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Help: Losing interest in playing guitar
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Subject: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:16 AM I'm going thru a pretty bad dry spell in which I have to force myself to play my guitars. I'm losing my callouses and that is also bad. Does anybody have and suggestions on how to get rid of the blues? Your help will be much greatly appreciated. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Bobert Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:20 AM Yeah, Bob. From the sounds of things I believe that you too might qualify for some butt whuppin your own self. And there are a lot of folks, as this poor ol' hillbilly had discovered, that are well up to the task.... Believe me, my cup over flowith... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:25 AM Yeah Bobert your are probly right but there's none around here to do that. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: weepiper Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:25 AM Now looky here Bob, get off yo whingin' ass and play... *GRIN* Seriously, when I go through a patch like that I've found the best thing to do is learn some new tunes, it gets a bit dull playing the same old same old all the time. New tunes will offer a bit of a challenge and that might be enough to get you interested again. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: wysiwyg Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:28 AM Maybe it's just time to take up a new instrument for awhile or listen to new kinds of music to get re-inspired. Don't assume it's a bad thing going on-- ask yourself what is the good thing that may be trying to happen? Then go with that, even if it seems not to make sense at first. ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:29 AM Thanks Susan for the words of cheer. I just might try and do that. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Tweed Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:35 AM Turn on the TV and sit in yer chair and figger out the jingles on the commercials note for note. Helps me to appreciate the real stuff and gets me going again. Or...just get a good butt whoopin';~) You'll get back there Bob, everybody goes through the doldrums now and then. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: van lingle Date: 02 Jun 02 - 10:46 AM Hi Bob, I go through periods when I don't feel like playing and I have a few different ways of coping with it. I'll tell myself that this is a good opportunity to improve my technique and will dive head first into scale exercises, arppegios, right hand exercises etc. and just plow through them on a daily basis like a machine until my musical inclinations return. I also might attempt to learn a new piece that is particularly challenging and requires intense concentration. You'll be surprised how quickly time flies when doing this. Or I'll concentrate on playing mandolin. However if things are to the point where you can't even pick up the instrument (I get that way sometimes) you can use that time you'd normally dedictate to playing to reading or to a hobby or to whatever else enriches you. This might help bring a new perspective when you return to playing and open up some ideas that might not have occurred to you previously. After these sabbaticals I feel a bit clumsy when I come back to it but it's kind of like being reunited with the love in your life and everything feels fresh and new which compensates for the pain and awkwardness. Good luck, vl |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 02 Jun 02 - 11:26 AM Find yourself a session of some kind where people like to play the kind of music you like to play, or the kind of music you might like to play but don't at present.
And if there isn't one to find, set about starting one up. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Clinton Hammond Date: 02 Jun 02 - 11:35 AM Or you could just not play until you feel like playing again... Why force it... Calluses come and calluses go... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: kendall Date: 02 Jun 02 - 12:19 PM I've hardly touched the guitar in 7 months, and Old Songs is coming up...sigh... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: MAG Date: 02 Jun 02 - 12:23 PM I don't appear to be in your class, but what works for me is to take my guitar out and play real EASY stuff just to keep my callouses; then I got 'em when I can set in and apply myself. Which is all too rare. MA |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Clinton Hammond Date: 02 Jun 02 - 12:38 PM callouses are easily 'faked' with a wee dollop of Krazy Glue... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Midchuck Date: 02 Jun 02 - 01:04 PM What really helps, for me, at least, is to acquire a new (new to me - it may well be used) guitar...but after a while the house gets crowded and the bills don't get paid. But one must be realistic about one's priorities. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Les from Hull Date: 02 Jun 02 - 01:08 PM Buying a bouzouki worked for me. I've hardly touched a guitar since, and you don't need callouses. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Lonesome EJ Date: 02 Jun 02 - 02:39 PM I like McGrath's idea. Some creative interchange with other guitarists usually gets me going again. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Terry K Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:23 PM I'd go sailing. There's more to life than just playing guitar. Clinton, you nailed it again before I could get in!! Cheers, Terry |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:27 PM I think that the hardest part is losing my callouses. I can't afford to buy another guitar and I don't won't to start work on learning another instrument so I think I'll just try to hang tough with my guitar. Thanks for all of your suggestions, and I'm sure that you guys go thru the same things. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: MichaelAnthony Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:53 PM I second the notion of learning a song you always wanted to learn, but somehow it seemed unapproachable. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: JohnInKansas Date: 02 Jun 02 - 04:10 PM When interest flags a little, the two best ways to 'whup' yourself back up are to LEARN something or to TEACH something. Preferably not just from a book. You don't necessarily have to study real' hard, but you might find someone who has "a different lick" or just "does something a little different" than you do, and invite him/her out to "show me that thing you do." After you've "been shown," you can always tell -'em "I still like my way better - do you wanna' play ...." If you know someone that could use a little help - especially if its with something you might be able to "fix," - bring them in and spend a little time on their trouble. It may help to have a few accomplices, but when you're trying to change your attitude, smaller groups seem to work better. Or, you can take Clinton's advice and just let it rest for a while. If you've had well built callouses, they'll come back quickly - nothing like the pain of building that first (or first few) magic fingers. John |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Pete Jennings Date: 02 Jun 02 - 04:49 PM I'm with Clinton and Terry K here. Happens to me about once a year, and I just roll with it. Do something else, read some books, or maybe just do "nothing" at all, like watch TV. When you get back to it, it'll seem like magic. And don't worry about the callouses, they'll come back in time and, after all, it doesn't hurt that much anyway. Pete
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: catspaw49 Date: 02 Jun 02 - 08:14 PM Clinton is a complete and utter jackass and as it's important for jackasses to stick together, once again I'm going to agree with him. It happens....sometimes short time, sometimes long time. Roll with it and relax....When it's right something will trigger your interest again. If you were a working pro it might be different, but for most of us hacks, things could be worse. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: RichM Date: 02 Jun 02 - 08:56 PM Yep, what they said... it's a dry spell, roll with it, it'll change again. In the meantime, enjoy the spring, garden, read, walk, clean the garage; treat yourself to some little thing you like, for instance, a specialty cup of coffee, with a fresh bagel/croissant/dessert. Sometimes, it's good to kick back and let the world wash over you, without you trying so hard.... Rich McCarthy |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Charcloth Date: 03 Jun 02 - 12:36 AM Hey I quite playing for several years. I just didn't have the "need" to play it. I had other interst come along (kids & such) & it was only when my wife went back to school that I picked it up again, now It's a great part of me & I love it more than before & I am a much better player than I would have been otherwise, I guess it's kinda like, if ya ain't hungry, don't eat. Like they said, "there's more to life than music" The callousses come back quickly. But just for thought maybe toss around the idea of looking at another style & see if anything perks your excitement. If not ya can always try fishing Best to ya Charcloth |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Wilfried Schaum Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:29 AM You're in the blues? Sing a blues about your problems with the guitar and accompany yourself with this wonderful instrument. If this doesn't help, try the treble recorder for a while. Wilfried |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Rich_and_Dee Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:22 AM Hi, Lots of fine advice here. Put down the guitar and go play records you haven't heard in years, including the guilty pleasures from your teen years. It'll help put you back in the mindset that once thought the guitar was coolest thing ever. Though I accompany a female Irish ballad singer, I still go back to my old Yardbirds albums for a dose of rock n roll. Also mess around with a new tuning for the guitar. Even if you go back to your favorite tuning, you would have spent time rethinking ways of playing the guitar. The process can add a new dimension to your playing. The music, and the ability, will be there when you need it. In all things, you dip into this or that pool for inspiration or whatever. Whether today that inspiration comes from guitar playing or watching a ball game or holding hands with a significant (or insignificant) other, it's all good. Keep it fun, Rich |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Jon Freeman Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:48 AM Dont know Bob although playing with others helps me at least to do something. I used to play for hours on end and learn new tunes but most of that stopped about 15 years ago. My guitar sits idle and my melodeon rarely get an airing. Mandolin and Banjo do come out at least once a week and more often if I decide to go onto Paltalk at night... I wish I could put my finger on what it is with me. When I get to a session, it really is like a paradise land to me and I'm always wishing I knew more tunes, practiced more so that I made fewer mistakes, etc. but I never seem to be able to put it into practice. About all I ever seem to manage is to do enough to be able to participate, e.g. when I moved here last year, I had to do a little work to be able to join in but having done that I've not moved forwards, possibly moved backwards a little... I guess while waffling on about myself, I could question why I waste so many hours on forums (not saying theres anything wrong except the ammount of time I spend) and playing stupid games when I could be doing more constructive things on the computer, e.g. the administration section of the Annexe is a shambles and is buggy as I never re-wrote it when I re-wrote everything else but it's not on public display..., I could be learning how to use php,MySQL and set up Apache instead of just typing this nonsense... Overall, I just accept that I am me even though I don't always like me in many ways and I don't think I'll ever realise what may be full potential in many ways... Jon |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: winniemih Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:58 AM I took up the fiddle a couple of years ago and wasn't playing my guitar at all, or just minimally. After learning a number of fiddle tunes I started bringing the instrument to sessions, but there was always someone more proficient than myself. However, since I knew the tunes, it was very easy to do a decent accompaniment on the guitar, and the other musicians seemed appreciative (or maybe it was just that I wasn't torturing them with the sounds of my devil's box). Whatever, it gave me a new direction with the guitar, and I have been enjoying playing again. Now I'm starting to slack off on the fiddle playing (there's only so much time in the day). So, hang in there in some way musically. Winnie |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 03 Jun 02 - 10:04 AM Great advice and I think that I'm going to try some of you guys suggestions. Thanks, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Jande Date: 03 Jun 02 - 11:03 AM I learned my first three chords on the guitar when I was in my early twenties and was only able to begin to practise them when I got myself a guitar at age twent-five. After a car accident in the early eighties that left me with a pinched nerve in my neck and right arm and numbness in my right hand, I lost the desire to play the guitar, and I can hardly bear to think of the intensity of grief I felt about that. It was over a decade before I picked up the instrument again. At first I used to force myself. But that just made it worse. Eventually I simply stopped. But, I always wondered why, even when I was so broke I had nothing to eat, I could never bring myself to get rid of the guitar. After about a decade the desire began to re-emerge, but it has never again been as intense a passion as it was. I have a series of interesting finger exercises that I stil do from time to time because they sound cool. I do this to keep my skills up and because my friends and family love to hear me sing, and so do I so I try to oblige them when they ask. I am extremely self-conscious when the spotlight is on me, though, so I need the guitar to hide behind while I sing. :`) All I can say, Bob, is there may be a period of mourning for the loss of the desire. It won't hurt to just let that be and do what ever you need to do. There's no sense in pushing for passion that isn't there. It just pushes it away farther. I'm speaking from my own experience of course... "YMMV"*. ~ Jande *"Your Mileage May Vary" |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: GUEST,maryrrf Date: 03 Jun 02 - 11:47 AM There's a natural ebb and flow to everything - periods of productivity and fallow times when things are germinating even though you can't express it at the time. If you can find a gig or session (even an open mike night or something like that) that will force you to practice by giving you a goal to work for that might be good. I make short lists (6 to 8 songs or so) of songs I want to learn. Somehow writing down a goal, even if it's flexible, gives me an incentive to pull out the guitar even when I don't really feel like it. Once I've warmed up I start enjoying the practice. If you're depressed - well I went through a little depression myself and I find that singing sad songs to myself - especially the real "tear in my beer" songs - somehow helps. There's something to the expression "Misery loves company". It makes me realize that my little personal problems are really no worse or different than other peoples, that they're nothing new, that they're basically just an integral part of the human condition and I start thinking "Oh well, this too will pass!" |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Naemanson Date: 03 Jun 02 - 01:00 PM Bottom line is you need an expensive new guitar, a really fine instrument. Order one from a renowned luthier or buy a top of the line name brand. I was in the middle of a dry spell when I found my Haruo 12-string at a yard sale. Now I can't keep my hands off of the guitars. My girlfriend is starting to wonder about me.... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 03 Jun 02 - 10:29 PM Bob, I'm sorry to hear that you are in the "blahs". I get that way on occasion withe Gaelic songs I work on. Usually, what gets me started again is listening to some of those songs I started with. The words of those songs which got me started on this road. Sometimes by going into the songs like that, I get re-inspired again. Good luck, and I'm sure you'll re-find your muse once more. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 06 Jun 02 - 10:55 AM I just can't seem to get it going again. Glenda and I used to play for hours every night, but now both of us have the blahs. I think this might be the downside of my illnes like I said earlier I just hope that the up side will come back quick so I can get back to my playing. Thanks for all your support and help during this troubled time. Bob and Glenda |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Ebbie Date: 06 Jun 02 - 11:07 AM Go rent or buy some good videos. (Check your local library too.) Watch a lot of concert tapes by people you like. Just enjoy them- don't play along. Then get some good instructional videos on the level you aspire to. Should jiggle you off the block. And in the meantime you've had some mighty good listenin'. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Dave Bryant Date: 06 Jun 02 - 11:27 AM BOB, is this condition infectious/contagious ? - If so I know a few people who could do with catching it (mind you many of my aquaintances would say the same about me). Just PM me some of your body fluids... No - second thoughts - it'll probably trigger a virus detector and the JOECLONES would lynch us. Seriously though, I agree with Kevin - this is your chance to find some new material to inspire you. Either that or you'll hear something which is so bad that you'll say "Christ I can do that MUCH better than that !". That's a point - why not get McGrath's CD (I mean so that he can learn some new material Kevin - honestly). |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 06 Jun 02 - 01:39 PM I just don't know what is causing this. When I pick up my guitar nothing comes to mind to play so I just put it down. I've played a lot of years but this is pretty bad. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Dave Bryant Date: 07 Jun 02 - 05:09 AM Perhaps you're doing things the wrong way around, Bob. I'm primarily a singer and I don't tend to pick up a guitar until I WANT to sing, or I've GOT to sing - ie doing a gig or it's my turn in a session. The only time I tend to play at home is rehearsing new material - and I often do that in one of the many pubs I sing in. Perhaps it's like sex or producing a urine sample - If you try too hard, it often won't come. You've often got to relax a bit to get results. Also, which is the chicken/egg - are you not playing the guitar because you're depressed or is it vice versa ? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: John Hardly Date: 07 Jun 02 - 10:04 AM ...from another forum, same topic. Thought you might take some encouragement from it.
You've heard me play and you've seen my smile when I'm playing. I'm not smiling 'cause I'm good.
And sometimes the progress is like watching the hour hand, not the second hand-------that in and of it self is a tough pill to swallow when you're a middle aged "never was" (like me).
But some evening, maybe a winter evening, you'll be alone in the kitchen.....only the overhead light on....and a hot cup of tea that makes the whole room warm with its smell...and the rest of the house is so quiet you can hear shadows move...and your guitar strapped on...
...you'll play a chord that sounds just like the sound that drew you to the guitar in the first place. Then you'll look up and surprise yourself as you notice your reflection in the window against the dark of the night...the reflection of you and the guitar. You'll think to yourself "I know that guy -- that's a reflection of my soul".
When acoustic guitar music gets into your soul I don't think it's a real option to stop playing-----whatever the level------because we don't play for success... ...playing IS success.
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: Steve in Idaho Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:14 AM Hi ya Bob - Been there too. The beauty of it is it will pass. The other thing I've found for me is to NOT play the Blues when I've got the Blues. I don't play at all if it comes to that. I'm really fortunate in that I have a couple of friends that show up and start playing - so what can I do but pick along. I did stop playing for a couple of years - just lost interest in what I had been doing. And like others above - when I came back to it I found the new direction I was looking for. Hang in Bro - |
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Subject: RE: Help: Losing interest in playing guitar From: 53 Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:27 AM I used to play songs mon my computor and then I would play along with them. NOthing is jiving. I just going to pack it up until the urge hits me again. Maybe it will maybe it won't. |
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