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Tips and Tricks,

Guitar Playing and the Brave New World

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Posted by: Source Audio | Posted in: Tips and Tricks,

I remember reading an interview with Jeff Beck in a Guitar Player Magazine a number of decades ago - and the jubject of finding oneself in a musical "rut" came up. I think Jeff replied that you have to "just play yourself out of them", or something to that notion. But I'd like to analyze that idea a bit further.

What exactly is a "rut"?

My definition of that would be the lack of new ideas in your playing.

OK, that is unavoidable - it is a given. Sometimes we are bursting with ideas, sometimes not - regardless of outside inspiration and stimulus.

How exactly do we "play ourselves out of it"?

That's the difficult part. Why?

Because it's up to us.

We woke up in a ditch, with no sunlight, and we have to climb out an inch at a time. We can't just start flailing - that's what got us there in the first place. We need something new.

One thechnique that I have been fond of for decades is simply putting the guitar in a different tuning - and making it a completely different instrument. I can't think of how many cool and exciting chord progressions I have come up with from this simple and effective idea.

Another idea is new sounds - either with standard tuning, or your own tuning creation. Different sounding guitars, amplifiers and/or effects, when used over a tune that is familiar to you, can steer your mind and playing into a new direction. Think of it as walking home using different streets - via Cairo or 18th century London. I was stuck on a chord progression - I just could not come up with a melody line that I was happy with - I knew I had to throw myself into the "kindergarden sandbox" and make myself a beginner. I ended up plugging my guitar into the Hot Hand, and then into my Line 6 Tone Port, and by the end of an hour, I had a bright shiny new melody for the verse of my tune.

Realizing that we are "stuck without ideas" is a humbling experience - but, make it your ally. Become a beginner again.

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