How do you experience learning-plateaus?

Playing Technique
#1

I know learning comes in stages and having frustrating periods where it feels as if you are actually regressing is normal.

However, there is one aspect of my personal development curve which makes me a bit paranoid: My regress-phases seem to be pretty long. Like a week or two.
I usually feel like i am making some progress, and my playing is better than it used to be a year ago. Then i apparently forget something which usually makes my technique work and i stumble back into these periods where i sound like a beginner attempting to play advanced stuff. I have to be careful not to let this affect my mood during these times. I often reemerge from these phases after short breaks, as if i forget whatever i did during the weeks before which fucked up my technique and i continue with the hopefully better memorized good habits.

Can you relate? How long do your regress-phases last and how do you get out of them?

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#2

To me it ALL comes down to FOCUS.

Well, that and actually “learning how to learn”…in other words how to actually practice to get better at something.

So like earlier this year I really got into Claus Levins vids and later ran across the book by Chaun Chang about piano practice but it translates well to guitar.

http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.15

So I narrowed my focus into single string Yngwie stuff and then a bit later more 3nps type stuff.

Long story short I got the Paul Gilbert lick wired pretty tight after sucking at it (gave up actually) for many years

But for the last month or so I have been in a type of a plateau where my playing is better than ever and in a way i feel i can learn almost anything now…but im not FOCUSED on anything. So Im sort of treading water

Life has a way of getting in the way of hobbies. Until I get my mind right on a direction to focus into, ill probably tread water or even, gasp, go slightly backwards

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#3

Thx for the article, it was very interesting!

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#4

that book has some real nuggets and I think it touches on the main points of “how to practice”. for my money “how to practice” totally trumps everything else including pick slanting or any other technique.

Think about it, Yngwie, Vinnie, Eddie, Greg Howe, Paul G…they didnt know pick slanting per se or even what they were technically doing half the time but obviously they somehow knew how to “get better.”

Most of them got the bulk of their skills in 2-3 years. Thats strong when u let that sink in.

The age old question “should I practice fast or slow” is addressed and its not a yes or no answer. Its about feeling ones way to better technique and then trusting the central nervous system to groove things using basic human adaptation.

We have a huge advantage over all of those guys since we DO have a better idea of how the pick actually should move. We arent totally searching in the dark

yet and still, even WITH pick slanting insights etc, if we practice sloppy and unfocused we will BE sloppy and unfocused.

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#6

Truly an amazing ressource. Its on my reading list !
Its a fine move that the author put the book online, otherwise many non-pianists might have shied away from it.
thx again

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#7

id say planning and strategy could come into play a bit as far as long term development.

if u think about a beginner in the gym, ANYTHING he does will bring improvement. But if you fast forward to an elite Olympic athlete, he is trying to peak his skills for exactly one race or event. Everything has to be perfect.

I think with us it is similar. As newbs we will just get better by having the guitar in our hands. But that stops after a while and if we have bad practice habits we actually just groove those bad habits.

So assuming we arent being sloppy to start with…how do we set up our long term development? A little planning or strategy goes a long way. But really its just about being aware of your overall strengths etc.

Like with me, after sucking at the Paul Gilbert lick for years, and scalar licks in general, I decided I was going to master 3nps type playing etc. that was starting around Dec 18/Jan 19ish. Well low and behold I actually made great progress by first following some of Claus Levins advice and then using that book a bit.

So then as i starting thinking about my abilities, I realized i still sucked really bad at any fast 2nps pent type stuff. I mean if I was a 7 or 8 on 3nps stuff i was about a 3-4 on 2nps. So I started trying to work on it. It just felt horrible. I mean my dwps 2nps was atrocious. My uwps was better but the left hand was way too slow to keep up with all the fast moving around

Then I realized i was using a totally different technique when I tried 2nps pent stuff.

I remembered that I had this type of lick worked up fast for over 20 years…long before I was aware of slanting:

B—5–6--5-------------5–8--5-----------
G--------------7–5--7-------------7–5--7 loop sextuplets

It didnt enter my mind that i already had that 2nps speed worked up. The “pent” stuff was giving my a mental roadblock

Well id do that with very minimal slanting. Yet when I tried to play fast 2nps pent stuff i was using way more slanting for some reason. It just wasnt working so I started keeping the pick way flatter and using more of a tracking motion.

Well that would be a type of process explained in that book where one is feeling their way to better technique and not just flailing away at something that obviously doesnt feel like it has much potential for speed

So amazingly my pent stuff has actually improved. Its still not where my 3nps is but its way better than it was.

So now im looking at my sucky 2 string arps, specifically DDU type stuff like this:

E-------5–8----5–8 etc
B----6--------6------

Will my 3nps and 2nps slightly regress if I really focus on 2 string arps for a month?? maybe, but only a tiny bit. Its way easier to maintain and bring back up skills as opposed to initially burning them in

But the athlete analogy still applies. Once we are somewhat advanced, “just playing” might not be enough to make improvements or even hold on to what we already have. There needs to be some focus applied

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