Originally Posted by: Socrates6

Hi All,

Was not sure where to post this question...but here goes.

Background first:

Been a GT member for 1 year. Worked thru Fundementals, Rock Level 1 and now working thru Blues Level 1. I practice 1-2 hours a day and overall happy with GT and my progress.

Recently I decided to spend more time learning songs and riffs, as opposed to exercises etc.

One thing I am noticing lately is that my best playing when learning and practicing riff is within the first 5-10 min of my practice session...in terms of speed and accuracy. For example i have been working on the verse riff and chorus to Back in Black and trying to play them clean at 92bpm. I have it when I first pick up the guitar, tjen after 10 min or i start making more mistakes...and the more I slow it down and concentrate after 10-15min tje worse i play.

Almost feels like if i just pickup the guitar and dont think much about it i can play clean...but once i think about it my playing degrades.

Any thoughts or advice?

I agree with everything Billy said. That's certainly a part of it.

I've noticed when I learn songs just for fun, I'm not overly focused on jamming along with the song. That is to say that I tend to learn parts of songs that interest me as something new for me to learn. It's like I only care about the part that interests me and I learn that.

I would not copy that method! I've been playing for a long time, played in a band at one time and I'm a little apt to want to walk down the riff smargasbord and grab only the tasty thing I want. This is not recommended!

The point is that you want to know what's important to you in learning a song. You've been playing for a year and have many things you want to learn and need to learn. But you have a good amount of skill in order to play a song like Back in Black (nice choice!). It seems to me that some of what you're losing is mojo after a bit like Billy said.

Are you playing along with the songs as a whole after learning a part?

If you're drilling a riff over and over just to get it down, at some point you want to apply that. That's having fun playing guitar. It's why you're playing.

I remever early on in my playing wherein I was standing in front of my Peavey Backstage amp (10" speaker) that was on top of a table and I just started smashing away at some chords a la Pete Townsend (no windmills...I treied that....too man finge scrapes...). The amp was louder and the sound was hitting my diaphram and I could feel it. It was the first time my playing gave me a buzz. I mean, it was terrible playing as far as I recall but I was having fun and feeling it.

I didn't realize it but every time I practice, I just do something to wail away at the guitar. Just let go and not care if it is perfect. Just play and get after it.

We put a very high price on perfection and seems less concern on the value of how we feel. Enjoy first, perfection later (or at least not be so worried).