is a sure fire way to help yo do a whole lot less wanking and play a little more focused and musical.

Let me know how it goes. Would you be interested in a tutorial on this concept?

A specific tutorial would be great. This motivates me in a couple of ways; the other of which is to get Reaper reinstalled :rolleyes:

Mine is...strumming the wrong strings while at the same time trying to fret down the chords/notes. I'm always looking back and forth (strumming/fretting)...is there a remedy to this or will I just have to memorize? I'm getting a little dizzy and lightheaded doing this.

My worst one would have to be strumming to hard I snapped a string and it sliced my finger open but I still do it today

my worst two are getting off on a tengent..
1. Reading forums and checking out there links.
2. Going to watch tv, But that one is now corrected..

Originally Posted by: compart1
1. Reading forums and checking out there links.

Yeah, that's a bad one for me, too. :)

playing damn it by blink-182

Trying to coordinate my strumming hand with the fretting hand...

Kinda like trying to pat my head and rub my belly at the same time :D

Originally Posted by: compart1
2. Going to watch tv, But that one is now corrected..

You can combine your love of watching TV with practicing guitar as well! Honestly, there are many very mindless things that come with practicing that boil down to simply working out your muscle memory. This can be done with little to no thought at all and to practice in front of the television is fairly common. Running scale patterns, spider exercises, etc. all can be done while watching TV and before you know it; you have spent a few hours getting your hands in shape. Below is a link to the Guitar Tricks channel where instructor Anders Mouridsen talks about this concept along with some great licks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7rwzKzJfLI