Good ways to break out of a rut?

bynapkinart

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I was playing around this weekend and have felt kind of stuck in the same mode for a while...I find myself noodling around on the same old things on both uke and guitar. On Saturday however, I discovered this list of 99 random songs on Ukutabs: https://ukutabs.com/top-tabs/99-random/

I swear I spent about 3-4 hours each day this weekend working my way through songs on the list, refreshing the 99 songs and finding the 8-10 or so per round that I really enjoyed listening to and thought I could tackle in my range. It totally broke up my complacency and I feel really empowered to learn more!

What have you all used to shake up your routine and break out of a rut?
 
I’m quite fond of The Daily Ukulele books for the same reason: plenty of songs and levels of difficulty to keep me playing something new all the time.

And it has been mentioned in other threads, but Daniel Ward’s Arpeggio Meditations is a nice way to play around.

And then there is practicing scale patterns. Or try writing the tab for a song to learn it better. The list goes on!

I was originally a trumpet player, and there are some great practice exercises (Clarke, Arban, Schlossberg to name a few) that I’ve been working on transcribing for practicing on the ukulele.
 
Prior to joining a few uke groups, I used to play along to a variety of music styles. Main reason is that I'm lazy & hate to practice.

They included: Frank Sinatra, James taylor, Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Stevie wonder, led zep, Larry Carlton, elton John, Gwen Stefani, Christine Aguilera, billy idol, nirvana, eagles, hall & oates, arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Joe Tex, Sam & dave, Moby grape, america, the zombies, the fixx & lots of others. Helps with adjusting your playing style to match the music.
 
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You can find a million more lyric sheets of better quality on: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ (just look for the highest rated version). Copy/paste makes it really easy to create material on the web. Just sayin'... (Full Ukutabs politics here.)

For me, I've always been most inspired by fresh musical ideas as far from my "norm" as possible. This usually ends up being guitar material in my case. Lesson DVDs from the Hotlicks series are fabulous. I'd also recommend jamming along to recordings. Just noodle. Figure out the melody, the chords, a solo, etc... Great ear training and hard work that's 100% worth it.

I wrote about this a bunch of years ago. Might be interesting, but it probably is in desperate need of a refresh: https://liveukulele.com/lessons/soul/finding-inspiration/.
 
I was originally a trumpet player, and there are some great practice exercises (Clarke, Arban, Schlossberg to name a few) that I’ve been working on transcribing for practicing on the ukulele.

You just made me realize I don't think I'll ever be able to play my old flute exercises on ukulele. Certainly not at the tempo I played them. And here I thought I was becoming adequate.
 
For me, the weekly Seasons of the Ukulele challenge is a good incitement to learn new songs.

I dont thing I could play through 99 random chord sheets. Dont have the time. And the time I have, I prefer to spend on songs I know I want to learn.
 
You just made me realize I don't think I'll ever be able to play my old flute exercises on ukulele. Certainly not at the tempo I played them. And here I thought I was becoming adequate.

My goal in my musical life has been to learn the trumpet solo for The Carnival of Venice, on whatever instrument I can. Something tells me I may never get there, but goals are important.

Here’s one of my trumpet idols, Sergi Nakariakov, playing the socks of this fun tune (Wynton Marsalis has a great recording of it too):


At least I’ve given up on the impossible: playing Paganini’s ‘Moto Perpetuo’ for violin on the trumpet! Nothing on the trumpet is impossible for Wynton Marsalis, though!
 
I joined a band. It got me playing a lot more pop, funk and disco than I ever would have, and performing publicly, sometimes paid, makes me practice more.
 
I'm constantly freshening up my playlist for different gigs or busking. I listen to my Google music and I like to listen to some pretty obscure artists. I hear songs that I like, I put them in my notes, and when I get home I try to find them on the internet. Most always I find the lyrics, sometimes I find the chords, or if not, I figure them out, then sing it for a week or so to see if the new song fits into my repertoire. That all keeps me pretty busy and it allows for a bit of flow. My playlists are pretty specific to what I'm doing, so usually if I add a song I'll drop a song.
 
Buy

A

New

Uke

:)
 
Buy

A

New

Uke

:)

I like this suggestion. :)

Sometimes I'm in a rut because there is too much else going on in life. I don't worry about being in a rut then, but just enjoy whatever I'm playing, since I still try to play at least a little every day. It's a fun hobby for me, so if I coast at times, that's fine, if I'm still enjoying it.

Usually, once life settles back down, I get back to learning new things. If not, a bit of time on YouTube usually helps me find something that I want to learn. But, I currently have a big stack of things to learn, and just need the time, (and skills), to get to it.
 
Check out iReal Pro software. It's helped me enormously while working on learning how to solo generally, and planning beforehand how to solo on specific tunes, and practicing soloing or comping in different keys or tempos.
 
Not sure. I’m in one right now... learning country guitar right now And feel like a total noob. Haven’t made beautiful music yet with the guitar and When i pick up the uke I feel like my skills deteriorated.
 
Joining a group or playing with others will definitely get you out of a rut cuz everybody has different tastes in music. You'll end up playing some stuff that you'd normally never play.
 
Yeah, buying a new uke is fun and all, but never got me out of a rut - except my baritone because it was tuned different and encouraged me to learn some new songs.
 
Sometimes it’s a fresh song that will get me out of a rut. Other times, I look at a song I already play and look for ways to embellish it. I will look at a few different versions and see what has been done and figure out what I might do, like maybe a better intro, outro or some fills. I might noodle around and get a melody completely by ear and then solidly under my fingers, as a starting point for eventual soloing/improvising. Sometimes, I will just work on a technique that interests me, like tremolo or maybe work on a new lick.
 
I was playing around this weekend and have felt kind of stuck in the same mode for a while...I find myself noodling around on the same old things on both uke and guitar. On Saturday however, I discovered this list of 99 random songs on Ukutabs: https://ukutabs.com/top-tabs/99-random/

I swear I spent about 3-4 hours each day this weekend working my way through songs on the list, refreshing the 99 songs and finding the 8-10 or so per round that I really enjoyed listening to and thought I could tackle in my range. It totally broke up my complacency and I feel really empowered to learn more!

What have you all used to shake up your routine and break out of a rut?

Thanks. Most of the classes or uke jams near me just play old folk songs and Beatles. I've kind of just taken to pulling things off one of the guitar chord sites then trying to figure out a strumming or picking pattern.
 
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