I want to get better at guitar help plz

[CorporateDisguise]

Not sure how to delete duplicate post......

[CorporateDisguise]

I have one more thing I'd like to add to this conversation. But I need to preface this by saying this is only in my experience because I'm sure I'll recieve some hate for it.

At one point a few years ago I also thought I should learn the blues. Not because I thought I would use it. Just because
I thought it was something all guitarists should know. Anyway. I bought a book, and studied it for a few months and it ruined my guitar playing for more than a year. I would sit down t play and write and I would just regurgitate cheesy blues licks, and everything sounded incredibly generic. Now, while I do have respect for the blues, nothing I play or have ever written has ever resembled the blues.

It took me a long time to unlearn it all.

It might sound like I'm telling you not to expand your horizons, but that's not it at all. Muscle memory is a funny thing. And once it's locked in, it's hard to break. Don't learn somethng just because it's what every other guitarist does. I would rather have to sound everything out than to play the same stake blues riff that every other guitar player would also play. Alot of my best material has been written be sounding it out. And while it is sometimes frustrating, I find it is best to go into something with absolutely no preconcieved notions of what it should be and allow it to be what it wants to be. If you fall back onto the minor blues pentatonic everytime, you will never find interesting.

I think that we all reach a certain point as players where more information can hinder rather than help. As it can take away that mystical wonder you view the fretboard with and lock you into certain patterns.

I think that learning the most basic of music theory will serve you much better. They are much more simple guideline. It can tell you why certain things work, and othrs don't. It can also be fun to try to break certain rules of theory as well.

[DeathJag]

I have one more thing I'd like to add to this conversation. But I need to preface this by saying this is only in my experience because I'm sure I'll recieve some hate for it.

At one point a few years ago I also thought I should learn the blues. Not because I thought I would use it. Just because
I thought it was something all guitarists should know. Anyway. I bought a book, and studied it for a few months and it ruined my guitar playing for more than a year. I would sit down t play and write and I would just regurgitate cheesy blues licks, and everything sounded incredibly generic. Now, while I do have respect for the blues, nothing I play or have ever written has ever resembled the blues.

It took me a long time to unlearn it all.

It might sound like I'm telling you not to expand your horizons, but that's not it at all. Muscle memory is a funny thing. And once it's locked in, it's hard to break. Don't learn somethng just because it's what every other guitarist does. I would rather have to sound everything out than to play the same stake blues riff that every other guitar player would also play. Alot of my best material has been written be sounding it out. And while it is sometimes frustrating, I find it is best to go into something with absolutely no preconcieved notions of what it should be and allow it to be what it wants to be. If you fall back onto the minor blues pentatonic everytime, you will never find interesting.

I think that we all reach a certain point as players where more information can hinder rather than help. As it can take away that mystical wonder you view the fretboard with and lock you into certain patterns.

I think that learning the most basic of music theory will serve you much better. They are much more simple guideline. It can tell you why certain things work, and othrs don't. It can also be fun to try to break certain rules of theory as well.

Such a good post, it deserves two postings! I love what you’re saying.

Since this thread started a few days ago I have signed up for a classical guitar lesson! I’m excited, but the dude told me straight up - if I want to play that style, I must learn to read. You know, THAT.

As a child over thirty years ago, I learned to read music to play violin, so it’s upstairs somewhere!

[TeenageShutdown!]

Muscle memory is a funny thing. And once it's locked in, it's hard to break.

This is an excellent point. It takes years to build up that muscle memory & I equate it to weight lifting. Once you get the fundamentals & form down you then develop a muscle memory in which you increasingly get stronger at very quickly. However, the body is very quick to adapt to new changes with given time.

[mcbrandt]

Well, now I have an excuse to NOT learn the blues. Phew.