Topic: I'm stuck.. I need advice on where to go from here.

Hey everybody, my names Alex and I need some help on where to go from here.

Ok here's my story.  I'm going from the beginning.

I started playing guitar when I was 12.  Almost 13.   My family played guitar.  My mom had an old ovation legend.  It was a sunburst color and it was actually a pretty nice guitar except for one thing.  It had this huge crack in it.  Other than that it probably sounded pretty good.

Anyway, the first thing I ever did when I started playing guitar was learn basic chords.  I learned the A, D, and C chords.  I remember having special trouble with the D chord.  I really tried hard to learn these chords, but no one ever really showed me how or gave me assistance.  I could play the C, A, and E, chords consistently but not anything else.

After some searching, I dug up an old book.  I forgot what it was called, but it was something like "Fundamental basic guitar," one of those books with playing songs with the open notes mixed in with some basic chord progressions. 

I spent maybe a month until I could play every single thing in that book.  After that I played through the book, over and over again until I realized I had to do something else.  I didn't have any other rescourses so I went on my computer and looked for some basic guitar stuff. After some searching, it took me to this: http://guitar.about.com/library/blguita … rchive.htm

This is where I went through all that trouble of learning how to switch from open chord to open chord in a swift manner.  This all took me probably 2 weeks to go through.

After all this I spent a lot of time honing all the skills I had learned so far, played through the book I had looked for some more online recourses and stuff.  I did this for a long time, until I got an electric guitar. 

My electric guitar was a red wooden Fender Squire.  I liked it.  It had 2 regular pickups and a humbucker. 

After I got the electric guitar I got a Line Six Spider III amp.  It had 4 channels: Clean, Crunch, Metal, and Insane. It also had echo, reverb, a flanger, and a phaser.  Another thing that went in my shopping cart was an instructional DVD.  http://www.partitura.be/DATA/guitar/scan/24354.gif

It had a lot of stuff.  Stuff with pentatonic scales, open chords, movable chords, All that stuff.  It also had stuff with hammer ons and pull offs.  Also in the end you have 3 solos and 3 rhythms that you play combining all the skills that you learned. 

I was young and stupid back then so I didn't really take the time to learn everything in order.  I learned the part with soloing techniques, pentatonic scales, and then skipped straight to the rock solo section.  It didn't turn out so good.  I really regret that stuff.

Anyway, after that I went to a class at my school in 7th grade where they were teaching guitar.  They made me buy a book, called "Guitar Method Book One".  I had played through my other book so many times so it didn't really challenge me too much.  But it was the first guidance I had ever been given. 

He didn't really teach me much, but it was better than nothing.  I went through that for a while.  After I realized I messed up with learning through that dvd I got.  I went back and learned everything I missed out on.  I learned the barre shape, power chords, everything.  After I learned movable chords I experimented with it and learned some cool progressions.

This is where I honed everything.  I spent maybe 2 months playing everything I had ever learned.  I didn't really mean to do this.  I just didn't have material that I needed to work on. 

There was another class called "Advanced guitar" at my school.  I made a friend there.  He was pretty cool.  He taught me some cool licks.  After that I wanted to play really fast on my guitar.

I started drilling the pentatonic scale and the chromatic scale.  I did this for a long time.  Until I could play em pretty fast. 

Anyway, I did this for a while and here I am now.  I'm stuck. Help me?  Give me some stuff to practice.

Sorry for writing too much!

Thanks.

Peace.

Re: I'm stuck.. I need advice on where to go from here.

HI Alex,

Welcome to Chordie I am sure you are going to get plenty of advice here.

Now I may be wrong and I may have misunderstood but from what I read you have been working hard with chords and scales and not having fun. Playing any instrument must fun so I would suggest that you find some song that you know and really like and learn them. You can of course improvise and play a lead solo for a verse if you wnt to stretch yourself further.

Roger

"Do, or do not; there is no try"

Re: I'm stuck.. I need advice on where to go from here.

Sounds like you need to join/form a band.

It appears that you have the tenacity and ability to play the guitar well and are ready to take it to the band.

Can't honestly say that a discussion group is going to help judging by your current advanced standard.

Get that band together dude and rock the tits off that axe.

4 (edited by cytania 2008-01-21 13:12:38)

Re: I'm stuck.. I need advice on where to go from here.

One word I'm not hearing from you DPW, songs...

For me the urge to progress as a player comes from all the songs I can't play (or more precisely the ones I can almost play but need to be faster/slicker). It's all too easy to be caught in the trap of having impressive moves (shredtastic) but not actually rocking with a song. Even the wildest metal act has a beginning a middle and an end (usually when the flashbombs go off!).

AJ is right on the money about getting a band together. What's you're motivation for playing. To get girls? To have fun? Either style yourself as a haunted singer songwriter or, get in a band.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'

Re: I'm stuck.. I need advice on where to go from here.

aj1 is right!  Once you are bored with learning, it's time to put those learnings to the test!  Forming a jam group, or join someone else's jam sessions would help you understand more whether or not you're on the right track.  It's always easy to play along with a recorded song, but it's an entirely different thing to play in a real (band) settings.  As a guitarist, you will not get to play every note in a song when you jam.  The collaboration and others giving you feedback are the fun/exciting part about playing live. 

Whether or not you're considering playing live for others or for pay, your ultimate test is to be able to play live with your band mates.  This is where you'll either shine or learn about your weak points.

Good luck!



aj1 wrote:

Sounds like you need to join/form a band.

It appears that you have the tenacity and ability to play the guitar well and are ready to take it to the band.

Can't honestly say that a discussion group is going to help judging by your current advanced standard.

Get that band together dude and rock the tits off that axe.