Hi tgwal,

Possibly limit yourself to a set time? I have an almost OCD tenacity to overcome obstacles and I'll beat on a problem for hours on end. For me it takes a bit of discipline to put it aside and come back later. I'm betting that at a certain point, all I was doing was reinforcing existing problems by not recognizing that my dogged determination was not getting me anywhere at that time.

I had this problem when I was learning "From the Beginning" (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer). There's a run at the end of the acoustic solo that was giving me fits. I could fake it by hammering (no one would seem to notice) but I really want to play it up to speed properly with a pick.

I fell back to my piano training: grabbed a notepad and a pencil and created a log. I then found the speed I could play it without making any mistakes, took out my metronome and wrote down the date and the setting. I then advanced the setting by a few beats and set my phone timer for 15 minutes. The timer rings and I stop. Period. My goal is to play it up to tempo 10 times in a row. So far, my best is 6 times but I'm progressing.

Probably not great advice, but that's what's working for me. Good luck!