Solitary musical death

When i first started playing, a friend who had been playing for a few years played with me quite a lot. But there came a gap of 5 or 6 months where he couldnt play with me, so to keep myself improving i just got lots of tabs and music and played my heart out all the free time i could get, fair enough i wasnt improving as fast as i had been before playing with my friend, but my technique was developing and skill developing aswell, just at a slightly slower rate!

My advice is to set aside an hour or two every day to practice your guitar. Whatever your main musical focus and style is, you would be better pracatcing that mainly, because in my experience, once you have that down on your own, not playing with anyone, your well on your way to playing a writing quality stuff in that style. But dont neglect the other styles, learning other styles and techniques can greatly improve your main focus as you can implement the new skills and techniques into your focus and make your style that you play your focus unique to yourself.

Hope i have helped. Happy Jammin'

Taking lessons will be the best thing for you. You will have something to keep you busy all week. Of course keep looking for other people to play with any chance you get.

I definitely know what you're talking about, Jerboa. There was a short time when I was fortunate enough to get together with a few musicians who pushed me musically and it was quite beautiful. Then came a period when I was playing with people who were as good or not quite as good as me. I felt sort of like I had to be the "band leader" and, while I don't think I grew too much musically, it was still musical interaction and it was good.

Now I find myself in a predicament similar to yours. I get to jam with friends once in a LONG while, but it's not the same as the steady growth enjoyed when solid blocks of time are spent playing challenging stuff together with others who are as good or better than you.

Taking lessons will be the best thing for you. You will have something to keep you busy all week. Of course keep looking for other people to play with any chance you get.

I think/hope you're right cnev. I think my problem is there is nothing to look forward to. No..."I have to get this song ready by Saturday" to keep me pushing the boundaries. I think the "I have to get this ready for my lesson" will take it's place very well. (fingers crossed).

I've been playing between 1-2 hours a night (put the kids to bed, put the headphones on), but with nothing to get ready for, there's no pressure to get anything ready....thus just fiddling around instead of practicing.

It isn't the lack of people to play with...it's the lack of chance to get together with them because of my schedule right now. :(

When I was first starting I was living in North Carolina put I had a slightly different problem, I didn't know anybody but had plenty of time, whatever the reason I didn't progress as fast as I should have if there is such a thing, I think alot of that is self imposed, there is no race but everyone wants to be able to play songs right away.

But even if your a proficient musician you still will want to play with others that's what it's all about. Otherwise it's like shooting foul shoots all the time and never playing a game of basketball.

How about jamming with yourself ? There are numerous cheap 4-track cassette recorders out there (under $100) that you can record something on and play along with (up to four times , more if you "bounce" tracks) . There is also computer based music generating programs that make use of midi (sequencers) that you can use to program any instrument you desire : drums , horns , strings , glockenspiels (not kidding) or anything else you can dream of . Although nothing beats the feeling of playing with a live person , it doesn't mean you can't play music if you are alone .