Molly wrote:
Sorry for the hijack. I too find it near impossible to break out of my usual patterns and habits. I sometimes just want to play something that looks so, so simple but because it's not within my usual 'template' my fingers won't play ball. Good on ya for managing it. Might open all sorts of doors.
I discussed this issue with my brother many years ago and we agreed, we train ourselves through repetition and by the very fact that we have our favourite licks and tricks, we can play those with ease, because we've been playing those, or the foundations of those, for years...
So you try and copy someone else, who does a neat, simple little fill or solo, but you can't do it, because the foundations aren't there. Bu the guitarist you're admiring has been playing that for years, he has it beaten into his brain, especially if he's one of those oddly dedicated types that practices for hours a day.
My last guitar teacher (shredder type) said something to me that made sense, he reckoned he could teach me a new lick and I should be able to play it within a week or so, but it would take a year for it to become second-nature enough for that lick to be part of my "peel it off at an instant, throw it into any solo" bag of tricks. I finid the more simple stuff takes more like a few months, but I swipped an Andy Timmons lick off youtube over a year ago and only now it's something I can play without thinking.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll spend thousands on fishing equipment he'll use for a bit, then get bored and move onto something else.
