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Posted by: Guitarman700 Jun 26 2007, 03:55 AM

Damn it, I practice at least 4 hours a day but my playing doesn't seem to be improving at all. What should i do?

Posted by: AIB234 Jun 26 2007, 03:59 AM

Do you record your metronome progress or anything?

If so, take a look back in time and you will see that you've made progress.

You could also try learning something entirely new (say sweeps or tapping if you have not already).

Posted by: mattacuk Jun 26 2007, 09:03 PM

Thats some good advice. Why not try anything of the other lessons at GMC. Speaking from expeince i can tell you any of the lessons will help you if you do it correctly. I STRONGLY advise useing a metronome when practicing anything.

Now dont worry about speed at thispoint, make sure your playing evenly and in time. Have you watched kris's 101 lessons yet? there a very good place to start! May I ask how your practicing daily currently? maybe we can guide you further that way!

regards

Posted by: AIB234 Jun 29 2007, 04:27 AM

Hey Guitarman,

I hope this little diddy can be encouraging to you.

Tonight I was just playing around with scale patterns and stuff and nothing seemed to be flowing. My fretting hand was entirely too slow and sloppy. Nothing seemed to be working.

I tried working on sweeping and while I solved the problem of my muting while upstroking, I am getting some odd string noise when I move my pinky off of the 5th string while practicing the major scale C shape. That was discouraging because no where I've read has this problem been mentioned. No matter how much I mute, it's still there. Bah!

Finally I decided I would bust out my metronome which I had not done up until this point and seriously practice some scale fragments that I thought were so sloppy.

I opened up my records to see that my current steady pace for a 6 tuplet pattern was 52bpm and the reason why I was so sloppy is because I was playing it at nearly 68bpm! While this may be a small mile stone for you and many other people here speed wise, this is big for me! I can't play consistently enough at 68bpm, or even 60bpm yet (it's juuust out of reach), but the principle was that I thought I was playing horribly but really I was not.

Maybe you've been having some off nights like I thought I was.

I hope this encourages you to keep chugging along and maybe things aren't as bad as they seem. Maybe you've even got a situation like I had tonight and you'll find the reason things aren't flowing so smoothly anymore is because you have improved your skills, you just have not noticed, and now you're facing your next barrier like I am.

Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 29 2007, 06:51 AM

Simple answer for not improving is.. Practice more it might seem discouraging but its the best advice i can give, or if you have no time to practice more, just pratice better, steal ideas from people on this site, make sure that each time you play its a workout! don't be afraid to feel a little musle pain or to sweat a little. no pain no gain

Posted by: jammer91 Jun 29 2007, 10:07 AM

Does that mean if i cut myself like an emo, ill get more distortion?

Posted by: ZakkWylde Jun 29 2007, 11:52 AM

Yes it does

Posted by: steve25 Jun 29 2007, 03:47 PM

For those 4 hours a day what is it that you practice exactly? There could be something in your practice that your are missing out which can help you to improve faster

Posted by: AIB234 Jun 29 2007, 03:49 PM

steve beat me to it

Could you give us a sample practice session Guitarman?

Posted by: mattacuk Jun 30 2007, 09:04 AM

The great thing about *always* useing your metronome guys, is that your "forced" to play it correct - and you can tell instantly if you not in time! I always have it on now matter what im doing !

Posted by: funkymilk Jul 3 2007, 08:53 PM

It doesn't all happen in a week. Keep on practice and you will see results.