Noobie guitarist has questions

[Metalhead92787]

Hi everyone im new this is my first post, im also a new guitarist. I've been playing about 6 months, but I practice like 5-6 hours a day so i've excelled quite quickly at the technical aspect and I find myself able to play some songs with out that much difficulty. Im not playing crazy fast yet but can play with some speed.

so i've aquired a bit of confidence on the neck and starting writing my own music. I made a few cool licks and progressions. But im not sure how to tie licks and hooks to riffs. I notice in alot of music theres a few power chords in a progression and then a little lick to break it up, or it leads into another progression. I always end up playing some sort of power chord progression and it ends up being A-melodic, even if I thought in palm mutes, change up the rhythm, horsebeats this and that etc etc. so I guess is what i'm asking is a few things.
How to tie hooks and licks into a power chord progression? ( does it work the same way as a solo, find your key and then put a hook in it)
and how to break out of the mediocre
I like playing metalcore/heavy metal kind of stuff
I know how to alternate pick fairly well, I want to learn sweeping to be a more complete guitarist but I honestly dont like the way it sounds but aside from that if anyone wants to throw some interesting riffs/licks at me i'd welcome the learning oppertunity.
You see a lot of lessons and excercises teaching you how to palm mute, how to alt. pick sweep pick. hammers on pulls offs trills and all that but not a whole lot on HOW to apply it, so if anyone can help shed some light on this issue please do so. Thanks in Advanced

[Metalhead92787]

bump

[Sebastian]

hey Metalhead!

Let me ask you something... Are you recording yourself at all? Or using a metronome/drum machine?

The reason I ask is that I believe these two simple measures could transform your playing and enable you to answer the question yourself. You see, when we're playing, our brain is split between a number of different physical co-ordinations and aural (listening). But if you record yourself your ENTIRE focus will be on listening and you'll be able to instantly hear where you're going wrong and where you'll be able to put one of those cool little licks that you want to do.

It might be quite painful at first, hearing something that you thought was great being all out of time. But that's where the metronome comes in. Remember, music = pitch + rhythm. So if you're not spending time focussing on rhythm, you're only getting half of the story.

But lets say you're all in time and you've recorded a great chord progression. Then you can overlay that cool single note lick over the top, cut out the chords in that section and then hear it as if you'd done it in one take. Then of course you can listen back and learn it as one fluid piece of music! Brilliant!

I find this method of learning extremely useful both for myself and my students so good luck and let me know how it goes.