Help for being stuck at guitar?

[Ognjen Gojkovic]

Hello… I’ve been a guitar player for around 7 years…and still i am nowhere near what a guitar player should look like after 7 years. I know alot of chords…variants .. i know major..minor ..pentatonic scale.. ect… and i play very good what i know, i have a very good ear. But still it seems that nothing changed in past couple years of my guitar playing. I’ve been trough some lessons here, but i feel like there is just something missing..that one part of music theory which can help me to understand everything, which is important and key of becoming a good player. Do you have any suggestions guys..where should i go from here..what do i do?
By the way i am still acoustic player..i wasnt able to afford any electric guitar because of other thing, but i have played it alot, and its pretty fun. Looking forwards to getting it this year.

 

[Daniel Bernard]

I’m not sure I understand… You wanna know more theory to get better technically?
As for learning theory, scales and stuff… It’s good to know them of course but I got better once I started really listening to them and feeling them. As Steve Vai would say, I’d try to become the note.
Personally when I start feeling stuck, I just go back to the basics. As an example, I changed the way I hold the pick after 2 years of playing and I didnt really like/feel comfortable with it at first but now I ply much more consistently and faster.

 

[Matt Wildman]

You may feel stuck now, but a year from now you will be awesome cause of all the stuff your gonna learn in this school

 

[idssdi]

Im not sure what you are asking but Cage can help you. Another thing you can Do is to learn other genres like Gypsy jazz etc. And see whether you can actually learn the scales you need for that

 

[Filip Tomiša]

I’d suggest you watch the theory lessons from the beginning even though you’ve been playing for 7 years cause there is always going to be something that you didn’t know that might help you.

 

[Ana Psuturi]

I was playing guitar for seven years as well. And there are moments when I feel stuck,but theory lessons on this site helped a lot,showed me different perspectives on things. And also playing to backing tracks really helps. When you don’t think about anything and just play music using all the knowledge.Also listening to different music helps a lot.

 

[Ben Thorpe]

Well, I think that you probably have improved over the last 2 years, but the improvements have been so subtle that you just haven’t noticed them. I have only been playing for 6 months, but looking back on how I used to play from old videos I can see huge improvements as it is being visually presented to me, which I hadn’t noticed before. If you really feel like you want to improve then all I can say is just try pushing yourself a bit harder to hopefully see the significant improvements you want. Hope this helps!

 

[Debora Collins]

I totally get that feeling stuck question! We always plateau, at least for awhile. One thing that I haven’t heard here much (or most online lessons) is to play with others! You can practice till the cows come home by yourself, but if you can’t think on your feet, or respond to others’ playing, you’ll kind of stay in your trouble spots…there is no real incentive to move beyond it. Also, what really helps me is two things…one, I always drill down on technique. I slow down and concentrate on each finger and pressure and hand position and picking technique, and scales and repetitive exercises (hammer ons, pull offs, bends, double stops) and two is spending a good chunk of time without structure while practicing. Either playing along with songs (soloing differently than the guitarist in the recorded song) or just playing melodies without any accompaniment. Hopefully you will find a way to recognize when you are progressing. You are probably not as “stuck” as you may think!

 

[Ognjen Gojkovic]

Thanks alot for the feedback guys… I am really looking forwards to this, as you may know, i am self taught for my whole life..but getting back on beginner theory lessons might help because i always felt like that thing was missing to become better at soloing and playing overall. Thanks again, this school and support is awesome. Community isn’t toxic at all.

 

[John Tierney]

Theory wise, I write EVERYTHING in a journal like the keys and what notes go where, circle of fifths, and I write out the chords too belonging to X root etc. Being honest I’m not much of a writer but doing this helped me in visualizing how everything sort of comes together and it’s a great reference for if you forget then it’s all written down so you can quick reference. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Hope this helps bud