Stuck in another rut

Well I'm a lot better off since joining this site, that's for sure.. but now I am finding that I am stuck in another rut.. just a more advanced one than the standard pentatonic rut that most people get into. This rut is more of an idea/groove rut. I tend to wind up playing the same thing (or similar to the same thing) over just about every backing track I make up.

When I broke free of my previous rut I came up with a whole bunch of new ways of playing the same scales and little licks that sound good over various major, minor and 7th chord progressions but now I seem to be using those same ideas over and over again. I've had a little look around some of the lessons but I'm unsure which ones are really going to help as nothing has immediately jumped out at me..

What do other people do when they get stuck in a rut?

I get stuck in that one too, it's very frustrating. :mad: If I'm multitracking I'll try dropping the rhythm guitar track and just playing along to bass and drums or just bass or just drums.

Groove to a rap track. I'm serious. Half the battle, I think, isthat our listening is in such a little world that our ruts are pre-made. So, find some hip hop you can tolerate and start riffing it out to that.

I did that unknowingly back in about 90 when I was totally in a rut and I was noodling while watching MTV and LL Cool J cam on with 'Momma Said Knock You Out' and I totally started riffing it out to the songs in an almost bass groove kind of way. It was fun and I learned a lesson that my ruts are because I'm not stretching my horizons far enough at times.

It may not even be hip hop but you get the idea.

Hrmm.. yeh.. so find something that is not my usual form of music and just play along to it.. not necessarily to learn the song but just to get into a different groove or swing.. I used to do that too.. with Electronica and Classical music (playing distorted electric guitar hehe).. so maybe I need to go back to doing that with stuff different to my normal stuff..

Maybe it's more a state of mind. I play pretty similarly a lot of the time, but prefer to think of it as my voice or style.

If you're feeling like that, the rap track suggestion is a good one. I don't need to tell you that playing your 'standard' licks over a 5/4 rhythm or whatever will change their sound and structure. You could also try throwing in a sweep/tap sequence or crazy legato run to break things up... it might set you off playing in another direction.