"I hate my playing" syndrome... Anyone ?

[rudociliak]

Hahahaha, oh man. Yes, yes and even more yes's. Don't let it bum you out though, you will get to the point where you are like... "Oh man my playing is awesome!" sometime :P. Ever hear what pro. players say? Always practice? well, it's pretty true, just nerve racking hahaha.

[loose Cannon]

Ive had moments like this and as a self taught guitarist it is frustrating. What insipired me over the years to evolve my playing was to study other guitarists techniques and incoporate them into my own style.

Over the years listening to John Petrucci ,helped me refine my alternate picking style, brad paisley got me hooked on hybrid picking, satch with his legato, vai with his vibrato, hetfield for downstrokes, etc etc.

Theres always some areas of your playing you can always work on to improve its just a matter of identifying which ones they are.

[BayRocker]

Being a self-taught player myself, I run into this all the time. What I did was buy a drum kit, bass, and keys a few years back. When I get to a spot where I feel like I am just spewing out the same ole same ole on guitar, I jump on the drum kit and make some progress there. After a while, I move back to the guitar with a fresh new perspective, and notice new things coming out of my playing. Lots of times jamming out a cool drum pattern inspires me to come up with something more creative on guitar. Playing different instruments has made me look at guitar playing from a whole new perspective. And taking on multiple instruments has me feeling like I am always learning something new.

[Lord_Jereth]

For me, it's new gear. Something inspires me every time I pick up a new pedal or guitar. I'll be testing the new piece of equipment and noodle to try to get the sound I want to test for and always end up coming up with something fun. I tend to write my best songs that way.

This last time around, that phase lasted over 6 years, though. I've always said that my ex-wife got my muse in the divorce. I barely touched the guitar in that time. I'm just coming out of it, myself. It helps that one of my best buds - a drummer - and I have been jamming a lot lately and that I just bought a new guitar. *winks*

Sometimes it just takes a change of venue, a new piece of gear, a new perspective or a new person(s) to play with. Just gotta get out of the old rut and into something new.

Good luck!

LJ

[nateb]

To be honest, the best way I have found to get around this is just to play with someone else where you appreciate their style. It really makes me think about how I can improve and shows me a new perspective on my playing. They also gain the benefit of a different point of view of things. Happened to me last night.

-Nate

[FloydRose4Prez]

I need to re-learn all the scales. I'm stuck on the same major, minor and Blues scales. Everything I play sounds the same. Same bends, same runs, you name it. Time for some lessons.

[kamalayka]

Anyone goes into that phase? I'm in right now. I hate the way I play. With my band, I don't learn all the solos of the tunes we play and when come that jammin' part of the songs, I feel always stuck in the same licks/patterns/scales...

I'd like to woodshed and spend more time practicing but between day job/family life/house duties/learning the tunes for the band... Well, there isn't much time left.

Do I need to see my Doctor and get some happy/feel good pills? Should I stop playing guitar and start collecting stamps? Joking aside, who's a 100% with the way they play...

Perhaps it would help if you focused a bit of time on some other genre of music, perhaps fingerpicking on the acoustic or something.

Or, if you don't want to do that, and you want to focus on writing new licks or patterns, here is one that might inspire you. Its a cool ascending thing I use during my "spotlight solo" in my band sometimes.

(lightly palm mute)

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[Special-K]

Happens from time to time... but it just makes me practice harder and more focused!
In my band Doomed (http://www.myspace.com/doomedband)
the 2nd guitarist is better than me and I learn from him, it motivates me.
But he also told me that my playing style motivates him to play more accurate 16th notes, with which I have
no problems with on faster tempos... So we learn from each other...

When you hate your playing, change it... Try to look up stuff you`d like to know and practice it...
When it comes to the point that it is getting worse (while practicing it for a while) just play something
else for a couple of minutes and get back to it... and TA-DA! There you have it!

[Nimitz]

Learn new songs to stay with it... past couple years I have not been playing as much as before and I feel like I have lost something... I used to play the solo to Crazy Train... played the song with my bro a while ago and get to the solo, fucking forgot it...

Used to know a lot of solo's I mean not saying they sounded great or anything but could half ass them very well... not lately... you know what this is pissing me off as I'm typing DAMMIT YOU DICK... thanks for the bring down!

[BenoA]

Thanks guys!

lately, I've been learning tunes to challenge me and I also pulled out my old Gilbert's VHS tape. Some crazy stuff to practice on those. Youtube is also a very good source of ideas. Tons and tons of stuff available.

[tgreensl1]

If you like rock learn to play jazz. If you like country learn some metal licks. Or buy a van halen book and play every note slow picking out new licks. Eddie has a wierd way of phrasing things so that helps me.

Im about 90% happy with my playing. I play for a couple hours a day and work at a music store so i can play alot. It helps

[Buslady]

I hate my playing cos I'm a newbie at it but I keep working on it, I'll kick ass eventually.

[KLNowak]

I am there right now. I cracked open Troy Stetina's Speed Mechanics book a while ago for the first time in forever. It was cool at first because I noticed a drastic improvement after only playing through the first few pages. However I recently remembered how terrible I am at diatonic sequences down a single string. I really need to get that down.