Pay no attention to your friend. If he/she plans
on getting to the point where he can no longer
improve or learn then let him be limited while
you continue to grow. learning is a lifelong
endevor and only stops when you stop it.
Keep on Jammin!
Rob

Learning music is a lifelong commitment with many plateaus along the way. How you deal with & overcome each "leveling off period" is what makes things interesting.

Write it done-
Plateaus are REAL.

I'm sure your friend is just frustrated because you seem to be improving faster than him. Don't let him get discouraged and remember that one day you are going to hit a plateau and be stuck there for a while and he is going to catch up to you. That is when you don't get discouraged. Because there are no limits to your musical ability, just limits to your will to get better.

Russ

it is natural to hit 'training plateu's', and for things to feel stale from time to time.
Either take a break, or start trying something completely different, like learning a style that you really don't care for...

"Pinnacle to your musical ability" - well, yeah. Eventually you die and can't practice anymore. You tend to not get any better after that. Although, interestingly enough, you can sell more records...

Plateau is another story, you practice something hard so it can enter your "vocabulary", after awhile it starts to come out in your playing, and pretty soon it's stuff you can do in yer sleep. Bingo PLATEAU. The way to keep moving forward in a focused and consistent manner is to continue to practice in a focused and consistent manner. If you are ALWAYS working on technical and theoretical material that is not in your ear or under your fingers, then new stuff is ALWAYS seeping into your playing and plateaus are shorter. Also, psychologically, just knowing that you've hit'em before and progressed beyond them is very comforting...

right on ed!

HAHAHA! Unless you dont HAVE any records then you just...........die .

Ever notice that the record relased just prior to death is always 'One of the finest works ever put out by....' no matter haw bad it really sucks?

No way! If you continue to put the effort in, you will never reach a permanent plateau. You may experience a temporary stagnancy, but never permanent. Even Eric Clapton says he learns something new everytime he picks his guitar up.

As stated above, we can have the ability to continue to "grow" advance in our abilities, if we continue to practice, change, have set-backs, as, "one step back two forward" at times, one of my oldest ways around the, "I'M Stuck in a Rut", problem is to go back to the basics, as mentioned early, change styles, or sometimes a short vacation break from my instrument, it reduces frustration, and for me creats the want again, only just a little WORSE. It is kind of weird how good a person becomes, once they die, if they acquired a level of success.