[rapter]

Just thought if I could hear from some of you maybe having the same problem as I might have. I have been practicing on the guitar almost 5 days a week around the same time after work. I'll open up the lesson book and practice my scales, some rhythm, maybe triads, and study some music theory or whatever, and find out that my motivation to play the guitar is starting slow down.

I am not practicing as diligently, compared to the last month or so and now just fingerpick an occasional tune just to feel and hear the guitar. I know I will come back and start being serious with my playing again because this cycle has happened before. Now a week has past, without that passion I had before, for playing or practicing. Maybe its due to the "everyday trying to make a living aspects that life has to offer" has pulled me away from being dedicated.

I have had slumps in the past where I don't want to play and find out later that when I start strumming again the motivation for making music comes drifting back. Have any of you had similar experiences where you just didn't want to play the guitar,or question yourself,"why am I doing this", or just lose interest for a period of time? Thank you

[allthumbs]

When it happens to me it's usually because I have started to take myself too seriously and the fun goes out of it. I am not hearing a fun part to your practice. You need to enjoy yourself when you play or what is the point.

[rapter]

Maybe I am taking it to serious, but it helps to hear from you that it can happen to anyone, I appreciate your advice.

[X4StringDrive]

Same here rapter, good to go one week drift the next, I just keep reminding myself that I have to get after it if I really want to improve{easier said then done, I know}. Like allthumbs said... enjoy yourself, when you start feeling down again, change it up some, try putting the lessons away for bit and just experiment, it's working now for me.

[Chris C]

Hi,

I've often said that the only thing that really matters with learning guitar is finding out what motivates you to keep going. Everything else can follow in a huge variety of ways - structured study, teachers, books, copying other players from CDs, or whatever....

I'd guess that we all have slumps now and then, and we probably all have slightly different ways of dealing with it. I'd say that variety was good. So here's some things that work for me:

• Different Focus. Stop trying to improve and have a few weeks on songwriting or improvising, or whatever is a change of pace or pattern. Make it fun - just have a week or two where you mess around with whatever takes your fancy and forget about what you "should" be doing for a while.
  
  Different Guitar. I have more than one guitar. After a few weeks playing electric I'll often switch to an acoustic or a different style of electric for a while. This freshens things up a bit. There's a natural change of style, approach and repertoire that comes with swapping guitars.
  
  Different Music. I also have a range of books, of various levels. So I'll either switch back to an old book and do a refresher (always satisfying to be able to play something with relative ease that you once struggled with. ) or else I'll try tackling something new or trickier.
  
  Different Style. Lead, rhythm, fingerpicking, rock, folk, or whatever. Lots of ways to change tack and get out of any rut you've been in.
  
  
  Different instrument. I have more than one instrument so if I get really bored with guitar I can play clarinet for a while, or spent a bit of time messing around with my son's drum kit and see if I can learn something.
  
  Take a break. Everybody takes a holiday once in a while, so if it's starting to feel like work then maybe take a short break and just listen to music for a while. I put the guitar down for six months a while back, and concentrated on something else, and it didn't seem to harm my progress at all. I'd rather do that than press too hard and end up hating the whole business of learning. It wouldn't be my first option though.
  
  

Good luck. I'm sure we all get a bit stale at times. But we're all different, so there's probably not a "One Size Fits All" solution. I'm sure that others will have some good ideas about how they cope with it too.

Cheers,

Chris

[rapter]

Thanks xfourstringdrive it helps to see that I am not the only one. Sometimes learning different things that helps oneself play the guitar can seem overwhelming. I don't mean to sound nerdish, but watching Opie on the Andy Griffth Show didn't help. Where Opie, just four days into learning the guitar, was already in a band. Anyway good to here from you.

[rapter]

SPEECHLESS. I appreciate it.

[rapter]

Meant to say Waning not weening, sorry folks.

[coldethyl]

Yeah, a while back I hardly touched my guitar for nearly six months. I can't really put my finger on why I didn't pick up the guitar much in that time, but I guess other factors in my life at the time may have had something to do with it.

When I did go back to the guitar, I found that I had a fresh attitude towards my playing and I really enjoyed it again and haven't looked back since. I know that at the time I picked up the guitar again, my primary focus was on enjoying practise time and playing, instead of looking at it all as work etc. Prior to my six month break I remember getting frustrated with myself and not making the progress that I really wanted to make and I think I spoiled my enjoyment in the process.

So the lesson I took from that incident is that I now play for the love of the instrument and the enjoyment of it and not to make playing a chore, which can be an easy pattern to slip into if one is not careful.

[Mike8307]

Rapter,

Just a quick reply. I notice from your practice regimen that "play songs" were no where in there. Isn't that the "fun" part of guitar? You can play scales until your fingers bleed and no one will care. You can know the difference between a G7 Gmaj7 and a G7add5 and no one will care. While all that is important you need to have fun, play songs. Make your own progressions, toss on a CD and try to follow along.
All work and no play can make the guitar seem tedius.


Michael

[tomg123]

I feel like that sometimes....like i'm spending to much time on something when i could be doing other things like trying to make more money. I Think maybe buying another guitar could help too so your not always playing the same one, which is something i am considering. AT is right though it has to be fun for you because progress comes to slow with guitar, and if its a pressure thing to be better, then thats not so much fun

[agent0064life]

Look up a popular song you enjoy listening to and see if you can strum along/play along.

[sabretalon]

I have not been playing long, still not playing really!

I have some things I know I need to do and I am working on those but I do not choose a specific time, otherwise it becomes like work!

I don't play in the same place all the time, I go in different rooms and play.

Not at a stage of playing through a song, something most would say is the fun part of learning! I am however having fun by playing a series of chords, building up my fingering memory so that I can change chords without really having to think about it too much. Trying different strumming patterns and even just playing random chords.

I don't spend hours on the guitar, some nights I will do 10 mins others it will be an hour. I don't want to force a routine as it will just feel like I'm going to work.

At the moment I am happy getting my fingers sore and when I can change one chord to the next without messing it up then that is an achievement for me!

From listening to others, learning a piece all the way through has it's good and bad points! You learn it but by the end you have heard it so many times you never play it again. You could just choose snippets of songs you like, try different games like, guess the chord etc..

[knight46]

I think that several good points have been brought up so far, AT's point about having fun and Chris's points about changing times, instruments, etc. I think the major thing that has led to my "down" periods is focus on what I want to accomplish. I play for relaxation and enjoyment, if I begin to lose focus or actually focus to much on other aspects I stop enjoying what I am doing and it becomes work.

[cshude]

All good suggestions above.
Another thing other than simply taking days at a time away from the guitar (which I end up doing more often than I would like due to work and family things) that you could look at is trying to write a song. For me at least, songwriting puts me in a different frame of mind and I listen to the music much more closely than I typically do playing someone else's songs. That might be enough to spice things up for you. Just don't be a slave to practicing. They call it "playing" an instrument for a reason. It should be fun!