Hello!
I've been playing guitar for about 20 years (I'm 33) and in the last few years I've steadily become more committed to breaking out of a rut. Platuea-ing is part of the game, I know, but I am wondering if anyone can relate to the challenges I'm having and share their thoughts and tips.
My wheelhouse as a guitar player is pretty typical. I have always relied on my ear to pick-up new things. I've tried becoming more literate to the staff but my attention or energy dwains with every attempt. Being an indie-rocker, songwriter, and weirdo experimenter/improv player, I've always been able to compensate with tone, simplicity, volume, or shamelessly fetishising pedals in the past.
I've had fun and all but it gets boring and I still have every bit of childlike wonder for great playing that I did when I started out, so I have set my sights on learning the fretboard in and out. I've done a little ear training with modes, intervals, and I've watched tons of tutorials with gameplans and perspectives for the average amateur.
My goal is to increase my freedom as a player and be able to play over changes and play creatively (not just play in a scale).
Here's how a typical practice session goes:
I start with an exercise where I play every C note ascending and descending with metronome, usually 2 notes an octave apart per string. Then the same, with F, Bb... that's as far as I've gotten. The goal is to play every note everywhere.
Then I play through every major scale, three notes per string, very slowly, saying every note under my breath to myself. Starting with A at the 5th fret of the E string, then D starting at the 5th fret of the A string, always 3 notes per string. My goal is to have my bearings and learn the flats and sharps of every key, where they are on the fretboard to the point of familiarity.
It's a struggle. I don't find it boring or uninteresting at all, in fact, I look forward to the challenges and the headspace similar to the zen I found in brainlessly drilling technique (alternate picking, arpeggios...). However, my utter lack of competence in this department of fretboard knowledge and has left me wondering if I suffer from music dyslexia or a severe mental block. I'm having a particularly hard time with descending scales and having the awareness of what note I'm on. I just "blank out," eventually.
I just freeze up, mentally, and then I get frustrated with myself. It's like a 180 from positively proactive to shame.
It's a little embarrassing to admit that my head can't handle the computations. I am trying to break it down into smaller chunks of learning, the fret positions, then the scales, then the more complex ideas, but it's a pretty slow going.
Are some people just blessed with competent brainpower to see those patterns or is it a blessing to have learned these musical ABC's at the same time as learning beginner technique? I know habit and routine are major factors but I have always shied away from certain aspects of theory the same way I shied from math in school (I ended up minoring in Math in college). I may be feeding into the anxiety around recognizing these patterns.
I don't expect to be Joe Pass or Scofield in a month, but I so badly want to add to my repertoire for once without being limited to what my ears can perceive and the bite sized tedium of memorization. I'll keep on pushing, one way or another and seeing what works, but it seems without some sort of breakthrough, the amount of time it takes to progress means I will trending towards VERY modest outcomes. It stings.
Has anyone else faced a mental block and found their way through or around it? How do you untrain guitar brain?
Submitted May 09, 2020 at 07:02PM by nomoniker https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/ggopu9/struggling_to_get_new_information_to_stick/?utm_source=ifttt