Frustration

[El Bajo]

I'm heading onto a slump people. I'm sure you've all been there. It involves a month of learning and being comfortable twhen BAM, you suddenly stop practicing for a few weeks, your sick of not improving and unanswered questions are doing your head in. After a while you get a breakthrough and then the cycle continues.

I can see the slump on the horizon. My band is great, we've just started and we are making great progress so no complaints there yet.

Its just the practicing thats got me down. I'm trying to get through Gary Willis Fretboard Harmony and I'm finding it really hard just to get through the first chapter. Has anybody found this? Its a complete head f**k. I just cant do it. I undertsand it but just cant do. I'm going to try and write write it out (standard notation of course) to see if that helps. Does it get any better? Also does it actually get interesting?

Also I hear great songs everyday that I would like to learn because either their cool to play or just great to figure out how the musician thought up the riff or wrote the song. But how do people find the time when there so much to learn so many styles and with so little time?

Sorry to go on. Just feeling the frustration and when my guitarist listens to me go on he just pats me on the shoulder, looks me in the eye and says all I want from you is to think up some kick as grooves, nothing more (what no tapped solo????)

Anybody feeling this?

[FuturePrimitive]

I've gone through many cycles of this myself, the worst of which lasted years with my bass and amp sitting in storage in the basement. I had a little over a week off just recently (recovering from some minor surgery) so I'm stoked to play again but just 2-3 weeks ago I was finding it hard to get motivated to practice and could feel the slump looming. And this was after just joining a new band, I should have been pumped to practice.

[BillyRay]

How good are you theory wise ? My ongoing remedy for curing this (I happen to be frustrated about my playing 99% of the time) is to work on things wich are not technique related but are theory/rythmn/ear related. Right now, I'm working to really and I mean REALLY, develop a good ear, something I naturally don't have (rythmn is no problem, maybe I should've been a drummer...).

I find that it helps me immensly to find good grooves and is better than endlessly practicing scales nowadays. I mean, I can play something that sounds good right off the bat if you lay a chart in front of me, but what I want is to sound great and for this, I need to develop my ear so not all my phrasing is based on the same melodic "approach".

Some people say: "When in doubt, play the blues", well really now for me it's "when in doubt, play jazz".

[Daniel L.]

Originally Posted by El Bajo

Its just the practicing thats got me down. I'm trying to get through Gary Willis Fretboard Harmony and I'm finding it really hard just to get through the first chapter. Has anybody found this? Its a complete head f**k. I just cant do it. I undertsand it but just cant do. I'm going to try and write write it out (standard notation of course) to see if that helps. Does it get any better? Also does it actually get interesting?

Slumps suck. But keep at it, because eventually you will break through. And when that happens, it's a great feeling.

Regarding the Willis book, I'll just say that the concepts that he puts forth are great. But, the process of applying them leaves a lot to be desired. I've found it a great book to read through, but not a great book to practice through. If that makes sense.

[bassphreak]

definitely a cyclic process. Up and down for me. Mix it up, I've been trying hard to find people to jam with on a casual basis. I pick up a lot of books, read a lot, hit TB.

The combination of developing the ear and knowing the fretboard is key. Some folks it comes natural. Some (like me) it doesn't. It may take a while to develop your ear but that will unlock a lot. Keep at it. You're not alone. One tip that has helped me is to get a drum machine. When I can't get anyone to jam, but still need to practice and can't get motivated, I'll just throw on the drum machine, hit a rhythm and practice.

[El Bajo]

Thanks for the words of wisdom.

I've decided to crack on with a Bach classical piece, I found reading standard notation and having to use your brain when it comes to hand positioning rather than Tabs telling you really puts the chord and scale in perspective.

I will read through Gary Willis's book and write out the lines and take notes rather than struggling along tryna sort it out everything he's teaching in my head. I like his concepts but they just need to be developed more.

Thats my mission for the next month . Until the next slump and I will be back on hire winging again