Greetings gentlemen

Im in a rut,

Back in the day my guitar teachers philosophy was that a true guitarist should be able to sit down with anyone in any genre and be able to jam & improvise with anyone on the spot.

Over the years I have become lazy, stuck in my beloved miserable 90s rock and the rest of my chops have slowly died off.

Really looking to get back into some Heavy Blues, Jazz & Reggae grooves

Anyone have any suggestions, lessons , ideas on what you do to get out of a rut?

Change the tuning on your guitar-go with an open or hybrid tuning.

Throw away your pick if you use one, pick up a pick if you don't.

Put lighter or heavier strings on your axe.

Lower or raise your action.

All these thing will change the feel of your guitar, so while it's feeling different go ahead and play it differently.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I haven't experimented with open tunings much, thanks……..i will give that a shot.

Im pretty decent with or without a pick, I have several guitars with all different gauges and action feels…….thou I have been considering jacking up the action on one of the strats to start playing some slide?.

Go play with new people. Play stuff you don't normally play. it's that easy.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I actually don't change the action to play slide, and I set my action as low as it will go without string buzz...you just have to have a bit more finesse and a lighter touch with the fretting hand.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Start listening to some genres of music that you have absolutely no knowledge of.Because of George Harrison I got into sitar music-especially Ravi Shankar-and that really opened up my eyes to different tempos and phrasings,scales etc.Middle Eastern music is also very interesting.Music from the Mediaeval times and the Renaissance are also a great source for new ideas.Also if you just set aside your guitar for a few days and just listen and soak up different music that may get you out of your rut so that when you do go back to it you can start afresh.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

When I get into a rut and can't seem to get out of it...I go to a local music store and take a few lessons. I always seem to meet somebody new who plays different enough from me that I get inspired, learn something new even if it is something I know but from a different perspective.

This has worked the two or three times it happened to me over the years.

HTH

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

First of all I think maybe your guitar teacher really didn't need to tell you his thoughts on what he thinks a real guitar player should be able to do... Think about it......... A guy who taught me stuff on guitar would just wallop me if I didn't get it right. He was like a brother to me so it was cool. I wanted to learn. He didn't mess me up by making me think about it. It was just do it and play your $@! off. Ya' know what I'm saying here?

Everybody goes thru a slump. It sucks. It takes awhile to come out of it. You probubly will come out of it..... So grab the axe turn the thing up balls to the walls and just bang on an A cord till it fries you into some kind of new zone. Do what those other guys said..... Get the drill out and do a Van Halen... Paint your guitar...... Get the Fire in your belly man!!!!!!!

Welcome to the Forum cyberguy! When ever I feel that I want to play music that I haven't played before, I look up a song on youtube and play it. There are many learning videos on there too if you feel like taking a lesson.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Jack Pearson,the best guitar player I've ever seen,who seems to be able to play anything told me he got stuck in a rut sometimes,I just wish I could be stuck in the same place he is technically!

Thanks for all the suggestions, and I will most defiantly be taking you folks up on them.




Defiantly hear what your saying Stroker, With my teacher (who was awesome) we made a deal, he would teach me and create lessons around only songs I wanted to learn but in turn I had to learn some stuff he wanted to teach me. So while I got to learn all the Zep, Metallica, an Pearl jam till my heart was content, I had to learn theory, classical, Jazz chords ect……

Of course as a 15 yr old kid I thought I would never need nor use this stuff, I mean really…….i never saw Angus Young playing Classical…….bah

But then I started branching out and sitting in with a lot of different people playing a lot of different genres. I remember one time I was sitting in an old friends house, his father had renovated there attic into a jam space, were sitting up there screaming out Nirvana tunes and his fathers band buddies come in and start making fun of us, so I ask to sit in with them, they laugh again and say sure. They start playing some generic Jazz chords and ripped it out lol………..they were shocked!

Im not ashamed to say im a decent guitarist, and I have to admit that learning how to play at the time what I considered was all that weird sh@t had more to do with being an overall better player then just leaning Zep licks.

Taking the road of turning it up to 11 and just smashing the A chord has been my mantra over the years, adding in Kids, life and losing all my jam buddies, have all been contributing factors in my laziness towards keeping up my alternative chops lol.

It is my belief that a good guitarist should be well versed in different genres of music, most guys wouldn’t be able to sit in with folks who play outside there comfort zone, and that’s where I feel true talent and creativity thrives.

Anyhoo…….sorry for the rant….and again thanks for all the suggestions!. Love this site

The only way to kick up the chops and get back into it is to get inspired, I never became a good blues player until I ate ,drank and slept it. Find a player that you like but are not all that familiar with, at the time it was Gary Moore rest his soul that blew me away. It is the year 2,011 and there are tons of great instructional DVDs out there that even players on the level of John 5 and Zack Wylde buy and sit and watch, how do you think they incorporated all those country licks into there metal. Set a time of day or night where you have at least an hour or so of time for yourself with no distractions and get busy, I think you will be amazed at how fast your chops comeback.

I spent nearly 3 years writing and recording the songs for my CD. Every note,phrase,beat, guitar, bass, keyboard, and drum part were thought out for the eight songs. I have a 2" thick stack of paper with everything written out for each tune. I would stay up till 2 in the morning alot of the time. I overdubed leads on one of the songs 50 times. I'd experiment with piano and organ parts with different effects playing different sounds 10 times over to get it to sound how I wanted. I'd play a few notes or chords on guitar and then stop-- rewind and punch in and go to the next change and punch in there and so on. I did hundreds of punch ins. The only parts that came the easiest were the bass parts. The drums were programmed and I spent days making them sound like real drums. I've had people ask me who played drums on the CD. The songs would play in my head involintarily upon waking untill I would go to sleep at night. Hundreds of times in my head all day! It drove me nuts sometimes. This went on for weeks as I mixed the songs over and over probubly 10 times each at the least. I finally finished the CD - that was 6 years ago.

You want to talk about a rut? I 've got a rut for ya'. The one I'm in. In the last six years I have only been able to write one real song. I haven't recorded it. I sit down and try to come up with something....... Nothing. Nada. Just the one song I already have. I think I burnt myself completely out doing my CD six years ago. I'm in a six year rut. Maybe that's why I'm about half loopy.
I have nothing man.

So I can tell someone how to get out of a rut playing guitar but I can't even get my own self to write a song of which I have been writng songs since the 60's. Is that messed up or what?

HELP! I'm sinkin' down!

I find that when I listen to a lot of different types of music, I pick up a lot of different techniques and ideas.

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https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

Yeah- before I did the 2006 CD - I did a Jazz Fusion CD- So I fried out on that before I went back to my Rock roots for 2006. I spent a couple years learning Jaco stuff etc- and buying every Jazz bass player CD I could get my hands on. I did that to get a feel for what I wanted to try for the Fusion CD. I spent alot of time on it also. Nobody I knew was into Jazz or fusion . Just me. I'd play the CD and they just didn't like it. It wasn't what they were into. They'd say it was pretty good but they just pretty much ignored it. It probubly sucked I thought. I liked it. That was a let down. I still love Jazz and Fusion . I play Hard Rock in a band but that's not my favorite music. I would never buy a CD of 99% of the Rock bands we do covers of. I don't explore Jazz or Fusion all that much anymore either. I have the slump going on. The thing about the Hard Rock is that it is fun to play. It's fun to make it sound good and to get people up in front of you dancing and enjoying themselves. I like looking to the far end of the room and people are jamming out all the way back there. That is very satisfying and makes it worth doing. It took me 40 years to get in a really kick $@! band. Knowing that keeps me from being all stressed out about not being able to come up with songs. It's an okay trade. I make more cash playing than writing anyway!!! HA!!!! I think someday the writing will kick back in.