Avoiding “The Wall” And Finding Inspiration
Getting over mental walls are the hardest challenges that I have had to overcome to improve my ‘ukulele playing. It seems you hit one every once in a while no matter how much you are improving or enjoying the music. Maybe for a beginner it goes like:
“Okay, I’ve learned the chords, now what?”
Or for the intermediate player it’s:
“Wow. I’ve learned picking to a bunch of cool songs, but it doesn’t seem like it’s getting me anywhere!”
And for the advanced it might be:
“I’ve come a long ways, but how do I set my playing apart?”
Most times the rut comes from the realization that you are repeating your playing (soloing the same way, not changing it up, etc) and not knowing what to practice next. In other words, you feel *stale*.
To avoid repeating what you play, try limiting yourself. Just play on one string. Or play specific rhythms (just 8th notes or swing 16ths, etc). Maybe force yourself to play melodies with intervals bigger than a 5th. Anything to mix it up. Don’t play what you know, play what you don’t know.
Knowing what to practice can be tough because there are hundreds of things to practice, but many are to complicated for the current moment. So you need to find the most relevant thing to practice. Try watching your favorite artists on Youtube and look for one thing they do that you think you could figure out (maybe a certain chord, or how they attack the strings, or a lick). Books like “The Advancing Guitarist” are great because they cover a wide range of things, some of which you will understand and some that you won’t. This means that as you improve you will always be seeing new relationships between things. Keep in mind the “The Advancing Guitarist” is for the advancing ‘ukulele player and isn’t a beginner book (but I do highly recommend it).
I’ve found it helpful to have a few ideas that will get me out of this rut. Here are a few of the things I do:
- Play with someone who is better than me, even if they play a different instrument. I watch their fingers, and try to remember at least one thing they do, so I can practice it later.
- Teach. It really makes you appreciate how far you’ve come and the students usually are in awe of what you consider your “just okay” playing.
- I listen to as much recorded music as I can (‘ukulele or not), and try to learn one thing from each song. That could be a cool chord change, interval or technique. I try to integrate these things into my playing.
- I try to play in other genres. People who say, “That kind of music sucks dude!” are way too one dimensional, and are missing out on a lot of great music opportunities. Listening to other genres gives me many ideas for my playing; the hard part is figuring it out!
- I watch (to the dismay of my family) concert videos (again and again) and watch the artist’s fingers. Just seeing how/what they play is enough to give me a few new ideas to practice. Some of the most inspiring for me are Santana, Jake Shimabukuro, Ledward Kaapana and Bob Brozman, Clapton Crossroads Guitar Fest DVDs, Eric Johnson, and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Youtube videos are also great (and free).
- Don’t listen to music for a while.
- Don’t play for a while.
- Read a heavy or epic book (“Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” are always favorites).
- Watch a heavy movie (“Inception” is good).
- Talk to somebody on the street you normally wouldn’t bother speaking to (within reason).
- Get in the ocean.
- Appreciate the little things in life.
- Basically anything to change your perspective. Even if it’s just one little thing, it might be enough to get you out of the rut. What is there to loose? You’ll expand your mind regardless.
Sometimes a “rut” will seem to last forever and I won’t want to pick up my ‘ukulele for weeks, but I just suck it up and run the scales or plod through a song. At least when I’m inspired again I will still have a feel for the instrument. But a break is still a good thing every once in a while.
