What do you guys do when you hit a plateau?

[Ugly Nora]

Why not write a musical palindrome?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4GbaK22jjw[/youtube]

[GlitteryChunks]

I completely jump styles, pick up a different guitar, switch to bass for a while, play through a different amp, listen to different music. Really anything that will let me think outside of the box. When I record black metal albums I don't listen to black metal for months beforehand so that I'm not rehashing old ideas

Yeah, different instruments are good. One of my two basses is tuned so I can't play regular/easy chord shapes as easily. I feel like my ruts are more a realization that music is patterns. With a different tuning I can change the aesthetic experience and that way feel better about the sounds I'm hearing while also tricking my brain into thinking I'm playing something way cooler/harder than it actually is.

Or, just try to learn Motown.

[aen]

A different instrument is a GREAT idea. When I was doing this pop band thing last summer I started with 2 5 string guitars tuned to open G, and a new synth. I didn't end up using either one of the guitars on the recording or at shows, but it really kick started my creativity.

[Mudfuzz]

[quote="heartben"]I am just curious what you guys have done in the past when you get that "Man...I am not getting any better anymore" feeling.I have never gotten that feeling, but I am always listening to new music and trying to learn from it and improving what I do, it never ends

[jasonmitsch]

Tune in fifths and try to play your same old lines. You probably won't be able to and will find fun new things in the process

[wafl]

You could do segovia's exercises. This takes a bit of disciplines to get anything out of it though as you have to play them a lot and regularly.

http://www.classtab.org/segovia_scales.txt

[Gone Fission]

Change your focus to something different. Different playing technique, different musical style, different component of technique and style (if your lead is strong, work on your rhythm or vice versa).

Work on theory or component thereof. Modes, harmony, chord substitution. Filter something familiar through a bit of learning, like converting Metallica to major keys or moving something cheery and poppy to Phrygian mode.

Set up a guitar radically differently than what you're used to playing. If you're a big string guy, set up something with 9's or 8's, even. If you're a thin string guy, put some big flatwounds on. String a cheap acoustic with a Nashville tuning set (the octave strings from a twelve-string set). Mess with an alternative tuning, or go standard if you don't usually spend much time there.

Or just do a one-string change that messes with your patterns. Tune the G string down to F sharp. Or Tune the B to C and the high E to F so all the strings are in fourths. (For fourths, without doing neck setup, its sometimes easier to just drop the other four strings a half step so things start on E flat.)

[Corrected for me mixing up fourths and fifths. ]

[phantasmagorovich]

Or just do a one-string change that messes with your patterns. Tune the G string down to F sharp. Or Tune the B to C and the high E to F so all the strings are in fifths. (For fifths, without doing neck setup, its sometimes easier to just drop the other four strings a half step so things start on E flat.)

That is all fourths if I'm not mistaken.

I usually go with the plateau and suddenly something new will hit me from behind. Listening, studying, practicing and chalenging yourself (by changing the instrument/tuning etc.) all work pretty well too.

I think the best way to do it is to find someone new to jam with.

[Ghost Hip]

Find a band that you enjoy but have no clue what they are doing technically/melodically/etc. and figure it out.

[GardenoftheDead]

First of all there is no such thing as a plateau. "Plateaus" are the imagined lack of progress that happens before you start to notice a big leap in your ability.

[John]

Do you even lift, bro?

[Uncle Grandfather]

I find inspiration

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkgL7a59gms[/youtube]

[Bassus Sanguinis]

So many sound advices here it's hard to add to it but ...at one point I started to play along with the radio, adding leads and themes and riffs to what ever shit comes from there. And join other bands, learning songs written by persons You don't know may give You just enough push to make it interesting for You.

And, as said, try to come up with something that You haven't done before but always wanted. Especially if resigning from old bands is an option. That's what I did when family life got on the way and I didn't have time anymore to practice shredding and stuff for my old bands to keep up with them for shows.

Learning curves go up an down, for everyone, and there comes times that shit just doesn't seem to get anywhere. It happens to everybody, but try to approach it differently. it's only momentary. And though some tour extensively and have hardly time for extra rehearsals besides the everyday shows, many of us practice for most of time instead of rocking out in public. So if You're into playing and not just the sex 'n ' drugs 'n' rock 'n roll... that's exactly what one might herald as the crown of playing: practicing and learning. Think about the shows and studio time as more like ...public rehearsals.

Captain Beefheart can have the final word here. Break the rules if You're feeling a heretic or a schismatic protestant, and make better ones for Yourself. Have fun with the blasphemy.

Captain Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing

Beefheart 1. Listen to the birds.
That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

2. Your guitar is not really a guitar Your guitar is a divining rod.
Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.

3. Practice in front of a bush
Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush dosen't shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. Walk with the devil
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. If you're guilty of thinking, you're out
If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone
Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. Always carry a church key
That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty-making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.

8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument
You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. Keep your guitar in a dark place
When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

10. You gotta have a hood for your engine
Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

[dubkitty]

usually roll off the other side.

[jfrey]

Start back at easy stuff, make sure your fundamentals are good, work your way slowly back up until you're playing stuff that's more difficult than your current skill level.