I've hit a wall. How to advance my guitar playing skills.

[metalheadjessus]

I've hit a wall.

I've been playing guitar for a while, with lessons for most of that time, but after my guitar teacher had to quit and told me that "You would be capable of teaching yourself, here on in" I haven't been to enrol myself for guitar lessons from another teacher. I wouldn't like to, either, as £10 a week (the standard rate for my area) would soon build up to buy me a pretty decent guitar.

I've hit a wall. I seem to be doing the same old things (sticking to AC/DC / other classic rock riffs or some of Pink Floyd's acoustic songs such as Mother, and Wish You Were Here, as well as the bass riffs to songs like Money) and if I try other styles ie. metal, I just cannot seem to do it. I'll be able to read the tabs, but i'll be ridiculously slow, and cannot pinch for the life of me.

Anyway, getting to the point after my little ramble, can anyone recommend any songs or skills to work on in order to get my guitar playing to the next level, even if it's just simple ones to introduce me to any style other than classic rock, or to help me improve the way in which i play the songs that I already know? Any advice other than that would also be greatly appreciated, I'm really stuck for ideas!

Thank you for taking the time to read

[Snufkin]

I played Radiohead's Street Spirit over, and over, and over. It's not hard, but it really perfects your ability to jump around the strings. It helped with my upstroke/downstroke as well.

Late Goodbye by Poets of the Fall as well is a nice song that isn't tough, but keeps your left hand moving.

I got bored of playing classic rock riffs over and over because they do get boring, and they're very restrictive. The guitar can sound a lot better than just hitting a low E repeatedly.

[BBECK DeChamp]

Id suggest looking up some more blues guitar works. Or if your really feeling like a fun time look up some neo-classical metal/shred guitar guitarists.

[metalheadjessus]

Thanks guys, I'll definitely check out your suggestions Thanks again.

[Thomas_TGT]

Dude, as a musician myself, I know what it's like to hit a plateau. However, I find that most people who hit those plateaus tend to only play one or two different genres of music (ie, metal and punk... hardcore and pop punk, etc).

What you've gotta do is look at all sorts of styles. Maybe you haven't tried the classical or flamenco style of guitar, or maybe you haven't looked at jazz thoroughly.

The point is, as a musician, you have to try new things all the time. It's like working out, if you're used to doing the same exercises over and over again, your body gets used to it and won't progress any further. Good luck!

[Sincerely Yours ♥]

I took lessons for a while, but quit when I got bored. Whenever I get bored of guitar, I look up tabs for songs I'm obsessed with, so I can have fun playing them with the CD.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I would try some classical music, particularly stuff that's transcribed from piano or orchestras that uses finger-picking. Your fret hand gets a lot of training because you'll have to do many odd and uncommon chords, as well as working all along the neck. Finger-picking helps with playing with a pick because you have to precisely pick certain strings often while having others ringing out.

To also improve your pick hand, play a fast song while down-picking, such as Frantic by Metallica or Chop Suey by System of a Down. Also, play something very slow. I found that after I played many fast songs, it was harder to play songs slower. Korn has many slow songs (although they often use a 7-string guitar or 5-string bass).

Also, try some swing music and jazz or blues because it can be slow but also can use many big bends. Songs by Rammstein (doesn't really matter which one) can be very useful because their rhythm is incredibly solid and sometimes use odd time signatures. Most of their lyrics are in German so you may have trouble playing along with the song.

Always try new styles because they all relate with each other and each offer unique challenges.

Don't rely on online tabs as they can often be wrong, instead go to any music or book store and find the proper tabs for a band's album. Ideally, some tab books are a mix of bands. Guitar magazines can also be useful as not only do they have tabs but they have exercises throughout. I believe it's GuitarWorld that has a small section of "Betcha Can't Play This", which are meant to be difficult parts of a song or made-up riff. You can also find many of these sections on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkpZ645ztl0 (Chris Broderick)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqbR6...eature=related (John Petrucci)

This last one isn't part of the GuitarWorld series but it's still amazing to try to play to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1RypBww_g (Paul Gilbert)

[Illuminate]

I've only been playing for a little longer than a year, but I'd suggest mixing things up.

Maybe pick songs you like so it makes it more interesting and makes you more determined to learn the songs.
A tip that my guitar teacher gave me, was to learn little bits of the song, instead of trying to play it all at once so that you learn the shapes and patterns.

When I first started I played a lot of blues. It was actually really fun and sounds awesome

I hope this helps.
- Charli <3