What got you over plateaus?

[FrDNicholas]

I was just remembering hitting some plateaus in my playing, and thinking about what helped reach a new level. The first one I remember was learning to read music. That, of course opened up all kinds of music to play. The other thing I remember was switching from a guitar pick to a smaller, harder mandolin pick. That helped me over a hump in my playing. I'm sure there are other things; I just don't remember them. What have you all done to get past a plateau in your playing?

[Tbone]

Transcribe some breaks you really like.

Also, listen to a bunch of stuff. Eventually you'll find something that really gets you fired back up.

[Mike Snyder]

A new instrument, trying a new genre of music, a new bunch of people to jam with, a different type of strings, a week at Winfield which is total immersion in music. I'm always feeling a twinge when folks on cafe discuss camp. That's a thing I'd like to do. Instruction from a good teacher would probably send you upwards to brand new plateaus.

[Rob Gerety]

Learning to play mandolin.

[FrDNicholas]

That reminded me; I feel like switching to J75's from the 74s helped give me a new sound that encouraged me onward. Also, switching from a Gibson A4 to a Collings MT has made a difference as well.

[Elliot Luber]

When I get frustrated by lack of progress, I take a week or two break from mandolin and focus on guitar.

[Perry]

Being able to sit down to a metronome and play something solid in time for minutes at a time. After a while it becomes hypnotic...eventually even away from the metronome you start to "hear" the pulse in your mind's ear.

Also taking internet lessons from Compton and trying to mimic that constant right hand moving thing was a big "ear" opener for me and helped me get a bigger, more rhythmic sound on the the mandolin.

Yeah....being able to put down the mandolin once in a while and pick up another instrument (like the guitar) is a great thing.

[Loretta Callahan]

Practicing every day with no expectations. I wake up, make coffee and play my mandolin before I go to work. I was convinced I'd never learn to read music; my teacher suggested I read music for tunes I know. It only took 3 days. Now I can read music pretty well. The tabs now slow me down, so I ignore them. It's opened up a whole world of songs for me.

I'll second "learning to play mandolin". Huge plateau jump.

[Mike Snyder]

I'm working that "learn to read music" thing currently. Relearning, actually. Now that I think about it, it's an attempt to go to another level with music. I've started hanging with a crowd with the music stands and most everyone reads. Exellent musicians.
The Celtic/Contra vibe is much different from bluegrass. Do something new & different.

[SternART]

A double espresso and then trying to keep up with better players, and playing better than you thought you could............realizing maybe you already left that plateau behind. Nothing like great rhythm behind
you for some inspiration.

[Loretta Callahan]

I'm working that "learn to read music" thing currently. Relearning, actually. Now that I think about it, it's an attempt to go to another level with music. I've started hanging with a crowd with the music stands and most everyone reads. Exellent musicians.
The Celtic/Contra vibe is much different from bluegrass. Do something new & different.

Yes, the Celtic/Contra vibe is much different. I really like both kinds of music, a lot. One thing my daughter told me that helped the music reading is that it's really like another kind of tab. Also, I notice that reading the music has tricked me into not looking at my left hand much. Getting better at playing without looking.

[Mike Snyder]

I suppose I've never given tab a fair shake. It's just so ploddingly slow, for me. I'm staring to recover some long-ago, deeply buried facility for reading notation, and that's just not there for tab. Anyway, I'll have to be a fast reader to keep up with the Contra crowd. They fly through fast and low to the ground.

[Bertram Henze]

Stubbornly plodding along until I die or become a better player, whichever comes first

[jim_n_virginia]

when I start to get in a rut and not prgress the way I want all I have to do is go see some super talented picker or a great band and I can get reinspired.

Also nothing like getting the creative juices flowing again like a new instrument!

[Mike Snyder]

Got a new Gibson in your sights, Jim?

[Phil Goodson]

Plateaus are frustrating. Sometimes it's just my impatience and time is what's needed.
But the best thing for me is to find ONE thing that I can't do well on the mando (and I have a LONG list to choose from) and totally concentrate my efforts on learning to do that ONE SMALL THING for several days, or as long as it takes.
Then I go back and incorporate THAT NEW technique into some songs I already know. Spices things up a bit and new things seem to happen that I don't expect.
Just a thought.

[M.Marmot]

Stubbornly plodding along until I die or become a better player, whichever comes first

+1

[Randi Gormley]

Changing the way i hold the pick has allowed me to play faster; the speed thing has kept me about the same level for a while now (i play irish, so session speed is a must if i want to play with the big boys/girls)

[Steve Perry]

Nothing like great rhythm behind you for some inspiration.

Absolutely! I was once in a jam with a phenomenal Bass player. This guy is a human metronome. I didn't play anything different than I normally would in that jam, but everything I did play seemed effortless.

[Steve Perry]

The most memorable time for me came from a banjo player. Seriously! I was in a jam, on the outside of the circle, and just chopping rhythm. Never took a break during the tune, but at the end, I would fool around quietly playing some kind of break that would have fit. Eventually, the circle breaks up and the banjo player walks by me and says "You've got the stones, throw 'em" and keeps on walking. It took me awhile to realize what he meant from that. Finally, I realized that he meant that I could play well enough to be in the jam and to not be so shy. That little was a great little confidence booster that led to me playing even better.

[GRW3]

Spend some time on other things. If you are working for speed, for example, and you find yourself hitting a wall, spend some time working on pick technique fundamentals at 60-80 bpm. Make sure everything it right with your technique - how you hold the pick, how deep you strike, how you move across the strings, how well you keep the sound even up and down, etc. The wall may well be your inability to 'overcome' fundamental errors with talent. For any plateau issue you can find a similar structural issue to address.

Working on fundamentals is also a good way to deal with learning saturation. Maybe you just haven't had sufficient time to process your efforts into reliable to the point of unconcious hand control. Sometimes you just have to let nature take its course. Use that time to make progress in other areas, even if that is just the enjoyment of playing music for its own sake.

[journeybear]

Nothing. I'm there. Good as I'm gonna get. Can't get better, even if I try. So it's all about acceptance.

Well, OK, a long long time ago, I set up my PA and amp and all my equipment in my living room. When I came home from work, frustrated and p.o.'d, I'd have a beer or whatever, crank up the gear, and have at it for a while until I felt better. In the process I tweaked my sound (devices, settings, etc) to a point where I was able to just plug in and play. This freed my mind from fussing over this stuff so I could just play and let my creativity flow. I improved my playing, shortened the gap between thought and production, and wrote some good songs.

What some people have said about reading music and such can be a big help, but for me ... well, that was so long ago for me I don't count that as plateau-busting - it was an integral part of the learning process. Fumbling around with songbooks of some of my favorite bands and a book of mandolin chords, correlating all that information, that was the Rosetta stone for me. I wasn't far enough along before that to say I'd hit a plateau. I was still in the foothills.

I'm at a point now where I'm pretty happy with my ability; I just wish I would be playing more. Not necessarily gigging (well, yes) but just picking up the blesed thing and playing for fun. It does seem that when I do play, I'm pretty much as good as I was the last time, if I remember right. Maybe that's a plateau, I dunno. I like to think I'm at a level I'm pretty happy with, and tend to concentrate on other things - writing, arranging, posting - and also non-musical parts of my life, maybe too much. There is more to life than music - not necessarily more important or more fun or more fulfilling, just more.

Oh, hey, fruitbat! Looks like some dang ukee-laylee is upstaging your mandolin there. The upstart!

[Dan Johnson]

falling off the other side ... and listening to WDVX, Bill Monroe, and local cats who are way better than me

[jim_n_virginia]

Got a new Gibson in your sights, Jim?

I WISH!!!

[OldSausage]

One thing that helped me to improve a lot was learning to release my left hand's death grip on the neck. It's amazing how little pressure you really need to hold those strings down, even when you're picking hard and fast, but it took me years to develop enough control to ease off. I guess it's all part of generally improving your efficiency - I think that's where the biggest gains are to be made for most people, at least in terms of physical technique.