#16
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In one sense, I "give up" regularly. Every time I play, I reach a point where I feel like stopping and doing something else. So I "give up", at that moment. I might pick it up again in 2 minutes, in a few hours, the next day, or not for a few days. Just whenever I feel i want to. Some, like you say, will give up for months, or years, and may never go back to it at all. So what? What's the problem? If you want to, you do it, if you don't you don't. But the passion is what matters. If the guitar is not doing it for you, that's OK. Something else will. Or maybe the guitar will eventually. It's nothing to worry about. Where it can be an issue (I guess) is when you buy a load of gear - or just one expensive instrument - and then feel guilty if you're not getting your money's worth out of it. So if it's no longer fun to play, you feel like you need to sell it, because otherwise you feel it staring at you and accusing you. (Or your partner asks why you don't just sell it .) And so you sell it ... but then later you wish you hadn't! So you buy another one! And the cycle begins again! But again, the problem there is one of attitude: either expecting too much from the guitar, or having mixed up reasons for wanting to play.
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. |
#17
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Please don't take me too seriously, I don't. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Guild D-20 Gretsch Streamliner Morgan Monroe MNB-1w https://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/ |
#18
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Bob https://on.soundcloud.com/ZaWP https://youtube.com/channel/UCqodryotxsHRaT5OfYy8Bdg |
#19
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Sometimes I just down shift for a while.
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Barry My SoundCloud page Avalon L-320C, Guild D-120, Martin D-16GT, McIlroy A20, Pellerin SJ CW Cordobas - C5, Fusion 12 Orchestra, C12, Stage Traditional Alvarez AP66SB, Seagull Folk Aria {Johann Logy}: |
#20
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Yep, me, too. Sometimes I push hard and work on a project that really motivates me that might use up a couple of weeks of effort.
Then I take it easy for a week or two. And then I am ready to take on a new project again. - Glenn
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My You Tube Channel |
#21
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Thanks! |
#22
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I agree that short-term aims are very helpful and that five years may seem too long, even far too long.
I meant to say that you shouldn't try to accomplish in a day or a month what might take you years. I could have said it better. |
#23
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- Glenn
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My You Tube Channel |
#24
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#25
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I'll never give up the guitar until I reach that point in my old age that my hands will no longer cooperate with my brain. Hopefully I have at least another decade or so before that may become a reality.
I do get bored with my playing sometimes and when that happens I'll put down my OM or 000 and my fingerpicks and pick up my dread and do some flatpicking or I might pick up my resonator and a slide. Jack of all guitars, master of none, that's me but at least it keeps me in the game. |
#26
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Do you need to pass an exam, achieve a grade? If so, is there a time limit, a deadline on that? In that case - whether someone is demanding that of you, or you are demanding it of yourself - then you may well have to suffer a degree of "chore" in practice sessions. If that is a goal of your own making, hopefully you will get enough satisfaction out of eventually seeing the document with the number on it. Hopefully the sense of accomplishment - knowing where you stand in relation to your peers and to an official grading system - will make up for the tedium of those practice sessions. Yes, you did it, you made it! That's fine, but it really is nothing to do with music, with what music is about and what it's for. And course, if grades and competition are of no concern - if you are learning guitar purely as a recreational pursuit - then there should never be any sense of burden or chore involved. Why would there be? You play when you feel like it (and for as long as you feel it), and not when you don't. Of course you want to improve; you want to be able to make sounds that are good enough to entertain yourself (at least!), maybe family or friends, perhaps even perform with others, and/or (ultimately) to entertain strangers. But you can enjoy the process right from day one - because the secret is to focus on the present moment, on each sound you are making. Music is the best kind of "mindfulness" exercise. You can play one note, and just listen to it. You can play 3 blind mice, as slow as you need to, and enjoy the sound of that. You can start to tackle more difficult stuff, and feel it as an exciting challenge, not a painful chore. Can't play the F chord? Forget it, find songs which don't need an F chord. The more you play anything, the more your technique is improving. Return to the F chord now and then, and it will steadily get easier. And obviously, the more you enjoy every moment, the more you will play, so the faster you will improve. And when you stop playing (when you get tired, or it stars to hurt, or there are other things you need to do), then you look forward more eagerly to your next playing opportunity. Quite simply, you just need to find things you want to play! If you can already play them, focus on making them sound even better. If you can't yet play them, start working on them, note by note, chord by chord. If that tune gets boring before you finish it, put it on one side and find another.
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. |
#27
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I took the question differently. Some stop because it's a burden, as you say. Others stop out of frustration. I did in the early seventies for about six months because I realized that I'd never be the great player I wanted to be. But I missed it a lot and figured, wotthehell, and got up and running again. And others stop out of busy-ness. My work sometimes became all-consuming. Classic workaholic: It's gotta get done so I've gotta do it. There were long stretches when I didn't do anything fun besides work, which had its own entertainments. And, of course, there were times when I couldn't afford a guitar. That pretty much puts the kibosh on the whole enchilada. |
#28
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Being very new to guitar, 3 years casual after work practice, the only time I feel like giving up is when I think of the long term goals. It is a slow slog at the non-professional rate of practice, so if I think my value in playing is some future ability, I am screwed.
The value in playing is the joy and challenge of now and the near term goals, like getting those few bars of a new song under the fingers and into the memory. To feel the timing and put it together into the larger piece bit by bit. To get better moment to moment. To hear myself learn to make music. The long term view is an amorphous and difficult goal. What is good, what is mastery? The “masters” will all tell you they are still learning. If they are not, they probably aren’t “masters”. The long term skill growth will take care of itself if I learn and enjoy the moment I am playing. I try not to worry about the future. I don’t always succeed at that. |
#29
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. |