I think Billy has it the best.

What did you do professionally, Billy? Studio musician, touring?

so, to all of you who are NOT frustrated....

[youtube]m-EjOroHY10[/youtube]

so, to all of you who are NOT frustrated....

[youtube]m-EjOroHY10[/youtube]

Jeez, she even soutnds like Steve Vai...

I've noticed alot of young kids playing awesome guitar on youtube lately.

And, they all happen to be Asian. Must be something in the water over there.

Or it could be because their parents force them to practice non stop until they are to a level that actually satisfies their parents.

I'm usually not impressed by young Asian kids playing guitar very well. Mainly because they wont do much in life because their parents want them to become doctors too...

Mainly because they wont do much in life because their parents want them to become doctors too...

Doctors? Psh. What wastes of space.











(I get what you're, saying--just having fun with the way it was worded.)

What did you do professionally, Billy? Studio musician, touring?

Started out as a guitarist, became a studio engineer for several years (this was in the days of tape machines and splicing) - I mic'd up everyone from George Michael to Cozy Powell. Graduated to production and particularly remixing a lot of dance records, some of which were big commercially, some big in their own critical scenes, some sank without trace. Had a minor hit as an artist in my own right which I managed to parlay into several albums, lots of trekking around the world, and years of ever-decreasing inspiration but ever increasing indulgence etc. Manager stole all the money. Blah blah usual story.

By the end of it I was very bitter and disillusioned. Looking back now, i was pretty good at getting the most out of other people's stuff, but simply was not as talented as I wanted to be doing my own thing. and that was never going to be a recipe for satisfaction.

And I'm quite sure I'm a lot less of an arsehole now than I was then, or would have been if I had carried on. Much happier too.

Ah. At least you had a career in the music industry, I'd love to give it a go...

I'm always frustrated with how much I suck, but less lately, I can play Almost Again in slow-mo!\o/ And I've also fallen in love with Open C, it's lovely.

I fell into a major rut when I was around 21, then I fell in love with classical music, hook line and sinker. Cut to 5 years later and I'm finishing my degree in classical guitar and am quite burnt out. So I've taken time off to get my life in order and let the inspiration rise up again. I'm sure Ki will help immensely, ironic that listening to Dev drives me to practice Bach and Brouwer. Great music is simply just great music.

[swervedriver]

I've been playing guitar for some 14 years (I'm 24 now). Started with lessons for the first few years, then playing in my high school's band (where we played songs to go with plays or other -a bit more public- performances). That was actually quite fun because everyone else in that band was in their final (6th) year and I was only in my 3rd... After that it was nothing for a while, then again another school band, this time with people mostly from my year which lead to nothing eventually. Again a period of nothing in which I moved to university

All these nothing periods were plateaus for me. I would play guitar on and off in those periods but not really learn anything new. I'd enjoy it, but I wasn't extremely passionate about playing. I seem to improve myself and/or find new challenges in playing guitar by playing with others. In this way I'm also introduced to a very broad range of music which in turn will affect what I play and how I play it. This sort of keeps me away from the plateaus, or at least distracts me from them. For example, the last major 'discovery' I made was about 2 years ago when I learned about artists such as Michael Hedges and Andy McKee. This inspired me to look at this acoustic fingerstyle method of playing and while I still suck at it completely, I did try it (and am still trying occasionally) and picked up a few handy things that I can now incorporate into my own style.

If you are stuck on a plateau with your learning, try something different. Study some jazz technique, or work on your chicken-picking. listen to a style of music you normally don't and work out how its done. You may not decide to become a C&W guitarist but it will break you out of your rut and give you a new perspective. And probably teach you some new tricks you can incorporate into your own playing that'll vibe you up again.

Yeah, I just said that, didn't I? Oh well, make it a +1.

I'd like to learn how to properly do some arpeggio sweeps, but all experiments so far have failed miserably. It's my current plateau I guess.

Fingerstyle playing is very tough. I have massive amounts of respect for people like Hedges, McKee, Justin King, and Kaki King(not related to Justin)

I've been working on getting it down myself, though they style I've become comfortable with isn't nearly as impressive as theirs, I'm also not using open tunings like they do. I've been using just drop D or any drop tuning to play with. I've found that fingerstyle, both on acoustic and electric, is harder to play correctly than just about anything (save for most jazz and flamenco...)

Tapping is fun, I love to do it! haha

For anyone who is frustrated or uninspired.........

Try a different tuning. Just for shits and giggles I took my standard tuning and dropped the low E down to B and the A down to F sharp. It is really fun trying to figure out where my modes are this way, and alot of the riffs I am writing sound like I must have fingers a foot long. Plus, I already wrote half an album within the last month or so.

A new instrument helps alot.....whether you just buy a new guitar, or start messing around with bass or keys or something.

Also, and I hate doing this........try listening to something out of your comfort zone. This is hard for me, as Dev covers so many areas of music, I rarely listen to anyone else. But it helps, esp. crazy jazz players like Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane......or the guitarists like Vic Juris.

Anyone frustrated with fingerstyle should check out Giuliani's 120 daily right hand studies for guitar. They start simple and you can substitute any chords you like. If anyone has any questions regarding fingerstyle I would be more than happy to help. As a classical player its my thing and just about the most rewarding experience on guitar, for me anyway. The instrument really transforms into its own complete universe.

I'm at that level with guitar where I can't get better and it's PISSING ME OFF. It's a really slow process. When it happens, I usually just learn whatever I feel like for a while and then lo and behold! For some reason, I get better. (It's weird, but it works.) I think it's more about training your fingers to go where they need to go then training your brain to work WITH your fingers.

Anyone frustrated with fingerstyle should check out Giuliani's 120 daily right hand studies for guitar. They start simple and you can substitute any chords you like. If anyone has any questions regarding fingerstyle I would be more than happy to help. As a classical player its my thing and just about the most rewarding experience on guitar, for me anyway. The instrument really transforms into its own complete universe.

Links please? I'd love to wow some people around here with some good fingerstyle playing