Coming Back Hurts

It probably won't seem so for a while but you probably haven't lost as much as you think you have. Plus, you should take less time to pick up what you forgot. In some ways it's like the cliche of riding a bicycle.

As for practice routines, that depends on what you want to be doing. If you want to concentrate on your strumming and chords and chord changing, start playing songs you know (or used to know) and want to play. The sooner you can get the basics of chords and strumming down, the sooner you can turn your attention to the "fancier" stuff.

Hope this helps and welcome back.

Peace

Muscle memory is stronger than you think. Just start anywhere and make your practice/play time consistent. Just have faith in the process and re-connect with that desire that caused you to start playing again. Four months isn't THAT long.

Welcome. Playing guitar again is always for a good cause! :shock: :lol:

Hope you get them callouses back, however you spell it. :D

Imagine not being able to play for 3 years and then letting go for another 7, thats what I did but believe me you haven't lost anything but time. Your fingers are a lot smarter than your brain is and after a little time and dedication you will find that you have moved past where you left off.

Keep playing every chance you get, don't force it but make it fun. Keep it simple at first and have fun while your doing it, play, sing and dream, you'll get it before you know it.

if you just go back and learn some basic warm up exercises or even just run up and down the scales in no time your muscle memory should snap back in to action. it just may take a couple of weeks of constant practice to be back in tip top condition.
i dont think you ever forget how to play once you learn it shud be just like riding a bike! 8)

You're not alone in your situation. When I was much younger, I played in bands, pits, and studios. I was considered fairly good by a large number of people. Then I was in an accident and nearly lost my left arm. Several hundred stitches, two surgeries. and lots of rehab later I found that I hadn't played in a couple of years. I was so upset by how much I lost that I sold my gear.

20 years later, I decided I wanted to play again, so I bought a guitar and started trying to reteach myself. I was really going well and was starting to play in bands and sit in on gigs with friends groups. Then two years ago I was in a severe accident and had enough of a head trauma that I ended up an epileptic. I had problems with loud noise and was having difficulty with processing sound.

But after lots of medication and time I'm back to having picked up the guitar. I started playing again about a month again. And I"m back to having to relearn much of what had once again become rather natural.

My method, both times, has been the same. I try to play several short practices a day as there is much research that suggests that this method helps improve the ability to internalize information. I start each session playing the major, minor, diminished, augmented and whole tone scales around the circle of fifths. Each session I try to use a different pattern and use the root note on the sixth, fifth and fourth strings. Since I'm a jazz guy I play through the vi-ii-V-I changes in each key, and try to use different inversions as I go through the circle.

After that I'm working on one song at a time that I want to re-learn.

And I spend some time at the end of the day just noodling around doing whatever comes into my mind.

It's not easy, but I know that I"ll be back to where I was shortly enough.

But here's the basic idea that anyone can take on: whatever basic techniques you knew -- scales, arpeggios, whatever, -- run through those to refresh your memory and rebuild control over your fingers. Then take the songs you knew and relearn one at a time. This is easier and faster than trying to relearn all of them at once. And the progress you make will help encourage you to keep going. Lastly, take time to just have fun and play around.

Good luck.