i've kind of gone flat

[cream123]

what do you peoples do when you get into a creative rut. i can do some blues soloing and the occasional hard rock/ blues riffs. i kind of suck for playing for 3 years. lol :smack:. i lost my little recording program so you can't quite hear how much i suck quite yet but you'll hear soon enough. i'm currently working a delta blues song in an open tuning: DBDGAd, lowest to highest strings. but again what do you do as far as techniques. you might say i have low self esteem but i'm really not that good, i just learned the stairway to heaven solo :smack: i know it's generic but that song kicks so much arsse. i'm kind of happy now cause i proved to myself that i'm a versatile songwriter by writing a pretty b****in song on the piano. i've been in this rut for about forever! :smack: . i'll post some clips late may though, bring earplugs, it'll hurt

 

[seafoamer]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

weird. I've kind of gone sharp.

we should jam!

 

[Socrates]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

weird. I've kind of gone sharp.

we should jam!

roflmao

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

Try different scales, different modes, more theory, different effects, going out and listening to/watching other guitarists . . . it takes a while, but that usually gets me out of a rut . . .

 

[nuntius]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

Buy new music, and stuff you don't regularly listen to.

I bought a Nick Drake album a few weeks ago and it's given me a load of new inspiration for acoustic pieces. Just the other day I bought some Rage Against The Machine and now I've got a load of funky riffs to draw influence from.

 

[wickedmartini]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

I agree with Nuntius. Do something different. Listen to something different. It doesn't have to be a guitar player either. Listen to the phrasing of a good sax player. Go to an art gallery. Check out a good band. Listen to a genre of music that wouldn't normally listen to. Drink too much whiskey. Get a bikini wax. Cheat on your taxes. Jam with Seafoamer--Cuz mathematically I think you guys would be in tune.

Have fun!

 

[Osensei]

Re: i've kind of gone flat

I don't know if this is your problem or not, but I remember when I joined the University jazz ensemble many, many, many moons ago! LOL! My problem was that I had gotten used to playing the Rock jams of that day. When I found myself facing a jazz repetoire I was quite lost. My problem was that I did not understand the difference between styles and was simply drawing on accumulated knowledge at the time.

This brings me to a point uttered by Pat Metheny once. He said that the most important thing for a guitar player to posses is a sense of time. In English, I interpret that to mean that every genre of music has its own groove. To effectively play a given style of music you must understand which are the elements of the genre that make it groove. This implies an intensive study of the rythmic charateristics of that styles phrasiolgy (the effective use of time). Furthermore, this implies not only a lot of listening and more importantly playing but also acquiring a deeper understanding of how the melodies and rythms of the genre are constructed.

Moreover, this also means more theory, form and analysis and trying to acquire just about any tool you can discover to add to your arsenol.