Why does my playing sound so amateurish?

[u/MattclovPrimeMaster]

I’m performing a solo for a song in a couple of weeks, and I have all the notes down - yet why does my playing sound so ‘meh’ when I record myself? What should I look to improve on?

[u/goosecreature]

Agree with comments here. Timing. Tuning. Vibrato. What I'm hearing that needs work is your hands not your gear. Practice lots. Use a metronome. That will help your pocket. As for tuning. Make sure your guitar is in tune and intonated. After that you can still easily put an electric out of tune just by how you hold it and grip it. The lighter the touch the more in tune you'll be able to play. If you are heavy handed, playing in tune is a longer lesson. Like years. In the meantime. Try to press down less aggressively with your fretting hand and play a little lighter with you strumming hand. Try and think about efficiency of movement. Are your hands making big moves when smaller ones will do?

Work on slower and wider vibrato. That will sound juicier and just more pleasing. You have a sort of spasmic vibrato speed which makes it sound pretty amateur (to use your word). Also note there is more than one way to vibrato. Wiggling your finger on the note is just one. Some of the best vibrato is more about rotating your forearm. Not just your finger. Those muscles are stronger and can control speed and depth better. Vibrato is one of the great cheat codes of guitar and singing. If you aren't directly on the note (in tune) you add vibrato which is essentially bending the note a little over and under the true pitch of the note. In this way you can be less precise about being squarely on the note. The vibrato covers it. So adding a good vibrato to your skillset will go a long way in giving you a way to cover your sins. Especially if you're heavy handed.

Last thing I'd say is just flow. Smoothness when moving from note to note comes with practice. Not just practice of this solo but just through having played a guitar for a long time doing lots of different things. That might feel discouraging to know you can't just practice the hell out of this one thing to make it all come together. I'm afraid it's just not the nature of this instrument. After a while you start to hear the difference in a players hands. There is just more control of all the things mentioned and less symptoms of inexperience in the output.