Songs, strumming & bored

HI @JDR_allthumbs , I have found myself in your situation over the years, so let me tell you how I tried to address it.

My biggest limitation is that I don’t sing. I think if you sing, then basic strumming arrangements can be fine and the “performance” can be rewarding. If you don’t sing … not so much. Here are the different “solutions” I have found at various points in time (in order of difficulty).

  1. Find songs that have identifiable riffs, little lead parts, bass runs, etc. Melodic elements that make the song recognizable (which strumming-only songs usually are not). “Hey, Hey, My, My” by Neil Young is a good example of this. If you can learn to pick out the individual bass notes in the riff, it’s very, very satisfying. Justin’s song tutorials often teach these parts. Other songs that lend themselves well to this idea are: Ripple, Simple Man, Norwegian Wood, Wish You Were Here, Needle and the Damage Done and many others.

  2. I started some lead guitar stuff (Justin’s Lead Blues 1 module). Learning some scales, alternate picking, etc. helped a lot with point 1. above. It was also very cool in itself. I’m no accomplished blues player and I’ve gotten away from it a bit, but it was very fun and super useful. I also learned a few solos note-for-note: well just 2: Let it Be and Something. That’s very rewarding also (even though I don’t play them that well).

  3. Focus on fingerpicked acoustic pieces. A long while back, while taking group lessons I learned 2 fingerpicked songs: a simplified version of Freight Train and the Rev. Gary Davis song Candyman. Fairly recently I decided to concentrate on fingerstyle blues instrumentals and have managed to learn about a half dozen pieces and am working on more.

Note sure if any of these appeal to you or are even matched to your skill level, but they have been useful for me.