How do I break out of this rut? How do I add some new flavor to
the mix? I know I'm not the first to get bogged down like this so please
share some of your tip and techniques.
Here's my favorite trick: I do things I have a rules against doing.
A few years back I was practicing, and kinda bored, and I played a very
fast and flashy lick. I then stopped myself and said, in the silence of my
own head, "I do not play flashy licks. I gave that up. That is tasteless."
Well, I've trained myself to ALWAYS do what I have rules against doing. I
just hadn't realized until that moment that I had a rule against tasteless
flash.
I spent the next month practicing tasteless flash at breakneck speed and
just like that I had developed a whole new roadmap full of unexplored
territory, with lots of new feelings, and new ways to surprise myself. And
alot of it not tasteless at all.
You have your signature licks. Cool beans. Give 'em up for a
month. Every time you are about to lay into one - go somewhere
else. Practice NOT playing those things, until it is natural to go
somewhere else. This'll break you right out of your rut.
After a month has gone by start adding your old licks in if you care
to. You may have just gone onto your next style.
Frankly, there is not a single lick that must hang onto until you're six
feets in the ground. Your style should be growing and changing all the
time. Those signature licks are not you, they're you in the summer 2007
and now they're also your rut. It won't hurt you to give them up for a
while. You can always bring them back in.