The Intermediate Crisis.

If you are serious about guitar playing sooner or later your progress is going to stall.

It happens...

Your technique isn't great but you don't suck that hard anymore, you can waddle your way with the pentatonic scale and practice each and every day...or at least most days. Then you ask yourself, now what? How to I get to the next level?

You are stuck in the intermediate plateau, and to get through the sticking point, you need to PRACTICE.

I know, I know. You practice a lot a blah blah blah.

The thing is, your practice time consists on playing the same shit you are already good at over and over.

You need to practice the things that you SUCK at.

If you want to shred, pick a couple of exercises that cover alternate/outside-or-inside picking and play that thing 10,000 times PERFECTLY.

If you want to sweep, learn the basic figures both of 3 and 5 strings arpeggios and play each one 10,000 times with PERFECT technique.

If you want to get better at improvising get some backing tracks and each and every time you practice make the intent to do it BETTER than the last time.

Same with chord patterns, modal changes, vibrato, and all that shit.

Will it be fun?

Will you enjoy it?

Of course not!

If you want to be great at something practice isn't going to be fun. You do what you have to do to get better, that's what makes the difference  between a mediocre player and an awesome one.

Your motivation should NEVER be to have "fun", it's to get better. The fun part is when you reap the benefits of the, at times boring, at times interesting practice time.

So, to wrap it up. Practice with a goal in mind and strive each and every time you do practice to make it BETTER.

Yes, it's THAT simple.

Practice  ≠   Playing 

Videos

Why instrumental music is awesome.

I love art, but to be completely honest, I've never really gotten into art theory, and by that I don't mean the useful technicalities.I'm talking about the theory appreciation/composition babble. When someone gets philosophical with the subject and start rambling complicated shit, most of the times it's just pure unadulterated bullshit.

We all have seen one of those people rambling about an art piece, trying to decipher shit that isn't there and getting all "blah blah blah".

Luckily for us musicians, we don't have to deal with this stuff!

Something great about instrumental music is that these art-babblers don't have any symbolism to hold on to.
Probably the same reason not many people love instrumental music as much as other type of arts (or even music with lyrics).
"¿What message would Mozart wanted to tell with that violin line?" Just not happening.
And with visual arts the above situation is the most common thing.
So yeah, we don't get a lot of bullshit which is good.

Another awesome thing is that there isn't as much senseless conceptual art -which 99% of it has as much value as a spit to the face- as visual arts. Sure there is stupid shit like John Cage's 4:33 (Look for it, you won't believe it), but the crap is far in between.

As much as a spit to the face

                                                 

Playing Fast

Most guitar players don't know how to play fast, and thats ok. You don't need to shred to be an awesome guitarrist.

The problem arises when someone who sucks at playing fast tries to play fast,  just randomly hitting the string with the picking hand and hovering over the fretboard with the other one with no coordination whatsoever between the two.

We all know someone who does this, or maybe you do, which means you need to STOP DOING THAT.
Really, it's irritating.

If you happen to be one of those, the first thing to do is to realize that you suck at playing fast and are completely incapable at play that kind of stuff...for now.

It's tough pill to swallow...

See, the brain it's like a recorder. The motor patterns get engraved. That means the more you play sloppy the better you are going get at playing sloppy. And it works the other way around too. That means that if you play slowly but perfectly something 10,000 times, you can bet you'll be able to play it fast.

So ask yourself, ¿Am I really playing this?

First Post

I'm a guitar player from Mexico.
Music is my passion, and I hope you reader can find something useful, or at least a bit interesting here.