Decided to deconstruct my playing. Back to start.

[Jamie]

I personally have lots of problems playing with other people and find them annoying most of the time, it's not worth playing with other people just for the sake of it. They need to respect you and it can be a big problem, if you aren't on the same wavelength or have the same goals from the start then it's pointless. You should give bands a try but from my experience it's never easy.

Mate....... thats just far too negative! 

Maybe so, but I see where he is coming from. Playing in a band helped my playing more than anything else did. However due to a clash of  musical opinions and character, most of the time I would leave practice frustrated, and it would even put me off practicing on my own. In fact I didn't pick up my guitar for 3 years after leaving the band I was that fed up.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I personally have lots of problems playing with other people and find them annoying most of the time, it's not worth playing with other people just for the sake of it. They need to respect you and it can be a big problem, if you aren't on the same wavelength or have the same goals from the start then it's pointless. You should give bands a try but from my experience it's never easy.

Mate....... thats just far too negative! 

It wasn't ALL bad it's just not all good either.

[GuitarIv]

I found working in a band context hard, at least regarding personalities some people have. In my old band we were working like a machine (get everything written down in Guitar Pro, send the files to everyone, practice 2 times before a gig and nail it) but in the end we fell apart because there was too much ego going on from everyone. Other times people were great characters but then again the skill wasn't there. I'd still rather have someone who's a nice person and can't play like a god than vice versa, because you can always improve your skills but if someones a dick, you rather hardly can change that. Maybe people found it hard to put up with me, I don't know :P

I also found that writing songs works better for me if I'm sitting at home on my own jamming to my own ideas and working without someone who's with me in the rehearsal room trying to work out something that works. I enjoy it when someone puts his ideas and input into a song I've written on my own or the other way round, however I can't do the "live writing" thing.

I rang up a mate of mine I used to go to school with, haven't seen him in a while and he's jamming regularly with some other schoolmates, mostly blues. I guess I will try to play some blues with em every once in a while, I found it to be one of the genres that work great if you just wanna relax and play, especially when the people you're playing with aren't a set line up of a band you're part with. Let's see how that works out :)

[JimmyMoorby]

Bands are hard work theres no doubt about it.

You can be a good/amazing bedroom guitarist and enjoy it for what it is and enjoy playing the guitar at home but the reality is to push you self you need to play with other musicians which is hard or some times outright impossible.

You can gain experience/ability from playing with people who are brilliant musicians/better than you and even people who frankly arent as good as you and that makes you up your game too to carry them (Unless they really are that $%&#ing bad.....).   If youre really lucky youll find people that compliment your playing or even make you sound better too.

 

[richard]

Richard: I can pretty much, although I must confess I have to learn more licks from other players to incorporate them into my own playing. I know the notes and scales I can use and have "stolen" quite an amount of licks, however I'm practicing right now on the "less notes, more impact" approach, to let everything breath, more feeling less thinking. One thing I'd really like to learn is how to switch keys so I can solo on my own and the listener hears the shift from say A to D then to E back to A without a second guitar that's playing the chords for me. But I guess I will need to consult a teacher for this.

JDC: Thanks a ton mate, I will certainly order those. I like to use unforgiving equipment as well as to sweep on my bridge pickup so I clean up my playing, certainly helps you to benefit even more from "cheats" like a rubber band on the guitar to mute strings or the neck pickup for fluid stuff. Regarding the Meshuggah stuff, I guess I could use Guitar Pro as well to retune the song to my 6 String and practice speed.

Thanks, you all have been very helpful so far to push my ideas, cheers! :D

More feeling less thinking ? You have the room to think more when you play slowly. If you're looking at a Red House type 12 bar playing only a few notes really gives you the opportunity to consider which note to play next. I don't think that anyone that plays at Yngvie speeds is thinking about each note - that's why I find YJM so incredibly boring. You're just hearing patterns repeated over and over again. Nobody thinks that fast. Slow playing gives you the space to really consider how one interval sounds against another.

[JDC]

Most blues all sounds the same to me...

[GuitarIv]

I find blues to be great for playing with others, and yes the thinking part works, however I find it waaaay more fun to just let go and play whatever your fingers play without thinking (works fine when you memorize licks and scales or you had too much beer  :lol:). And yes blues can be repetitive but that's the art: playing without sounding the same all the time.

[witeter]

Nice sweeping man! i only started learning sweeping properly (and started with that same lick :-)this year and this is after about 15 years of playing lol; my motivation was to tackle techniques i hadnt been fussed in learning earlier on-as i mostly come from a metal rhythm background.

Dont be too harsh on yourself but certainly playing with other people will help. What i always found useful was learning things that interested me, be it a jazz song, a blues solo, metal riffs,etc. Try and play along to the material as well as you can and as you go along concentrate on the nuances. An example is Master of Puppets, ive come across so many people who say they can play the main riff-and yes they can play the notes but they dont really get it, they miss the attack, the details-and that imo is what makes the biggest difference in guitar playing (how you phrase a riff, lick, solo,etc)
Good luck man

[GuitarIv]

Cheers Chris!

Yeah man I noticed from your videos that you're a rhythm player, and a very good one as well. Metallica is all about downpicking, or rather Hetfield is all about downpicking. I was a sucker for them for over more than a year and had a certain phase I was going through, learning to play Master, Dyers Eve, Battery, Blackened and so on. All the stuff that's downpicked at 220 bpm and to the point where you think you're hand will fall off before you really master it to have the endurance to go through a whole song. So Metallica are a reason why I actually was able to develop my metal rhythm playing to a good point :D

Btw do you know the "live shite binge and purge" from Seattle 89? It's about the most kickass live stuff I have seen from them and for me they where at the zenith of their career:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciTGyLKPzg

This is even faster than on the album and all downpicking, still wonder how they were sooo good...

Btw hows your Sabre coming along? Christians work looks phenomenal :)

[witeter]

Cheers dude!
Of course! that whole album is insane, ive got the box with the vhs + cds,etc; love it, and yes they play stuff at beastly speeds-it really shows how with the adrenaline pumping through you can really do stuff that may be hard to recreate in a practice room,etc.
The sabre has started not that long ago, waiting for more updates and will then start a thread on it :-) needless to say i cantw ait, i think finish dae is early August, so not that long. Glad i got in early because their waiting list has grown to 5 months i think (which is still very good); i think they will properly explode onto the scene very very soon

[GuitarIv]

Yes, I'm pretty sure the waiting list will soon get to 2 years just like it did with Dylan from Daemoness, amazing instruments coming from the UK these days (not even mentioning the Blackmachine hype) :P

[Dave Sloven]

I'm very shy about my playing so having a teacher is actually a way of becoming comfortable about playing in front of other people (and making mistakes!)

My only comments here would be:

1. Metronome. Or, even better, find a good drummer to jam with.  You don't need a full band.  There are usually drummers out there who aren't in a band at a moment and are looking for a guitarist to jam with.
2. I use the same pick as you.  I find it works, plus it's easy to find at any guitar shop.  I've moved away from large picks just because the smaller one is better for alternate picking and when you get used to it you can do all that you used to do with the larger ones.
3. If you want a laugh watch the DVD that Nick Bowcott (Grim Reaper) made.  It's all about power chords and really basic, but good for a few laughs if you can pick it up cheap.
4. I have tons of guitar books but don't find them to be very useful. They are mainly for reducing anxiety about playing knowledge.  In practice I rarely refer to them.  A teacher is better.  It's good to have that other perspective on your playing.