Serious playing rut

[Gilbucci]

Man..lately, I've been feeling/playing like absolute shit. Honestly, I can't play ANYTHING..I don't mean shred (don't worry, this is not another one of my 'ZOMG HELP ME WIZ ZEEE SHREDZ' threads) I mean my playing as a whole. I can't even ENVISION myself playing anything good..and that's like half the battle of actually playing guitar. Picking up the guitar and playing/practicing is almost a chore now

Sorry, just thought I'd vent..

[Michael]

I find new gear (especially guitars) always gets my motivation up. Not long until your 7620 yeah?

Just ride it out. Check out some bands and stuff you wouldn't usually listen to and you might find some stuff that'll lift you out of the rut. That usually works for me. 'cause it's fun.

[Jongpil Yun]

I know how you feel. Usually I do something else for a week or two.

[All_¥our_Bass]

It happens. try taking a break, listen to some drastically different music.Also try getting inspiration from art or movies, or sculpture (or anything else non-music).

[OzzyC]

Take a break. Playing guitar, like any art, is about expression. If you're having a hard time with it right now, put it down and find something else to do for a while. Personally, I haven't played much at all in the past month, because I've been going through a lot off stuff with some friends of mine...Teenage drama tends to keep a person busy.

But yeah, try to pick it back up in a little while, and see what happens after you've given yourself time to refresh your thoughts.

[stubhead]

Learn something easy. At some point, you're going to have to learn to play by ear - if you're sitting with your guitar on your lap staring at a speaker while a Paul Gilbert solo rips out of it, you're demanding a lot. Petrucci and Gilbert and all started out by learning Santana and Rolling Stones songs because that's all they could handle when they were starting... the visualization of playing something "good" does involve a number of intermediate steps, as frustrating as that is.

Right now there are 9 year olds out there learning Stones songs so that they can learn Petrucci licks when they're 14. I have some students who go all dramatic sometimes, I just tell 'em maybe they should get a spatula and start practicing flipping burgers instead... I sure don't hold with the idea that you'll become a better musician by not playing. Somebody out there is practicing 12 hours today, and tomorrow, and the day after - who's going to be working in ten years?

The single most important thing is to set concrete goals because that defines the steps you take to work towards them.

The goals can change over time. After he watched his best friends Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman die, Eric Clapton made a very conscious choice to stop chasing the flash guitar mantle and become a singer/songwriter - and that's fine.... all of the best guitarists I admire write most of their own stuff, so write an instrumental, make it harder that you can actually play... then make yourself play it.

[Luan]

practice musicianship and your problems will go away, trust me.