Motivation

[Mincer]

Re: Motivation

Go see live music. If you have some friends in bands, go hang out with them, and help them on a gig. Watching people dig what is being created (or performed) onstage is usually a big motivator. I realized how bad I was at most jobs I had in my 20s were, and if I wanted to avoid that, I'd better start getting better at my craft.

[2ndhandband]

Re: Motivation

I've been teaching guitar for 20+ years and here's what I think: to become a truly great player, motivation is simply not enough because it comes and goes. This is too damn hard for motivation to get you through. You have to be obsessed.

Try this. Break whatever it is you are trying to do into the smallest possible challenges. Don't try to play the whole chord progression... get this ONE CHORD CHANGE down perfectly. You have it absolutely mastered. It won't take you very long, and neither will the next challenge if you make it small enough. But every time you succeed at one of these tiny challenges your brain dumps endorphins into your bloodstream. Eventually you literally become addicted to practicing!

This, BTW, is EXACTLY why video games are so damn addictive. The constant reward system.

[undeadstrife]

Re: Motivation

I've been teaching guitar for 20+ years and here's what I think: to become a truly great player, motivation is simply not enough because it comes and goes. This is too damn hard for motivation to get you through. You have to be obsessed.

Try this. Break whatever it is you are trying to do into the smallest possible challenges. Don't try to play the whole chord progression... get this ONE CHORD CHANGE down perfectly. You have it absolutely mastered. It won't take you very long, and neither will the next challenge if you make it small enough. But every time you succeed at one of these tiny challenges your brain dumps endorphins into your bloodstream. Eventually you literally become addicted to practicing!

This, BTW, is EXACTLY why video games are so damn addictive. The constant reward system.

I am a huge gamer and that makes more sense to me. Do you guys have any suggestions on songs or techniques I could work on to help me get to that point?

[2ndhandband]

Re: Motivation

I am a huge gamer and that makes more sense to me. Do you guys have any suggestions on songs or techniques I could work on to help me get to that point?

It can be anything. Just break stuff down into it's smallest possible chunks. Don't try playing the whole solo... just make the first four notes sound AWESOME. And so on. Oh, and important practicing tip; can't emphasize this enough: if you are making mistakes you are practicing too fast. Period.

[Jacew]

Re: Motivation

Try to learn the simplests songs of your favourite bands, it usually works. When you will learn one you will rapidly see how awesome it is and you will want more

Didn't work for me. I really fell for guitar playing when I found classic blues songs, where you can just learn the base and start implement your own into it. Learning new songs is a chore for me even today. When I want to have fun with guitar, I either practice what I already know, or build and compose my own songs.

[Jacew]

Re: Motivation

It can be anything. Just break stuff down into it's smallest possible chunks. Don't try playing the whole solo... just make the first four notes sound AWESOME. And so on. Oh, and important practicing tip; can't emphasize this enough: if you are making mistakes you are practicing too fast. Period.

I don't completely agree. You should practice the song right from the beginning and take your time with it, not to rush things. But you sometimes should push your limits as well. Guitar playing is not really a skill you build piece by piece, when you practice enough, you'll have skill to become better. But you need to push yourself to actually improve. You're not going improve your playing in any reasonable time, if you only focus on clockwork practice.

Music is artwork. Not engineering.

[2ndhandband]

Re: Motivation

I don't completely agree. You should practice the song right from the beginning and take your time with it, not to rush things. But you sometimes should push your limits as well. Guitar playing is not really a skill you build piece by piece, when you practice enough, you'll have skill to become better. But you need to push yourself to actually improve. You're not going improve your playing in any reasonable time, if you only focus on clockwork practice.

Music is artwork. Not engineering.

I dunno... I remember being like 15 years old and wanting to play Over the Mountain by Ozzy Osbourne. Don't know why; I kinda hate that song now! Anyway, the solo was completely beyond me but I asked myself the following question: If I spend four hours a day for two weeks playing them over and over, can I have the first four notes up to speed? I knew even then that if you're making mistakes while practicing you're practicing mistakes so I came up with what I call the metronome game. Set the metronome for a ridiculously slow tempo; one at which you can't possibly screw up. Play for five minutes. Bump up the tempo by five clicks. Repeat. When you you make your first mistake, start over. But five clicks faster than you started last time.

I achieved my deadline.