# The Next Level



## Nohtanhoj (Jun 30, 2008)

It seems I've hit a standstill with my playing. I mostly play blues with some pop and jazz influences thrown in, a la John Mayer. At the beginning of my electric guitar career, I noticed vast improvements in terms of scale knowledge, application, and the general consonance of my playing. However, I can't seem to reach the next level that I'm looking for. Right now it seems I'm doing one of two things while playing: Either picking individual notes of the current chord for embellishment (ie. adding the major seventh to someone who's playing a standard 1-3-5 tone chord), or playing a lead/solo. I'm not satisfied.

I took lessons for a few months, trying to break this plateau, but the local teacher seems to only know stuff that I've practiced endlessly. For example, he went on for weeks teaching me a simple blues chord progression in Amin, playing around with minor 9th chords and the like. D= I know enough music theory to understand what people mean when they speak of intervals and harmonized scales, but I'm not crazily versed in theory.

For me, the "next level," would be the ability to combine the above things into one hybrid style. Meaning that I could play the chord or embellishment note, but then play a certain lick that fits not only the nature of the song, but the current chord that's being played. Basically, I always want to be playing something.

Any ideas that would help me break through? FYI, I don't really practice scales much, I just enjoy picking up new songs and learning through application. I can post some of my stuff, which is mostly jamming to a track, if you want to suggest some things...

Thanks, y'all.


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

this may be oversimplifying it - but for me - the exact problem (plateau) has been broken many times by hooking up with and playing with better players....I find it incredible how just listening and playing along side better players puts new "stuff" into my repertoire without even trying......osmosis I guess


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

Posting some of your jams would be helpful in terms of others here evaluating your playing. A great way to progress, is to listen to music. Both the music you love, and stuff you've not heard before. It's amazing how what your listening to finds it's way into your playing. Your goal is good one IMO, but will require some long hours of thoughtful practice. You'll need to get many chords and their inversions/substitutions under your belt to tie it all together with flowing single note lines. This will break the disconnect between chords and scales that many beginners and intermediate players have. Here's an example:


Amin7
----5---
----5---
----5---
----5---
x-------
----5---

This can be substituted for an Amin9 voiced in the upper register.

-------7--
--5-------
--5-------
--5-------
o---------
x---------

This shape is easier to move into single note passages than the above chord, especially if your playing uptempo. It keeps the mood or flavour of the Amin7 while taxing the fingers a lot less. Less thinking = more playing!!

Shawn :smile:


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## Nohtanhoj (Jun 30, 2008)

I can see how that would help, seeing that it fits into blues boxes much better. I'll record a jam tonight and post it here.


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## Samsquantch (Mar 5, 2009)

Transcribe, transcribe, transcribe! Ear training will help your playing more than anything else IMO. Throw away the tab books. Learning scales and arpeggios is all fine, but using them in context is where its at (without thinking "oh, I'm playing an Ab half diminished scale over a G7, I think I'll superimpose exotic modal arpeggios over the next 2 chords"). :rockon2:


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## canadian tyler (Jul 7, 2009)

Great advice posted here. 
Whenever I've hit a brick wall, I listen to something that I wouldn't normally listen to, and draw inspiration from that. 
Developing your ear is a great way to go. listening to something that you find unique and really gets the synapses firing, then figuring out how to play it tends push past those plateaus we all get stuck on.

Try new things, play with new people, make mistakes and learn from them. soon something will "Click" and you'll be off and running.

Good luck!!!


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## Nohtanhoj (Jun 30, 2008)

Since I don't know any other instruments, transcribing would be rather difficult... I'm not sure I get what you mean.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

lbrown1 said:


> this may be oversimplifying it - but for me - the exact problem (plateau) has been broken many times by hooking up with and playing with better players....I find it incredible how just listening and playing along side better players puts new "stuff" into my repertoire without even trying......osmosis I guess


This is great advice. Whenever I've reached a plateau, it has always been through playing with different (not necessarily better) players that I have been able to progress to the next level. Everyone has something to offer and just being around and playing with people who have different styles always seems to get me moving in a new direction. Good luck!


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## Samsquantch (Mar 5, 2009)

Nohtanhoj said:


> Since I don't know any other instruments, transcribing would be rather difficult... I'm not sure I get what you mean.


You don't need to know any other instruments, or how to read music necessarily. By transcribing, I mean figuring out guitar parts by ear rather than relying on standard notation or tablature. This will help your playing immensely. You don't have to write it down if you can remember the part easily, however if you are learning a song with a complicated guitar part, get a blank tab book from your local music shop and write it down that way.


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## Nohtanhoj (Jun 30, 2008)

Fair enough. I still haven't got around to posting my jam, but I will do it sometime tonight or tomorrow (I work odd hours).


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Get another (better) teacher. Explain to him/her EXACTLY what you want and where you want to go and how long you expect it to take you.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

try different genre's!

if you can rip blues, try some country on


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