7 years and thinking about taking a break

"either I find everything way, way, way too easy to play and don't bother with it or everything is way too hard."

Maybe it's time to quit playing others people stuff, and write a song of your own...YOUR rhythm, YOUR harmony, YOUR melody, YOUR solo, YOUR lyrics. And anything else that can be yours... :lol:

Well you've got be by a few years but I feel the same way alot. I just moved an ddon't have a teacher and anytime I am without a teacher I usually flounder around looking for direction.

In the past what I have done is stop working on new songs and just work on exercises/scales for a few weeks. After a while of that I'm ready to get back to learning new songs.

But your statement about stuff being to easy or to hard is the important point since I always feel that way. If your like me you tend to shy away from the hard stuff and then you get bored with the easy stuff, but you have to find a way to motivate yourself to work on the harder material. It will only help you in the end.

You might also try playing songs from a different genre of music just to keep you interested.

Anyway, easier said than done.Good luck.

Got to agree with NetZok: time to leave other peoples' stuff behind and get into your own. Practicing scales and techniques - even songs - can get a bit...esoteric sometimes. It's like it's no longer grounded to the real world somehow...all disconnected. The pieces might fit together and you might understand how they fit together, all the scales and concepts, but...they're not fitting YOU.

Get some recording gear, even analog stuff, and start laying tracks and putting ideas down. You might find that some of the things you already do fit, but not quite perfectly, and actually THAT'S the fun of doing your own stuff. You start trimming, writing, listening to yourself and self-editing, and when that starts to happen you start thinking 'arrangement' and start hearing the whole tune or piece and start being able to do things you never thought of before. Recording is one of the best ways to develop your total, overall muscianship because instead of copying a solo or part of riff that someone else came up with, you're confronted with coming up with a part all by yourself. Something that'll fit the mood and texture and arrangement of the song. You stop being merely 'a guitarist' and start to morph into 'a musician.'

Best of luck.

PS: nothing wrong with taking a short breather from practicing all the time. Sometimes, like with athletes, you can 'over train.'

one thing that keeps my interest and passion up for playing is jamming with others. informally, we get together once a week. we've opened it up to others too by aggressive word of mouth.
now, each week, we have many differnt players with differnet instruments and backgrounds.

why dont you post a word in a music zine or other place that musicians stop and read.

I join in on the "go play with others" suggestion from dogbite!

Myself, I have been playing on my own for many years - didn't really get any better for the last years, but couldn't really stop either. Playing for my kids have allways been pleasant and some small "performances", playing Dylan in the church during - erh what do you call it - baptisms?, or playing Beatles at wedding parties has kinda made me keep going. Last year I finally managed to join a band (actually the band was more or less a present to me together with a Epiphone LP to my 30th birthday :))

It is a whole new world to me - imagine being able to leave the bass lines to the bass player, concentrating instead on small fills or solos or... :D I have been inspired to really practice electric guitar - putting my preliminary knowledge on scales and chords up the fret board in system, working on melody lines and riffs, trying to improve my picking technique etc,etc.

Maybe also it is time to try something new - if you play electric, switch to acoustic, maybe fingerpicking "Don't think twice its allrigth", if you play acoustic switch to electric, find somebody (I know, it could be a real challenge!) and blast away on small solos or try the neat little fills in "Waterloo Sunset" or ...

Hey - don't give up :) (I know 'cause I gave up violin 15 years ago - it is not even close to fun trying to pick it up again these days!)

Lars

and I agree with Lars.

you should listen to us. :D

and I agree with Lars.

you should listen to us. :D
I agree with dogbite. You should listen to him. :lol:

I quit once for a long time which started off as a short time and realized it was because I was not playing with anyone and I was bored. It is the biggest mistake I made in my life (outside of first wife). When I came back all I remembered was the bad habits and had to start over.

Thanks everyone, I just got back from school (I posted before I left) and i'm surprised by all the responses. Anyways, I really like the idea of writing my own stuff and jamming with other people, so I think i'm gonna try and do that: my brother plays as well so i'm sure me and him can jam sometime.

I've always found writing MUSIC to come quite natural to me (not to brag or anything), just that I don't find coming up with riffs and chord progressions to be that tough, however adding a vocal melody and lyrics are another story. I guess it's something I just have to keep working on.

Thanks again everyone, maybe I won't need to take a break :lol: I've just been worrying about the wrong things. One question remains though, DemoEtc said to pick up some recording gear... I was thinking of just picking up one of those tape recorders with a built in mic (the one I've been looking at getting actually has a mic input as well), would that be good enough for the time being? after all, it's just for writing, not professional recording.

steve-0. glad you are back.

I use a mimi disc recorder to record my song ideas...and the jams.

my guitar playing got so much betetr by jamming. hugely better.
so go for it.

I've always found writing MUSIC to come quite natural to me (not to brag or anything), just that I don't find coming up with riffs and chord progressions to be that tough, however adding a vocal melody and lyrics are another story. I guess it's something I just have to keep working on.

See..Don't worry about it...You're like Elton John, and you're just searching for your Bernie Taupin.

Hi Steve,

I would say that playing guitar is a lot like marriage. It's not going to be all sparkle and hot lovin' seven days a week for years on end.

No matter how exciting it all was at first, it isn't necessarily going to automatically make your strings go zing every day after seven years. Same with music and guitars.

As others said, trying something fresh is good. Different styles of music, playing with other people and so on. And I really enjoy exploring writing my own stuff too. But mostly the enjoyment comes back again, there's always a bit of ebb and flow.

Cheers, Chris

I agree with everyone. You have to put your skills to use. Playing and practicing alone in your bedroom is fine when you start out. Most people do not have enough confidence to perform at first. But after awhile you pretty much get guitar down. Now what do you do?

So you have to do something to keep the juices flowing. Like everybody said, start recording some beautiful music of your own. Recording is very difficult, more difficult than performing because you must play everything perfect. This is an excellent way to improve as a player.

On the other hand, performing is difficult too. You don't get a second chance!

Find somebody to jam with. Play at church. Go to open mics. Form a band.

I have never really lost interest because I have always gotten out and played somehow. I played in bands when I started out. Later, when I was busy with a family I would play at church often. I also made recordings at home. Now I play in bands again. But I can't just sit around and play to myself.

So get out there somehow. The challange of playing with others, performing, or recording will keep you from ever getting bored. :D

I'm going through one of those bad patches myself....trying to record some new songs I wrote a couple of weeks or so back, but somehow they jus don't sound anything like they do in my head.....

Been to the pub tonight, first time I've been for a few weeks....it was going downhill then, it's sub-sea level now...I don't think I'll be bothering again...hell I was home for 11.00 pm, usually don't get in till at least one....

But like I said, it's just a bad patch...I've had them before, and it probably won't be the last....but I'll work through it one way or another.....

At least I've got Status Quo to look forward to next Tuesday....that will probably make me reach for the Squier Tele next Wednesday and not want to put it down....

I hope so anyway.....this is the first time I can remember since I joined guitarnoise a couple of years ago where i really can't be bothered with guitar, hardly picked one up for the last couple of weeks...

Vic

evreryone goes through droughts.....just hang in their man...when i can't think of anything to do i usually tab out a song right now im making my own tab book and i have about 70 snogs tabbed out already....so maybe thats a good stratagy