Staying motivated without lessons

[nasonm]

I just recently stopped taking guitar lessons. I had been taking them for 4 years. Although I'm no Segovia or Chet Atkins, I think I'm a better player than when I started.

Now I'm without the weekly kick-in-the-pants, I'm looking for new ways to motivate myself to learn.

After reading a post yesterday regaring Truefire.com, I checked it out and downloaded Arlen Roth's 25 Country Licks You Must Know (all 3 parts to the series)

One area I never did learn was chicken pickin, so I'll try this. (one quick tele question here: I've been using flatwound 11's on my tele, Will that make it too hard to play CP style? Shoudl I go with a 10 set?)

I know many of you (you know who you are) are great players, how do you hobby players, like me, keep yourselves motivated and learning new things?

[Bob Mc]

I stopped lessons almost 30 years ago and it can be quite trying. First off, to answer your last question, I would NOT suggest backing down from 011s. Stay there if you can.
Personally I switch between styles and instruments to keep motivated. I keep a flat-top handy for when my electric playing is stagnant, I dabble in slide and mandolin also. After a few hours or days of them, my Tele sounds and plays like a dream. No great investments here; second hand stuff.
My fingers and ears seem to like the change.
YMMV

[John R.]

I've played guitar for 38 years or so. Used to play in some local bar bands, but haven't played out in over 15 years. I studied jazz guitar for about 5 years back in the '70's, never was a jazz player, just wanted to learn as much as possible. The jazz training was great for western swing though and I did learn a lot of scales and technique. Eventually, I quit playing regularly and my guitars sat neglected for a number of years.

A few years ago, I rekindled my interest and found some guitar sites like this place and decided to buy a tele. I decided I wanted to learn to play better and I figured I'd learn to play some Chet tunes, so I got some cd's and began to learn some. I also wanted to go from flatpicking to a hybrid style of picking, even though that's not quite what Chet did. I worked on some right hand technique using an old classical guitar study book I had. Substituting thumb for flatpick and adjusting fingers accordingly. I used a cd slowing down utility for the pc to help me through some of the tunes. I downloaded the tab program that plays the midi files, to learn another Chet tune.

I took out a subscription to Fingerstyle Guitar magazine. The magazine features about a half dozen tunes transcribed in notation and tab along with a cd. The tunes I gravitated to also lent themselves to hybrid picking. I'm way too lazy to retune, so I only learned the ones in standard tuning. Then, I discovered Danny Gatton, I bought as many of his cd's as I could and a couple of his training videos. I watched the videos and then put them away, 'cause I wasn't quite ready for that, probably due to that lazy gene I carry.

I've been trying to learn to play as many tunes as possible, 'cause mostly the lessons I had were theory and technique, and I really wanted to sit and play chord melody type solo tunes. I finally got out a Danny Gatton video recently and learned one of the tunes he did by stopping and still framing and watching sections over and over until I figured it out.

I just got the Johnny Hiland Chicken Pickin’ video last night, you might like that. Johnny’s real good and it’s a great intro into that genre. I wrote a review at the Review Zone here on the TDPRI if you’re interested.

John

[buglecorps]

A Few more...Play with others..not necessary to be in a band..Jam sessions, or just getting together with some one else on a regular basis can be inspiring..(if you have never played with another instrument try hooking up with a drummer or bassist).

Don't be afraid to put it away/take a break for a bit..some times this will freshen you up and often you will play better when you come back (I'm talking a week or three not years!)

Work on a entirely unrealted style..If you are a Jazzer try some HM..etc..you will find something that you can use and taking things back and forth is a blast..Check out Michale Hedges acoustic version of "Rock and Roll Part II". I once worked up a SKA version of "Walkin After Midnight" for a local garage band that was looking for a edge in a talent show(they won!)

Have Fun!

[spyder]

Ho...lose the flatwounds, string up some nickel plated 9s...preferably Darcos...you might have to make some minor adjustments for the lighter gauge...maybe not..... until you hook yourself some decent instructional material.....practice using your fingers along with the pick....theres essentially two methods.....the 1 and two finger x-over...the 1 finger is normally used for single note lines...the two for cascading open/ fretted string lines....in an alternating pattern use a downstroke with the pick and upstroke with the finger (s)....this is a pickin' method...its not proprietory to a certain style...like country for instance...although many, many country players use the technique...the method is just as handy for other styles...rock, blues jazz...artic eskimo music...you name it.....I've gotta lesson on pick and finger usage on the truefire site....its tied in with the article I did in the june issue of GP magazine...its a quick hitter thing with a ton of info compressed into a short lesson...thankfully, truefire didn't edit out anything....far as I know its available as I recorded it.....anyway, it ain't a cure-all or anything, but should kick start your efforts until you get ahold of some material you like....far as motivation?...I don't know, motivation wears many hats....I use to be motivated by women...they like good pickin'....that didn't take long to wear thin....the last 30 years or so the fire inside motivates me....keep that baby stoked...you'll stay motivated...later, spyder