Guitar player here. I have a slightly fucked ear/pitch. Something I really enjoy doing is just improvising off of scales, and I have a blast doing it. However, if I’m trying to replicate a riff I like, and I don’t have good tabs, I could play every note on the fretboard, and no matter how many times I hit the correct note it doesn’t seem to jump out at me.
And another thing is that my tastes are not, in general, popular tastes, so there don’t seem to be any good books that line up with what I like to do.
The thing is, I’ve now reached a level where there are many rewarding repertoire pieces within my technical reach. So, I’ll listen to a piece, read the score, realize it’s doable and add it to my daily routine. Net result, I now have about 20 works that are anywhere between more or less reliably mastered and “stuck at measure 5 for a year”.
I must learn to be more selective. Fewer pieces, more careful practice.
There’s a number of things, but the main thing that irritates me is my tendency to rush. I have to really, really pay attention to my playing and make sure I hold back just a tad. I guess it reflects my personality a bit. Anyway, I just got myself a cheap-ass bass (Glarry), so I’m having fun playing bass for the almost the first time, and when I record, a groove can sound good to me and feel good to me as I’m playing, and then when I play it back, I hear all those rushed little syncopated bits that throw the groove off, coming in like 1/64 note too soon. And it’s not just because I’m playing an unfamiliar instrument. I do the same thing when playing piano/keys. My hands just want to get to the next note, and my brain has to hold it back. It’s just most noticeable with the bass, trying to hold the rhythm section down.