Tonedef wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote:See Squonk's very interesting posting in the evolution thread - playing towards a goal helps a lot.
The difference is perhaps that the guitar was always a blip on his radar from a young age. Personally, I walked into a c-crusaders looking for a sub for the lightie's car, and walked out with a strat. The idea of being able to play has always been 'nice', but it was never on the radar. Not even a blip.
Sure. You touched on the subject of motivation earlier, and I think that's the key thing. Why do we do the things that we do and that are not our job? If you like playing the guitar as an activity and that satisfies you or helps you chillax or whatever then maybe that's enough motivation. You don't have to go on stage and blow Joe Satriani away. Having a specific aim helps you progress faster though. I know of players who have 40 careers who are still up to this - identifying an area of their technique that they need to improve, or just adding something they plain don't have (and none of them have it all).
The GFSA competitions have been quite helpful to me in this regard. I've nearly always found myself in a position where I can't quite play what I want to play, so I have to learn how to do that. And they always leave me a little unsatisfied because I listen to them and think things like "That would have sounded just a little better if I bent that note up a whole tone rather than sliding up two frets" and then I go and practice bends for a while.
Open mic nights were a help as well. The first couple I did I practiced hard because I didn't want to be sitting there in front of people trying to remember how the next line went or what the next chord was for even a millisecond. It had to be smooth. And it had to be in time. I found out that I could get away with a duff note, but let the tempo vary even a little and everybody would notice immediately.
So... it may be a case of identifying what your aims are. There's nothing WRONG with just playing the guitar by yourself for yourself.
In a way you need to take it easy. I hear all sorts of things in my head, things I have no chance of playing right now. When I do a GFSA entry I don't mind stretching, but it's got to be an achievable stretch, so I have to temper what I hear in my head and sort of manage the gap between what I can play and what I can imagine being played. If I didn't do that I'd just give up.
