Stole the thread idea from another forum and made a post that a few people appreciated so i thought I'd post here.
Practice with a metonome most certainly isn't overrated but I agree with most of what Mikey has to say. Theory certainly isn't any harder on piano. Everything is exactly the same pattern in every single octave. Modal theory is a breeze as well and far easier to explain with a piano.
Try working on a new technique when you plateau. Work on string skipping, economy picking, sweeping, alternate picking. Practice different scales. I feel that all of this should be done with a metronome to instil a sense of timing and a base off of which to make rhythmic variation in your lines. It's not the metronme that controls your rhythmic variance but your imagination and creativity to play with it, against it and across it.
Take a break and listen to new music. Listen to old music you used to like. Learn a song start to finish. Not just a riff or lick but all the changes. Study why it works for your ears. Examine the interplay between the bass, rhythm and lead. Is the lead outling the chord, is it modal, is it forming an extended voicing.
Learn something not in your style.
Woodshed. Sometimes you just need to put in the time practicing boring shit. Think of it as weight lifting. You don't do it for a while, can't lift as much. Do you use weightlifting just to lift more weight? Sometimes. Most people use it for sport, appearance, strength. Same goes for technique. Speed is a tool, scales are a tool, gear is a tool, use them with discretion to achieve what YOU hear in your head.
Buy a new piece of gear. It can inspire. It may come to be your favourite gtr, amp, snare, kicks, pedals you will ever own. You may sell it in a week. The point is to absorb as much creativity and inspiration from it as possible. I have tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear. Some of it cost thousands, some pieces a few bucks. The price is irrelevant to the creative value it can have to you. They are tools like your technique and are to serve a purpose. Communication and expression.
A great Joe satriani exercise is to sit down, and for or minute, play a random note on the click of your metronome. Don't follow any rules, patterns, scales, arps. Just hit it clean and try not to repeat. Free yourself temporarily from everything you've learned. It's important to know the rules. Sometimes it's more important to know you can break them. And when. And how.
Listen to someone better than you with appreciation and modesty and humility. The biggest problem holding most people back is ignorance and arrogance, and most of them don't even know it. No matter how good you are there are thousands way better than you. Be your own worst critic!!!
Practice with a metonome most certainly isn't overrated but I agree with most of what Mikey has to say. Theory certainly isn't any harder on piano. Everything is exactly the same pattern in every single octave. Modal theory is a breeze as well and far easier to explain with a piano.
Try working on a new technique when you plateau. Work on string skipping, economy picking, sweeping, alternate picking. Practice different scales. I feel that all of this should be done with a metronome to instil a sense of timing and a base off of which to make rhythmic variation in your lines. It's not the metronme that controls your rhythmic variance but your imagination and creativity to play with it, against it and across it.
Take a break and listen to new music. Listen to old music you used to like. Learn a song start to finish. Not just a riff or lick but all the changes. Study why it works for your ears. Examine the interplay between the bass, rhythm and lead. Is the lead outling the chord, is it modal, is it forming an extended voicing.
Learn something not in your style.
Woodshed. Sometimes you just need to put in the time practicing boring shit. Think of it as weight lifting. You don't do it for a while, can't lift as much. Do you use weightlifting just to lift more weight? Sometimes. Most people use it for sport, appearance, strength. Same goes for technique. Speed is a tool, scales are a tool, gear is a tool, use them with discretion to achieve what YOU hear in your head.
Buy a new piece of gear. It can inspire. It may come to be your favourite gtr, amp, snare, kicks, pedals you will ever own. You may sell it in a week. The point is to absorb as much creativity and inspiration from it as possible. I have tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear. Some of it cost thousands, some pieces a few bucks. The price is irrelevant to the creative value it can have to you. They are tools like your technique and are to serve a purpose. Communication and expression.
A great Joe satriani exercise is to sit down, and for or minute, play a random note on the click of your metronome. Don't follow any rules, patterns, scales, arps. Just hit it clean and try not to repeat. Free yourself temporarily from everything you've learned. It's important to know the rules. Sometimes it's more important to know you can break them. And when. And how.
Listen to someone better than you with appreciation and modesty and humility. The biggest problem holding most people back is ignorance and arrogance, and most of them don't even know it. No matter how good you are there are thousands way better than you. Be your own worst critic!!!
