Author Topic: Overplaying (Read 10972 times)

willo · « **on:** January 15, 2006, 10:11:52 PM »

Hi all, looking for some advice about playing guitar. Well, not the actual technical side of playing guitar, but more about my mind. Basically, I have seem to have developed a fault - I frequently find myself overplaying when the song doesn't demand it. I either play some kind of slow bluesy type thing, or I'm whizzing all up and down the neck...I can't seem to find the middle ground. And this is despite the fact that I generally dislike players who overplay all the time!

It's like it's some kind of 'mental block', or something, when my brain is just like 'fast...faster...FASTER!!!' and all these ideas are whizzing around, but instead of calming down and playing something that actually means something, I'm just shooting all over the place. Sometimes, it sounds great...sometimes, though, it obviously doesn't.

I know that's a pretty lame description, but I'm struggling to get my head around it too. It's almost as if I'm constantly trying to prove myself - this could be channelled into a really good thing, but sometimes it's not that great. For instance, at an audition this band were like, 'Let's jam over some Curtis Mayfield'. I'm not a great guitarist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have enough chops to handle most rock, blues, metal stuff, and I know my theory enough, and have enough ideas in my head, to easily be able to jam and construct something melodic over a slow jam in 4/4. Instead, I chose to play in a 3/4 polyrhythm :? Of course, when I got home, I thought it was kinda funny, and I still think it was to some degree, but this is costing me...I feel a bit like I'm a fraud, playing from my 'ego' rather than my 'soul', and I'm sure, absolutely certain, that it is costing me my creativity, and opportunities with bands.

Sorry for the length of waffle, I was just wondering if any here has any similar experiences, or any advice?

indysmith · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:24:57 PM »

Ego-playing is a big problem with a lot of my friends, and a LOT of shredders (that syndrome wen yu go to a jam and everyone's playing different things as fast as they can for ages - _TOM_ you know what i'm talking about

) . I guess everyone slips into it every once in a while; the way i stop myself from doing is really just stopping and thinking what sounds good, and what i want my playing to sound like, what i'm feeling, and really try to express that through the guitar, forget about anything else, just concentrate on what sounds good and what feels right at the time.

Its all a mentality thing and i feel like a bit of a mindless dope telling yu this stuff like its right, when its not; its just one players approach.
Sorry for my uselessness :lol: - its a hard one to tackle. i guess yu jsut need to stop thinking, let go... let it roll. the thing is - whenever i do this i always just start playing funk :P

_tom_ · « **Reply #2 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:38:41 PM »

Quote from: indysmith

Ego-playing is a big problem with a lot of my friends, and a LOT of shredders (that syndrome wen yu go to a jam and everyone's playing different things as fast as they can for ages - _TOM_ you know what i'm talking about )

Its the most annoying thing EVER! When people start doing that I put my guitar down and sit down and ignore them till they shut up :lol:

I hate it when I play something and I know it sounds cr@p. I just stop for a bit and think something through in my head and do my best to make it come through on guitar!

jt · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2006, 03:16:11 AM »

:D Welcome to the club !! :twisted:

This is perhaps the most problematic situation ALL guitarists face......
I wish willo i could give you a simple answer but i can`t. It`s called developing a " Vocabulary" it`s beyond dout the hardest part of being a player.......
I`ve been playing now for over 20yrs mate & i still don`t have one !!! :twisted:
I`ve found that for me the easiest way is to try & find a melody to play. This is what great players like Lukather & Schon do, it`s worked all right for them ! :P
But even now i find myself "Speed" playing through every thing. It`s also a smoke screen to help hide the fact that most players don`t have much of a "Vocabulary"......If you play fast it`ll impress the band your auditioning for kinda theory....This is why i prefer to Pre-work out my solos rather than Jam them.

:D 8)

38thBeatle · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2006, 07:37:39 AM »

The advice I was given, which seems to hold true, is to equate what you are playing to a conversation ( or perhaps a monologue if you are playing a solo) and make sure that what you are saying is relevant, not too longwinded and isn't a gabble of meaningless words that are there just for the sake of filling space. Now if I could actually do it that would be a fine thing but I live in hope.

bucketshred · « **Reply #5 on:** January 16, 2006, 08:43:57 AM »

Speed isn't a problem for me, I can play as slow or as fast as I like, its just moving around the neck and getting out of the pentatonic boxes :(

Andy!

HJM · « **Reply #6 on:** January 16, 2006, 11:10:00 AM »

Listen to Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, oh and Warren Haynes.

Elliot · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2006, 12:12:44 PM »

Year ago I was told by an Irish sessions fiddle player that he dreaded new guitarists turning up to the session as they couldn't follow key changes and wanted to play long solos all the time when it was the fiddler's turn or the melodian players turn. He said if you think you are in a band you have to think as one unit rather than as showing your'e the best and most technically proficient. Maybe that attitude is correct.

I wouldn't know myself, as te last band I was in was 15 years ago and ended in fights and tears and me putting the guitar in a cupboard for 14 years :D

jimibt · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2006, 09:35:46 PM »

yep,

i'll second the vocab building approach to the playing. my background is a bit different to a lot of the guys here (i don't play fast - more of a vibrato player) insofaras i come from a reggae/funk/country mentality. in each of these genres, (apart from perhaps country :)), emphasis is placed on feel and space, rather than fill and pace. i'm not saying that i've nailed it in any way, just that i concur with the building up of the vocabulary argument (i sometimes liken it to the same ways that in kung-fu, the same basic moves are combined to form 'super moves' - meaning that you perhaps only have 8-10 'original' figures but combine and mix them to suit the demands of the section that you are dealing with).

i'm sure that all sounds very farty but it works for me ;)

Bainzy · « **Reply #9 on:** January 17, 2006, 05:59:43 PM »

Just have a few drinks before you play or something - if you loosen up and relax you start to get a feel for the music more.

indysmith · « **Reply #10 on:** January 17, 2006, 07:03:02 PM »

Quote from: Bainzy

Just have a few drinks before you play or something - if you loosen up and relax you start to get a feel for the music more.

Not a bad idea there actually - i always play better drunk (well - to a point. not out of ur head, but merry)
+1 on that :D

Muso · « **Reply #11 on:** January 18, 2006, 12:56:44 PM »

I find it the total opposite about having a beer and playing, even if i have just 1 beer I find it almost impossible to play!

That overplaying thing I find it good to listen to and aspire to play like the shredders who don't overplay. For example Blues Saraceno, George Lynch, Marty Friedman are all very interesting players who rarely play 100 miles an hour. But if you listen to Michael angelo Batio, John Petrucci, Malmsteen and say Rusty Cooley (who is the worst case of this lol) youre gonna end up playing 3 not per string scales over and over, good luck!

The amazing Phil · « **Reply #12 on:** January 18, 2006, 03:51:51 PM »

I've always found myself wondering how long somebody plans to blast an endless stream of notes at a jam session before. I think some people don't practice when to *not* play, because a lot of their practice is un-accompanied, and they can't hear what's happening when they're not playing so it just sounds empty.

But I think like many things practice is the best thing for it.

rahnooo · « **Reply #13 on:** January 18, 2006, 05:15:52 PM »

Quote from: Muso

I find it the total opposite about having a beer and playing, even if i have just 1 beer I find it almost impossible to play!

I think this is really the case with most people, but the other effect of beer is that it makes you *think* you are playing better, even if you are not

indysmith · « **Reply #14 on:** January 18, 2006, 09:38:41 PM »

Quote from: rahnooo

Quote from: Muso
I find it the total opposite about having a beer and playing, even if i have just 1 beer I find it almost impossible to play!

I think this is really the case with most people, but the other effect of beer is that it makes you *think* you are playing better, even if you are not

hmm that would probably explain a few things :?