Still totally new here-- I've been lurking around trying to get some good info on instrument maintenance etc. I hope you guys don't mind, but I'd like to ask some questions regarding your techniques.

In particular, are there any techniques you learned that led you to a breakthrough in your playing? I'd like to hear what really did it for you.

Personally, after purchasing my Deluxe Strat, I feel that I'm not quite worthy of my instrument. So I have been practicing religiously to make up for lost time. While there's nothing flashy about it, I'm currently focusing on clean and smooth playing. One habit of mine, which I think many people have, is lifting my pinky too far off the fretboard. I want to keep it muting strings or hovering as low as possible. I guess it's an economy thing. So far I like the results .

I'm still getting there though! In the meantime, I'd like to hear some of your experiences that you're willing to share.

welcome,
I'm no expert or great guitarist or even a lifer of this forum myself, but if I had any "breakthrough" it was a couple of years ago when I bought a new guitar and was offered a couple of lessons for free with the purchase. I had never taken any lessons before and figured why not... so I told the guy my experience and asked him to just treat me like a first day student who knows absolutely nothing... after he tried to explain how to hold a pick the right way and I told him "okay, i know a little more than that" he started me on some scales... I'd kinda hit a creative wall so to speak before that day, and after I practiced those scales a few times I started having fun playing again... even got a couple of tunes out of it... so that's what I do now, anytime I feel like I need some boost in my playing, I look up some weird scales or alternate tunings and just play with it for a bit. change it up, you know? hope this helps.
--Dan

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~Dan

Thanks Dan!

I think you hit on a couple of great ideas.

First of all, taking lessons, or even getting another person's opinion or perspective on your playing can be great. I think it's safe to say that even an advanced player can learn something new from a less advanced player by means of seeing things from a different perspective. In particular, I agree that learning different scales is a good way to change things up.

Second of all, I actually really enjoy starting over from the beginning every now and then. I try to take this approach with many things in my life! I guess you could call it review. I like to go back and try a simple lesson with a new technique. For example, I was mostly a finger player. Now I'm trying my best at using a pick... so it definitely doesn't come second nature to me. I like the attack that I get with a pick on my new guitar much better. However, my overall technique suffers for it. So I've made a decision to kind of back step and start practicing very basic things with a pick. Of course, I'm concerning myself with keeping my pinky low all the while!

BTW, I'm very jealous of your free lessons. I like your "treat me like a first day student who knows nothing" sentiment going into it, too. That approach certainly takes patience, but I think it's a great way to learn what kinds of bad habits we've developed.

I have found several times that if I am trying to learn something and I hit some kind of plateau and can't seem to get beyond it the best thing to do is to just stop trying. I stop altogether with that approach and try to learn something completely new and different, a style or some songs well out of the norm for me. Jazz or country usually works, but I also tried 40's swing once. After a while I start getting the hang of it and when I can start doing a passable job at it then I know it's time. I'll go back to whatever it was that had me stymied and lo and behold the obstacle seems easier to get past. Plus it gives me a more rounded experience which helps me blend in with new people I have not played with before more easily.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

BMW-KTM, that's a nice approach. I think an approach like yours would help prevent becoming frustrated.

I've actually been trying out a similar approach to yours in between really technical practice lately. Something I've discovered about dipping my toes in "other" genres is that I can really learn about rhythm. I think any genre of music has an interesting thing or two about rhythm that is worth learning.

I have some questions though-- when you decide to learn a new genre when you've reached a plateau, where do you start? What kind of goals do you set? What kinds of expectations do you have going in?

I appreciate your thoughts! Thanks for sharing

Here is some of the best advice I have:

If you like a guitar player -- you love them, you idolize them, you wish you could emulate them -- learn to play at least 5 songs by them.

It's an odd rule of thumb, but I swear by my Strats it works. I'd say 95% of musicians have a distinct style in their songs (excluding guys like George Harrison and Jimmy Page) that you can learn to emulate IF you learn 5 of their songs. Jimi Hendrix, SRV, and lots of blues guys fall into this category. So do hard rock/metal bands!

I swear, it works.

Techniques.
I can´t stop marveling at Allan Holdsworth´s legato technique.
Also when you look at Stanley Jordan, it is bound to get you thinking and feeling different about the instrument.

Happy Trails!

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FIGHT!

I don't really set any goals other than to learn something. I've never taken any lessons in my 43 years of playing so I don't have a vast knowledge of theory. I'm completely self taught. (I did it the slow way.) Any theory I've learned I learned on my own and usually out of curiosity. I'll just choose something and play along with it until I start to get a feel for it and then work on sorting out the parts by ear. I have a very good ear and very good meter and have played almost entirely by ear my whole life. I guess my goal is to just learn a song or three in a genre. I'll sort out the chords and structure of the song first and then work on the fills and lead lines. I do this by listening and playing along. I rarely look up a song on the net unless I'm stuck on a chord that sounds like a minor sixth or something or other but I just can't seem to find the right voice and it ends up being a diminished fifth or a thirteenth. I find it helpful to study how players of different styles put music together and they way they think, melody wise. The cool part is that I can then add some of those ideas and phrases to my regular repertiore and it adds a cool new flavour to my improv lead lines. As far as expectations go, I'll work on it until I feel I would be comfortable performing it. I don't require perfection of myself but I do want to be able to create a reasonable facsimile. I've never been one for note-for-note carbon-copy reproductions of someone else's work. Anything I learn will have my own touch on it when I play it. Some of the guys I play with get frustrated and tell me I'm doing it wrong, that it's supposed to be played this way or that way but I figure as long as it is musical and expressive I should be able to excercise some creative license. To me the genre and the feel is the thing. It's the music and not the athletic prowess that is important. My old hands will never have a seven fret reach so I do something else that I think sounds as good.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

It won't be a breakthrough unless you stumble on to it.

I haven't taken lessons either, but I do check out some of the free lessons on Youtube. Here are a couple that I found really helpful.

How to memorize chords: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGke17Rzn7U
How to learn scales: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJ6Ckj0Ciw
How to practice scales: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAasyi7uPh8

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