http://www.guitarspeed.com/

It's been working for me.
It's not a gimmick, just a "this is your current stats, these exercises will help you improve, check back to your stats over time to see if you have"

There is no easy way, but i recommend recording yourself. Do this and identify where you falling short in your playing. Then work on those areas. After say 1 month, re-listen to your recording and you will hear the difference. From the recording, you can then hear if you too repetitive in your playing, or if you not expressing yourself around the entire neck, or maybe you using too much on one technique etc etc. There many criterias that you could want to improve in. It is only in your opinion of course. I might listen to your recording and think your playing everything great.

I think you will be surprised at the progress you make when listening to the old stuff. Well, that my opinion ?

http://www.guitarspeed.com/

Sounds interesting, will check it out.

JK wrote: There is no easy way, but i recommend recording yourself. Do this and identify where you falling short in your playing. Then work on those areas. After say 1 month, re-listen to your recording and you will hear the difference. From the recording, you can then hear if you too repetitive in your playing, or if you not expressing yourself around the entire neck, or maybe you using too much on one technique etc etc. There many criterias that you could want to improve in. It is only in your opinion of course. I might listen to your recording and think your playing everything great.

I think you will be surprised at the progress you make when listening to the old stuff. Well, that my opinion ?

Excellent advice! Nothing can whip you into shape as quickly as hearing JUST how bad you really are ?

+1 so many musicians that come in my studio shit themselves when they realise they can't actually really keep time as well as they thought they could.

Lacuna ZA wrote: I'm sure this is a topic that has been discussed to death by every guitar player ever, so apologies ?

But still, how do you measure your improvement compared to the time invested? I've calculated that I've done like 240 hours (+-) and yet... I'm still not even close to a level that I find competent.

How did you guys deal with the "I'm not making enough progress" - blues?

First thing to understand is that there's no numbers. You can't score your playing or anybody else's. There's no absolute measure by which you can compare yourself to another player or to yourself a month ago.

Second thing is that if you're practicing then it's very unlikely that you're getting worse.

I don't believe there's a substitute for practice. Dig around into the history of whoever it is you admire as a player and you'll find they did not emerge fully formed but put in loads of practice somewhere along the line. The young Eric Clapton used to shut himself away and practice a lick for a weekend. (the only exception to this rule is Alan Ratcliffe - but I think he might be an alien).

It was suggested that you record yourself. My method is similar, though not as exact. Given that there are no numbers in this game you must still have a way of roughly ranking guitarists no? For me there's a large element of "I don't know too many guys who can play THAT". You can apply this to yourself too - listen to yourself and you'll hear new things (to you) that you couldn't play at some earlier time. So you're improving.

"By how much?" and "sufficiently?" are hard to answer. I would think that few of us really think we are at the level we want to be. Some will progress quicker than others - that's life. I probably started too old. If I'd given it a good go when I was 13 or so then I'd have had less distractions (who cares about that school stuff?) and, I believe, the young brain can take on new things far quicker. But I am improving.

One variable for me is how well I organise my practice. If I just sit down with the TV on an noodle away then that might be good for the callouses on my finger tips but not much else. If I practice with a specific focus then the improvements arrive a lot quicker.

Oh... and I don't think improvement is linear, I think it's in steps. Sometimes you slog away at a thing for a while and then it all comes together suddenly.

I fully agree with the advice to record yourself. It might be very demotivating hearing it at first but it will point out what you need to work on. One pitfall with achieving definite goals before you can pat yourself on the back as being better, is that you might miss other areas where you have grown. The other day I was working on a difficult piece and there was one quick run that I could not master. My picking hand was the issue and still is by the way. I got so frustrated that I completely forgot that I could play the rest of the section perfectly.
You will never be at the level you want to be because as you progress your criteria for what is good will also progress. But with patience and the knowledge that this is not a race to win first prise one can actually enjoy the ride.
I know that I have progressed when I start feeling comfortable playing things that usually required lots of concentration. That lick or scale that always had you fumbling just rolls of your fingers one day without taking any dedicated focus or concentration - and even the timing was perfect. Wow, how did that happen!!

I fully agree with the advice to record yourself. It might be very demotivating hearing it at first but it will point out what you need to work on.

Very true! For years, I've been jamming along with CD's, and the human brain is a strange thing...it's easy to imagine you sound good with David Gilmour as backup guitarist... ?...until I got some backtracks of the same songs without DG's guitars. I then realised that jamming along with CD's is just one step up from playing air guitar! When I started recording my own playing - only recently - I instantly realised many shortcomings, so much so that I'm beginning to make plans to go for beginners lessons and start right over...

[Rene, you willing to try and get blood from a stone?]

You will never be at the level you want to be because as you progress your criteria for what is good will also progress

Yep. My own playing is always instantly recognisable to myself, like my own cooking...in spite of my best efforts with both, there's always a little something that annoys me, and that makes it clear to me that "I did that and it's not entirely what I had in mind"

Something that I've found usefull after spending a long time STRUGGELING on a difficult peice is to go back to something really simple and play it ever so well. Nothing like resting on your laurels for a while. As for steps forward, soon you'll be looking back and saying," Gee, was I stuck there?".