Playing guitar is a life-long pursuit. There are such a wide variety of techniques and styles to explore! Most guitarists who dedicate themselves to their craft run into intermittent frustration with their progress. Perhaps practicing and playing is not as inspiring at it used to be, and at the moment, everything seems stale. It's important to know how to work through these hurdles. Lets explore some strategies.

One thing that can help is exploring a new, but related, style. After playing one style of music for years, your fingers and ears can become used to doing and hearing the same thing. Learning something just a bit different will increase your knowledge, let your fingers explore some new movements, and expose your ears to something fresh.

If you usually play bluegrass and pick fiddle tunes you might want to try your hand at some early swing or jazz tunes. The chord forms and progressions will be a bit different which force your ear to pick up new things and probably require that you spend some time learning new chord fingerings. A bit of study like this is good, and will provide you with some useful material you can take back to bluegrass music. In addition, soloing over swing and jazz tunes requires a different understanding of the fingerboard, which will then open up new phrasing and melodic possibilities.

Picking up a new but similar instrument can also be a good source of inspiration and motivation. Flatpicking guitar technique transfers pretty well to mandolin. If you are usually a fingerpicker on guitar you might want to think about giving banjo a try. Being a beginner can be refreshing, and learning a few simple songs, scales, and chords can open up your ears to new possibilities that did not occur on your main instrument.

If you normally play alone finding some other like-minded musicians to play with can keep things fresh. If you play solo classical guitar, finding some nice duets to share with another guitarist can be fruitful. The give and take between individuals making music together is quite inspiring, and you will find yourself coming up with new musical ideas on the spot.

In contrast to the first suggestion I mentioned, you can also try tackling a totally different style than the one you usually play. For example, I spend most of my time playing celtic music. All the tunes are in one key, and there is no improvising. Lately I have found myself wanting to develop some other skills, so I am spending a bit of my practice time learning gypsy jazz. It's totally different, with fast lead improvising and new chord forms. While it's all challenging, I am finding this new material to be motivating, and I am picking up new skills as a lead player and improviser. I am not abandoning celtic music, just devoting a bit of time to something. Being a more versatile musician certainly can't hurt.

So those are some different thoughts for staying inspired on guitar. I think as you progress in your guitar journey it's important to have strategies in mind for those eventual plateaus. Just try implementing some of these ideas next time your regular musical routine seems stale and boring, or come up with some ideas of your own. Mainly just keep your creative thoughts alive!