Topic: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Hi folks,

I bit of background, I started learning in my late thirties and now 5 years later I'm call myself a beginner/intermediate. It takes me a lot of hard work to get anywhere and I've always struggled with the rhythm and feel of a song.
But lately I don't really want to pick up the guitar, when I do I get frustrated because I'm a bit crap (because I haven't practiced) and generally feel Why Bother?  Deep down I don't want to let it go but I've seemed to have lost my spark for it.

So, any tips and advice for me to help get me out of this rut?

Cheers all,

Wakey

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

usually i'd say "just leave it as the itchy fingers will return" but if you haven't played (or practised) for a few weeks, you might find that the rest has rejuvenated your talent. i always find after a 2 week holiday that i play so much better.

it might be that your just fed-up with the same old chords and riffs? try playing in different keys. or try writing a song or two. it always helps me.

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

I think that if you can find someone nearby that you can play with it will give you the impetus you need to practice more and improve.

Roger

"Do, or do not; there is no try"

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Wakey638 wrote:

Hi folks,

But lately I don't really want to pick up the [                       ], when I do I get frustrated because I'm a bit crap (because I haven't practiced) and generally feel Why Bother?  Deep down I don't want to let it go but I've seemed to have lost my spark for it.

So, any tips and advice for me to help get me out of this rut?

Cheers all,

Wakey

This fill-in-the-blank post could be on any forum on the internet. Try [chessboard] or [rubik's cube] or [hackeysack] or [joystick] and see if it changes your perspective.

We are all still blinded by the light and selfishly want you to stay in the fold to justify our personal preoccupation. Like Scientologists.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Rabid wrote:

We are all still blinded by the light and selfishly want you to stay in the fold to justify our personal preoccupation. Like Scientologists.

???????

6 (edited by beamer 2012-07-08 23:12:45)

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

What time zone / Local are you in?  Join the skype jams.  It will make playing fun for you again.  The one weekend I was able to meet up with 2 other people, I realized that my insecurity of my voice not being good or that my playing was not that great, flew out the window!! big_smile

I go through wanting to get rid of all my stuff every so often.  I just sit it down for a while.   

Don't worry about it.  Have fun with it, and the  best way is to find someone who helps you to have fun by playing with you, not over you.  This is a very hard thing to find (till I came here).
trust me, and it gets frustrating!  Ill bet you have met a few guys but they play great and don't want to help you along other than saying  " you need a metronome" or practice more. or they just want to show you all the riffs they know.  I meet kids who outplay me all the time.(I have been playing since HS and im 44).  I just keep doing what makes me happy and screw the rest of them if they don't see the joy  and fun I get out of it.

KEEP PLAYING.  Do not try to be a guitar hero, just play.

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Try some different music. or do some recording and put some stuff on you tube and see how people react.

my papy said son your going too drive me too drinking if you dont stop driving that   Hot  Rod  Lincoln!! Cmdr cody and his lost planet airman

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Cheers everyone for your tips, and in particular Beamer. 

Rabid, I don't think we're on the same page. Perhaps not in same Library.

W

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Go to a music store or Barnes and Noble. Look at the music books or a fake book of whatever types of music floats your boat. Buy one. It may give you something new to try. Chordie is great but the songs have to come to mind for you to find them. If you look at a book already made, you may say to yourself " Golly gee, I havent heard that song for a long time, or a song you forgot ever existed may pop in your head and you will want to play it". Give it a try. The worst that could happen is nothing. Or go to guitar center and try out a few guitars. It may give you the jump start you need.

Enjoy Every Sandwich
Nothing In Moderation  -- Live Fast. Love Hard. Die Young And Leave A Beautiful Corpse. -- Buy It Today. Cry About It Tomorrow.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

You gotta wanna.
Otherwise put it down and find something that does interest you.
Trying to learn to play guitar (or doing anything....., sports, work, have sex, crossword puzzles) without enthusiasm is  a sure path to frustration and depression.
If you don't enjoy it , don't do it. One day you may get the uncontrollable urge to pick it up again.
I started playing around 22. Played a few hours a day for my own enjoyment.
Few years later , I got busy , playing got boring, and put I it down.
Few years later picked it up again. And it felt good.
Got busy again building a business. Picked it back up when the business went bad.
Finally I got to where I do not want to put the damn things down.

For an example of playing with enthusiasm..... I was fired from a pretty good job a few months back.
I saw it as an opportunity to play 4-5 more hours a day for a few months.
Right now I'm nursing a sore ring finger from playing 9ths in a load of Blues progressions all day yesterday.
I start with an idea of practicing for an hour or two , then finally look at a clock and see 5 hours have gone by. 
Happens all the time.  I make a lot of "sorry, I got caught up and forgot " calls.

When I was working my schedule was:
Get out of work at 10pm, eat something quick, start playing by 11pm.
Wake up at 5-6 AM in my playing chair with the damn thing still strapped on and my hand clutching the neck.
Play for another hour, till 6 or 7am, then go to bed for real.
Get up at the "crack of noon" , go to work, and do it all over again.

And I SUCK! Seriously. If I can get through "Over the Hills and Far Away" without a misstep it's a very good day.
I play with friends on the weekend, 8 - 12 hour sessions with a break for dinner.
They tell me I'm better than I think.
But nobody's gonna pay to see me play. Not yet anyway.
I'm always forgetting songs, still can't sing and play at the same time.
And I've been playing for 30 years!

Pathetic? Yes. But nobody is going to stop me from playing.

So don't worry about it. If it's not your thing right now, find something else to do.
It'll be there when you get back.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Wakey638 wrote:

Cheers everyone for your tips, and in particular Beamer.

Your very welcome,, Still didn't answer where are you from what times zone.  PM me and ill get you my Skype and FB info.  FB has video chat now also.

cheers

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Hiya Beamer, I'm in the Wales in the UK. To be honest I'm going to take danzigi advice, I think I need to take a break without guilt tripping myself into playing. I've got a lot on at the moment with work and all in all it's been a very busy year. Perhaps it'll calm down towards the autumn/fall. 
I hope so anyway.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

The bottomline?  You need a good reason for doing anything you don't have to do.  Search deep within your soul and see if you can find that all important reason for continuing to play.  I quit for many years in between my learning.  I wish I hadn't.  Now, I wake up every morning thinking about my guitar and what I will do with it today.  That's because I am slowly getting better each day.  As you notice yourself getting better, you stroke that desire to keep going.  And you don't get better without practice.

You can see all my video covers on [url]http://www.youtube.com/bensonp1000[/url]
I have finally found happiness in my life.  Guitars, singing, beer and camping.  And they all intertwine wonderfully.

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

I find nothing gives me a boost like a new guitar. Doesn't have to be an expensive one, just different. I bought one at the end of last year and haven't been able to leave it alone since. I found that I can do things on it that I hadn't been able to do on the old one and the boost to self confidence is amazing. Really feel like I'm making progress now. It's well worth putting in silly bids on e-bay when there is no reserve. I picked up a Rickenbacker for well under half what it's worth when the auction ended at 7:00am on a bank holiday Monday. You never know!!

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." (Ben Sweetland)

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Guilt helps. I feel guilty if I leave my beautiful guitars untouched for too long  - how upset they must feel at not being stroked.:)

I am playing all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order! [Eric Morecombe]

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

There is that. My Michael Kelly looks at me all forlorn with its spalted maple eyes...
Does it weep?

Re: Lacking enthusiasm for playing

Gidday Wakey
yeah know how u feel.
What i did was get an electric,an amp with some effects ect.
i find some songs don`t work for me on acoustic but on electric with a bit of reverb or flanger
they work a treat.
also using a capo makes things interesting for me
OR get a uke, a few chords go a long way.They are a lot of fun.

Let us know how u get on?

The King Of Audio Torture