Most Common Things I See That Are Potentially Hindering Your Progress

[Jak Angelescu]

What up, guys and dolls?
I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July and you’re all enjoying your weekend!
Now on to the “I’m trying to help” part.
I was browsing through the riffs section and there was something that stuck out so strongly to me. And over the course of me being in this school I still keep seeing students saying, “I don’t know what to do. I feel lost. I feel like I’m not going anywhere.” And I think there’s a huge recurring thing I see in the riffs section. Or something I DON’T see rather.
And that’s the aspect of continuity.
I’m seeing a lot of students posting solos, riffs, jams, improvisations, and a myriad of other things. But then that thing disappears and we never see it again. We offer advice, but it never gets improved on. Next week we are seeing something new from that student without the preceding working being improved or knowing whatever happened to it.
Me personally (speaking for myself) I would really like to see students picking something and FOCUSING on it. Don’t just half-way learn a solo you like, do the best you could after learning it, post it and move on. You’re never going to truly improve and evolve as a guitarist. I know it sucks. But I have improved so much because I pick something and focus on it.
Also, I have seen numerous people writing about wanting to learn more advanced solos, music theory, styles of playing, etc. And I LOOOVE the fact that people want to grow so fast. But please remember that you have to learn how to hold yourself up, then crawl, then walk, then run, then jump, then climb.
I see a lot of “Ready-fire-aim” characteristics and not enough “Ready-aim-fire”.
All of these things you can learn from this school. PLEASE take the lessons from the very beginning. I’ve been playing for 20 years and I had to spend MONTHS on lesson 4 and whining at Papa Gates because I was a sobbing mess of “I can’t get this pick grip right!” But guess what? After those two months of hell, after I got lesson 4 down I was nonstop improvement. Take the lessons seriously. FOCUS on it. I spent literally 3 months on lesson 24 because there was so much information in it and I wanted to truly get down all the info, solos, tricks and more that I could before I moved on. And I’m better because of it. Sure I practiced other things too, but continuity was key.
Once again, thank you all so much for your submissions!

 

[idssdi]

Good point! For me most of the songs I play I play them kind of for shits and giggles. The high I’ve been focusing on is mostly gypsy jazz and the intro of the stage (I made up a weird exercise so I don’t actually have to do weird sliding and stuff like that with my right hand and can do a bit more 8 tapping type stuff) and lately I’ve been busy with moving and exams so didn’t have time to practice them yet. I do think I’m pretty guilty of this but that is also partly because I first learn a song as close as I possibly can to what it should be and because time and other circumstances forget part of it and than don’t care about relearning it. So I kinda make up some parts I don’t know as I go

 

[Guest]

I’m guilty of a lot of these things mostly not showing anyone my progress, I have no excuse on why I don’t I just don’t fell like it but I know I could. I feel like I give nothing to this community because I’m always asking questions on how I can improve my self which is fine but I haven’t been helping much. Also quick question why can’t I comment on any community riffs?

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

Same. I am also guilty of this. I don’t know if it is relevant or not. But Still I will mention this. As you said @jak, we students often want to jump to the step where we want to learn all theory or all the intricate solo playing stuff all at once. But that approach, if rushed, often brings it’s downsides too. I was listening to Lateralus by Tool. They beautifully told in the song how we over calculate things sometimes instead of following the guts, the instinct. This exactly happened to me. I try to follow Syn almost all the time but often I face this dilemma..Is there too much “Syn” in my playing, is there not enough “Me”? etc….. Everyone’s thought process is different. Everyone has their own playing styles which comes natural to the person. So, if we focus too much on learning theory or solos, we might end up losing touch with our own styles. So, definitely, learn and improve, but with sync with your playing and instincts. This school has a lot to offer if everyone knows what and how to take it. Learning everything at once without any direction or seeing any relation with my own playing style won’t help.

 

[D K]

I’m sometimes think about posting a video of my progress, but usually I get bored of the thing I’m practicing before I get to recording. For example a while ago I posted a video of the tapping in Syn’s master class solo (slow) and then I thought about figuring out more of the solo and practicing it (which I did) and posting a video of my progress, which I didn’t because I got bored of it and went on to do other stuff. But I will definitely get back to it, eventually.