Robotic Playing

I think this arises from the fact this is a pretty complex task for my brain and appendages to carry out at my age and guitar experience so most of the brain is going into performing the task and little brain capacity is left for creativity and feel.quote]

Nope. Dont chalk it up to brain capacity or experience. When in doubt, practice more and more and more.

I dont spend much time learing peoples songs but when I do, I always go through that "robotic" stage. It just means that you need to practice more. Lets say you practice the harmonic minor scale for a while. Youre not gonna be able to blast out into an emotional shred after a month or so of practice. First, your licks will sound bad, then robotic, then good. Get where im coming from?

Practice the song over and over. Practice until youre blue in the face. Eventually, you may even be able to play the song better than the original if you really dedicate yourself.

Be sure to incorporate some life into your playing by using, vibrato, pauses, emphasis on certain notes/strums...

Be sure to incorporate some life into your playing by using, vibrato, pauses, emphasis on certain notes/strums..

I agree totally, thats probably why you sound robotic.

it's all awkward at first.
remember when you were learning to ride a bike?

how do you ride now.

same thing.

Are you playing the same bass note each time? That can make a very boring robotic sound. If you are, try practicing changing the bass note on each beat or every other beat. Walk your bass note up and down with chord changes. When you switch from a G to a D chord don't keep thumping the E bass string, pick the A and D strings for your bass note. On a G chord pick the E and D strings. Move that bass note around, you'll hear a big difference.

Playing "robotic" is actually a very natural thing! When I'm recording an MP3 for any of the lessons and I am concentrating on getting every little part right, the MP3s sound forced and robotic. When I say to myself, "just play" and don't worry that there might be small mistakes here and there (the kind where people write and say "you didn't play the music exactly the way it's written in the notation or TAB") then it sounds more natural.

As you might expect, it takes practice to get comfortable. But it will come. Once you've gotten things down "robotically," then try playing around with it a bit. As LuvGilmour wrote, add a few touches.

Another thing to try is to not fill in all the spaces. Give yourself some breathing room. Lay off a bass note from time to time, either not playing it at all or replacing it with a strum or two. Substitute a single downstroke for a "down and up" or vice versa. Shake things up a bit.

The more you play, the more you'll develop the "feel" of playing. Hang in there! It sounds like you've got the hard part behind you.

Peace

Timing and phrasing improve with one's ear, as well as playing. The first step is realizing what it is about one's playing that doesn't sound organic. Hitting every strum and note on the beat with little variation is one of those things that sounds unnatural. When one learns to add synchopation (off beat accents), play grace notes, anticipate the beat (sometimes good, sometimes bad), change strumming on-the-fly and subtly alter rhythms so groups of the same notes (e.g. eighth note tripletts) are played with slightly different individual durations that add up to the same total, and more, a real sense of feeling will emerge in the music. In many cases, it becomes more "playful" sounding, but not in a sloppy way. Note how advanced players convey a sense of ease in their playing; and when the music sounds easy, people seem to catch the groove more easily and enjoy it. It all comes with listening and playing and listening. Start with robotic lock-step until you know the basic rhythm, then let natural instincts have a little fun with it. This won't happen right away, but is one of the important development processes for any musician.