Question Getting In a rut

[Gio_Force_One]

Anyone here ever just get into a rut and not feel like playin? My last band was so toxic ever since I left I just can't seem to get back into playing . I used to play any least two hours a night and I haven't even took the guitars of of the cases in the last couple of months. I want to play but when I get home from work I just lose all ambition. Not sure how to get it back.

 

[koogie2k]

I hear ya. Happened to me via the same scenario. I just decided to do some scale and mode work. Chord progressions, etc. Tough to get motivated coming out of that situation.

 

[kestrou]

Take off in a completely WEIRD direction - pick up a slide, or acoustic, decide to improve your chicken-picking (Albert Lee style), or 70s funk.

Just move your brain in a totally new way and see if you like it!

Kevin

 

[megaroel]

You know what I'm the same way I'm at work from 630am till 7pm I have found that working so much does allow me to buy new gear!! Some times at work I'm like yeah I'm going to jam then I doesn't happen!! So I just try to kill it when I'm off as early as I'm at work during the work week I'm jamming on my day off!! Weird but it works!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[xjbebop]

You're not alone. I played bass, gigged & recorded for 20 years. Got fed up with the long term band I had been in and proceeded into a severe case of burn out. I basically just quit.
Lasted 4-5 years until my new girl (now Mrs. Bebop) said "I want to learn to play guitar"... and I said "Me too"
That quickly turned into a research, collecting and educating habit.... still working on the playing part...
It's been a blast!

 

[mikeller]

I rarely, if ever, get into a rut where I don't want to play, but I play in a local cover band that keeps reasonable busy (averaging 60-65 shows a year, mostly weekends), along with a full-time job and a bit of side work, so I rarely have enough time to practice like I'd like to.

I do get in ruts where I feel like my playing is stale, not exciting or progressing. Early this year we had 6 weeks off due to a scheduled surgery in the band so I subscribed to Lick Library and that was very helpful.

Like several others have said, learn something new - take it into a new territory!

 

[BUC]

Divorce will fix that.

Oooops, wrong message board.

 

[sanderhermans]

I've been playing for 12 years now and a few years ago i had a long period of allmost never playing. I felt that i reached the level i can reach and i just quit playing, except for at band rehearsals.
Now i found myself accepting my playing level. I know i'm not the best guitar player and i never will be, i've accepted this and have some more joy in playing again. I'm currently not in anny band for the first time in 9 years and i never played more guitar! I really enjoy playing on my own for now.

 

[Jamie M]

Same here. I haven't picked my ASS up since November last year. I just can't be bothered at the minute. To much other stuff going on and after leaving the band I was in I have no motivation to learn new stuff.

 

[Gio_Force_One]

I guess sometimes life just gets in the way of playing. I manage the bar side of a restaurant and there is always something to do and i'm always getting stuck there later than i should. So the by the time I get home I'm to burnt to want to play.

However I did by a used Mark Tremonti was and its coming in this week maybe that will give me push to set things up and play.
I'm thinking through my mesa boogie dc-5 head and Morse this pedal will sound really good. Also like the idea of not having the switch to turn it off and on.

Then maybe I'll go and learn some Alter Bridge songs for the fun of it and maybe that will push me back into playing more. I mean it all sounds good , hopefully I can do it and get back into the swing of things and maybe find some people to jam with that aren't druggies or have egos that don't match their talent.

I hope you guys can get back into too , because we all know how rewarding and fun it is we we do play.

 

[beej]

Ditto here. We built a house last year that took tons of my time, plus my business, plus two kids, and trying to keep a band going (an uphill battle) ... yada yada yada. So hard to find the time/inspiration, though it's much easier now than it was a year ago.

Kevin's right on the money in doing something different. I bought my daughter a small scale guitar, and tuned it to open G so it'd sound ok when the kids are hammering on it. Lo and behold, I can barely put that thing down- I leave a slide nearby and I'm always playing it while playing with the kids.

 

[DrKev]

Right now, I make my living teaching (though I'm in the middle of apartment move, surrounded by boxes piled to the ceiling as I type this, and baby due in three or four weeks). I often find it difficult to make time for *my* guitar playing. Trying to fit my practice time into my existing schedule really means hoping the holes in my schedule don't vanish. But they do. Supermarket, laundry, bank, unexpected work stuff, in short - things crop up and the holes in our schedule fill up or vanish and so does our guitar playing time. So for a while I booked guitar lessons with myself. It worked too.

Find a guitar teacher. Book lessons. You don't necessarily have to have a course planned out or even a specific goal. Just an hour a week that is dedicated to guitar, where you sit in the same room as another guitar player, someone who's job it will be to expose you to new ideas and musical directions, help you improve little aspects of your playing, etc. That hour will be booked and in the schedule and will the get the same priority in your life as any other fixed event in your schedule.

Do it!

 

[Spudmurphy]

Well, I haven't been able to play since Xmas - recovering from Lateral Epicondilytis.

My Birthday was a couple of weeks ago and my presents included a DVD on playing slide in open and drop D tuning, along with a wicked compressor pedal that gives Lowell George Tones I'm going to enjoy playing something different over the coming months, and will encourage me to play more.

Yeah, these hiatus periods happen - it's life!