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Location: south east Michigan | I think it started not long after the tour.
I started spending less time with the fingers to the fret board. A year ago I'd rarely walk by a guitar without picking it up. A half hour a day became 15 minutes and then 10 minutes every other day. I find the time to type up the new songsheets I want to work on and end up doing something else.
I would think its normal to experience this type of downtime with a hobby. It just feels weird.
Can anyone else relate??
And I am now going to predict CWK2s one word answer to that question.... "NO!".
Let's see if I'm right. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | smoke some weed. |
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Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Maybe you just need to buy a new guitar. :)
Seriously, maybe you need to change up the way you are approaching it. You may have hit a plateau and subconsciously can't see how to get past it. Instead of typing up your songsheets, how about taking that step in the process out and instead drop a CD into the player and work on learning the songs by ear? |
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Posts: 5575
Location: big island | drop some acid |
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Posts: 5575
Location: big island | sorry brad. cliff's fault. |
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Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | While Cliff's suggestion didn't surprise me :rolleyes: , it took me a few minutes to get past Randy's.... :eek:
...but yes, I can relate, Brad. There have been times when I get to a point where I'm bored with what I know and don't have enough ambition to learn something new. Then the guitars just hang there for a while. Once it was over a year that I hardly touched one.
Then I would hear something, or see someone play something, and it would spark some interest, and I'd pick it back up again.
It may feel weird, but don't worry, it's rarely a permanent condition. |
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Posts: 5575
Location: big island | the weed smokin', acid-dropping days have long expired for me, but cliff's suggestion caused me to flash back to times when my musician friends and i were feeling the same sorta slump brad describes. we tended to lean on drugs for creativity or to escape from it.
slumps come and go as a normal course of events. often learning a new song or playing gigs will relieve that feeling for me...until the next one.
a slump can be a driving force that keeps us from feeling comfortable with complacency. |
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January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | "Smoke some weed", you'll sound great, but only to yourself. I remember those days or do I. Brad, the lack of inspiration hits us all. One of the reasons that I own different guitars, is to avoid the slump. I pick up the nylon string, the 12 or the archtop or the solid body strat etc.
Each instrument brings out a different style. |
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September 2004
Posts: 1180
Location: Vermont USA | Brad go to your wife's pocketbook take out a small mirror leave the lipstick alone. Now place the mirror just under your nose that way you can check to see if your still breathing. What ever you do do not take drugs cause your not a thug. If you are still breathing go to a guitar store and play a Fender VG Strat very cool guitar. Walk away from the store with some strings and picks, go home and make mad passionate love to your..................guitar.
This will cure you
Pauly |
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Location: Vermont USA | Oh I forgot put everything back into your wife's purse. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Change guitars always helps a little but the best thing is to go look at a lesson or take one. Look online at workshoplive or some of the others. I'm getting my charge this week at National Guitar workshop.
I kinda felt that way earlier, in Florida at the Frisky Mermaid you had to play an original new tune every week. There were topics so you could work ahead. That provided a good incentive. Once north and no place to play it really fell off. Looking forward to going back south.
Fooled ya. |
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August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Brad - I'm deep in the middle of it right now. Sometimes it gets hard to tune everything else out and just sit and play. Everytime I turn around here, there is another chore, or I have to drive one of the kids somewhere. I work out of my house, and my customer is nationwide, so I'm almost never "off".
It shall pass... hopefully soon. |
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Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Actually, you're really in a good place--you're not a concert guitarist where your livelihood depends on whether or not you touch a set of strings, in front of people or not. We recreational guitarists can do what we do out of joy, not financial compulsion. So....it sounds like you need something to rekindle the joy to some degree.
There have been a few times where I haven't played--a broken finger, the onset of the bursitis, a time of guitar fasting to listen to what God might want to say to me. But, those were all outside influences--the joy was still on the inside.
We're all motivated by different things, so what works for me may not work for you--but the words "Child-like abandonment" (the joy of the moment) keep coming into my mind.
Hope this might be helpful,
Karen |
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Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | CL: take guitar with you.
my Crafter travelled over 7000 km over europe in 3 months. if i wouldn't take my guitar with me everywhere i go, i wouldn't even remember how does D chord look like. |
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Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | I'm in the middle of one right now.
But I still show up for practice....
Make a commitment that's outside yourself. Then it doesn't matter how you feel, you just play right though it.
Next week I'm joining a new group of player/writers like CWK. Originals only. No noodling unless invited by another player. Don't know the rules other than that, but it should be a bit of a kick-in-the-ass.
Do something different with someone different. (Disclaimer; this does not work for marriage and it's really really expensive.) |
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Posts: 425
Location: SE Michigan | Walk away from the store with some strings and picks, go home and make mad passionate love to your..................guitar.
....then be sure to wash your hands |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Bill's advice is good... make a change, Try anything different. Might be a different guitar, could be a different tuning, might be something as simple as a partial capo, could be just learning a new song. The Grand Ennui gets everyone eventually, you'll get over it. |
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Posts: 972
Location: PDX | Lessons, definitely. That is, of course, if you want to shake the slump. Maybe a break is exactly what you need?
Lessons give you a reason to practice. I rarely experience a "downtime". My teacher would kick my A$$.
_____
gh1 |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Good advice and perspectives from good people.
Thanks.
I'd hate to buy another guitar just to use like a set of jumper cables. My collection my be small but they are top shelf so it would have to be something reeeeallly special (and probably expensive), to catch my interest. BrianT has bugged me at times to get a wood box.
No... I'm not that desperate yet.
I'm even having trouble picking up my happy little uke.
Yes... I will try farting around with my G-band.
No... it's to late to become a finger-style guy. I'm just not wired for it.
Maybe.. I could learn a few songs written after 1982. :eek:
Learn to play left handed??? Na.
There are many of those little mini-lessons all over You-Tube.
Fire up a doobie??? I lost track of my dealer many, many years ago. Wonder what he's up to??
I'm not knocking BrianT because as I've said before.... I couldn't find a better musican who is as like minded in song choices anywhere in the state. Even after almost 4 years now we still have fun. However... I envy the type of thing that Paul Moody has going on fridays. I tried to get a "guitar club" thing going but it never took hold.
Now... if it could be arranged to have an OFC gathering twice a month, my prayers would be answered.
The Grand Ennui gets everyone Sorry about being as thick as a brick but... I don't get the refference. :confused: |
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Location: NJ | You need a gig, Bradley . . . |
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March 2002
Posts: 15680
Location: SoCal | Hey Paully, what's wrong with being a thug? Some of us have even become professionals at it.
Brad, I feel for you. I've been there and it's no fun. Why not get out and listen to somebody else play for a while? Go hit the Folkin' Friday and just listen instead of playing. Bet it sparks the desire to get up there yourself. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I get into slumps all the time. the worse was between 95 and 2000 where I rarely picked up a guitar except to sell it or fix it to sell it. Lost a ton of chops did not care, life was in the way.
in 2000 I wondered into a coffee shop to see an internet friend play and I wound up sitting in with him and other musicians and just remember how much I loved to play and how it was great therapy for me.
unfortunately he passed away last summer and I have the construction project from hell and I find little motivation to pick up the guitar unless my nephew demands I teach him an old cream or hendrix song or he tells his buddies I can do it all and I have to scramble to learn some rush tune or something from internet tabs.
well, I think for me once things get a little calmer, and I put my studio together I am gong to hang out at some blues clubs and coffee houses and see if I can pick up a backup gig again.
it beats paying a shrink. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland |
The Grand Ennui gets everyone Sorry about being as thick as a brick but... I don't get the refference. :confused: [/QB] Ennui is French for general off-pissment/boredom. My use of "The Grand Ennui" comes from a Mike Nesmith song.......
http://www.videoranch.com/html/grandennuisample.html |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | TURN OFF THE TELEVISION!!!
And the computer!
[Unless you are like me, cuz all my song sheets are on mine]
"Buy a new Guitar" is nice advice,
but going down to the Music Store and playing one of theirs is cheaper!
I don't know what Algonac, Michigan is like... But if you carry your guitar with you, Someone will ask you to play something! Or someone with a guitar will ask you to play with them!
Thanx for the reminder tho'. I need to get on YouTube or somewhere where I can work on some new stuff.
:cool: Oh Randy... There hasn't been any good Acid in Decades!
But Mushrooms and Buttons never change! |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | Originally posted by Old Man Arthur:
:cool: Oh Randy... There hasn't been any good Acid in Decades!
OMA ~ there's never been any GOOD acid! |
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Am I in a guitar slump or is it just a case of Bio-Rythm Blues?
