You have a bit of time, you pick up the guitar—and you play the same old licks, riffs and scales.
If this happens to you, you’ve probably reached a plateau—and maybe not the kind where Richie Sambora is excitingly shooting notes into the sky.
If you think you've hit a plateau, you’ve probably climbed a long way to reach it—and you should be commended for that. But as humans, we are rarely satisfied with our current situation, especially when looking at other shredders’ YouTube videos (especially when those shredders are 10 years old). We feel there's more to the guitar than what we already know.
What can we do about it? The first answer is obvious: learn something new—a new guitar solo, a new piece, a new genre. The choices are endless. However, what's missing here is a direction and/or a definable goal. We should have a goal that we can follow and break down into manageable steps.
Goals are personal, and I don't believe every guitarist should aspire to be a shredder. You just need to reach a level where you know your abilities—and the guitar’s abilities—well enough so you can convey various emotions as a musician.
Once you’re there, the next step is to find new sources of inspiration. If you're looking for inspiration, I hereby invite you to join my #CreativeGuitarChallenge, a daily month-long event on Instagram that starts March 1, 2017.
I hope I'll be able to challenge you in terms of how you conceive the guitar. It is open and FREE to all guitarists internationally—all levels, genres and guitar types welcome!
Follow Udi Glaser on Instagram and Twitter or via his website.
A video posted by Udi Guitar (@udiguitar) on Feb 6, 2017 at 9:01am PST
