Hey all,

Ever since I joined the GMC, I have been a good student and have made my homework everyday, eaten my porridge every morning and brushed my teeth for at least 2minutes every morning and evening.
(Well actually, the latter two things I already did before I joined GMC)

Anyway, eventhough the change of my playing fundamentals resulted in a chaos in my performance in the beginning, I quickly started to see progress in my re-learning of playing guitar. I was psyched about it and it motivated me even more.
However a few weeks ago, I reached some sort of plateau, and I don't really feel that I am improving so much.

Is guitar playing like other physical activities, such as weight lifting, where you will notice quite instant and fast progress in the beginning, hit a plateau for a while, experience a considerable leap after a while, just to hit a plateau again...and so on...??

Or is it simply me, trying to learn too many new techniques at the same time? (A typical practice session consists of 30 min warm-up with scales and finger positioning, 30 min alternate/speed picking, 30 min sweeping practice, 30-60 minute goofing around/improvising)
Should I just stick to learn one technique at a time? (Hence the title of this topic...)

Please give me some input here. It would also be interesting to know how you guys plan a practice session.
Thanks

//J78

Well. I guess I am not the best person to reply to this since I am on a platue sort of thing myself right now but my logical sense tell me its something like this:

If you spend 2-2½ hour learning different stuff you will slightly increase in all those techniques every time, but not maybe enough to be noticeable untill you look back at a few weeks and see your overall speed/cleanliness HAS improved. But if you spend 2-2½ hour on learning, say sweep picking, every day then of course you will master sweep picking faster than if you'd justp ractice it for 30 mins a day.

So the question is if you want to learn many techniques at a slower pace or just one at a quicker pace. And yea, you will most likely be hitting platues all through your guitar career. and the reason that you found one so early in playing is because you suddenly learnt alot of basics, and now you are improving those basics.


Hope it made sense!

Cheers.

Well, you've got a point there. I guess it makes sense.
Fan jag vill ju kunna allt nu på en gång..... :/

//J78

Hey j78!

Don't worry about the plateau - it happens to me every 2 weeks!
It's like accumulating knowledge and then after two weeks of progress you have to settle down and make sure of what you have learned! It's a normal process so don't worry about it! Keep practicing!

jhasdgfshdfg asdhgasdj hgsy alydhfis aslydfsif liys aydfg aysd fsiyfsgf sdflsygf

jhasdgfshdfg asdhgasdj hgsy alydhfis aslydfsif!! liys aydfg aysd fsiyfsgf sdflsygf??? Wow!

And I always thought he'd lost the ability to do that after a nasty knitting accident!!



As for plateau's, you'll experience them in everything you do (not just guitar!!). The trick is not giving up when they hit. I've found that if I just keep the technique "ticking over" in practice once I'm at a plateau, and concentrate on something else, eventually once I break that glass ceiling, my playing will suddenly reflect the fact that I've kept it ticking over in that I'll not be much better at it, but it will now be easier to progress. However, if I pump some serious hours into it, once the glass ceiling is broken, it's suddenly like I'm a new player. All that practice is suddenly reflected in the fact that the technique seems nearly effortless.

So whichever way you take it, you'll get past the plateau, but either way, whatever work you put in, you'll see the benefit.

Ok, thanks for all the replies, guys.
I guess I have to be more patient.

By the way, I think Kris's weird message was a hint for me to avoid writing in other languages than english.
So for all you guys out there that don't speak Swedish, the last sentence in my first post means (roughly):
"D*mn, I want to be able to play these things NOW"

Sorry, I'll remember to stick to english in the future.

//J78