How many times have you quit guitar?

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Despite suggestions to the contrary I've been going non-stop since '66.

[TDavis]

Shoot, I have picked up the instrument...and have given it up because I was too dang lazy to practice and learn it, probably 10-15 times in my life. Now, at 60 I have come back to it for me...not for anybody else, and I'm dedicated to learn to play as well as I can, and I'm not nearly as lazy as I used to be!

[ghostnote]

I've never quit, but when I was a kid, I had a real conflict between guitar and sports. Sports won out most of the time - I'd be in my room on a summer evening, painfully plinking away at my guitar lessons, but all I could hear was the neighborhood kids out playing baseball. Or football, or basketball, etc. I could not see how the pain of reading and playing "O Sole Mio" for the 90th time was going to help me play the songs I heard on the radio. As a result, I was one of those kids who always had a guitar under the bed; I'd play it for 3 months or so, then it would sit there for the next 6 months, untouched. I did that until I was an adult. I was not a good guitar player, but at least I was very good at most sports!
Now I'm old, I play guitar much better, and play sports much worse...

[Silly Moustache]

1983. I woke up virtually paralysed.

Some time later in hospital they diagnosed a lymphatic sarcoidosis which effectively froze up every joint. I regained the ability to walk, well stagger, after about 6 months, and returned to work - far too early, as I was in significant pain for most of following ten years - very tiring and not conducive to performing well in a work situation.

The D35, my Dobro and mandolin were put up into the unheated, un-insulated attic for ten summers and winters.

As my mobility slowly improved my creative instincts were applied to photography, which was something I could do in private so my agonies need not be shared. I found an unused darkroom in my company's social club, joined a couple of clubs, entered competitions and exhibitions, and did very well.

In 1993 I saw a guitar in a local dealer and thought about my instruments again. My wife brought them down and they were in remarkably good condition.

i performed in public a few months later- a short "floor" spot" in a club that I had often performed with a bluegrass band as booked artists.
Within a year or two I was running the place.

I have been limited by illness of the past two years but am slowly getting back into it as long as my hands last out.

[numb fingertips]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

1983. I woke up virtually paralysed.

Some time later in hospital they diagnosed a lymphatic sarcoidosis which effectively froze up every joint. I regained the ability to walk, well stagger, after about 6 months, and returned to work - far too early, as I was in significant pain for most of following ten years - very tiring and not conducive to performing well in a work situation.

The D35, my Dobro and mandolin were put up into the unheated, un-insulated attic for ten summers and winters.

As my mobility slowly improved my creative instincts were applied to photography, which was something I could do in private so my agonies need not be shared. I found an unused darkroom in my company's social club, joined a couple of clubs, entered competitions and exhibitions, and did very well.

In 1993 I saw a guitar in a local dealer and thought about my instruments again. My wife brought them down and they were in remarkably good condition.

i performed in public a few months later- a short "floor" spot" in a club that I had often performed with a bluegrass band as booked artists.
Within a year or two I was running the place.

I have been limited by illness of the past two years but am slowly getting back into it as long as my hands last out.

Wow, that's an incredible journey. It's good to see you geting back to normal, and thank you for all the great advice in the past.

[Bridgepin]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

Quit? Never, been playing continuously since '67. But there have been seasons when family, career, and other obligations put guitar much lower on my priority list.

This is pretty much sums it up for me also. I would love to be better, but I still really enjoy playing.

[Mandobart]

"I can quit whenever I want..."
Seriously I started playing music in 5th grade. Took up guitar in 8th grade. I never stopped, but like others found times where other responsibilities (military service, college, raising kids, career) moved it to the background. I've played guitar for the past 42 years, but as we all know its not the years that count, its the hours. One thing that helped me is I'm a quick learner - I was able to get the basics of playing chords and then playing and singing simultaneously in short order. Had I been like some who struggle for years without achieving that much I'd likely have quit. I was strictly rhythm for most of my playing life, but since taking up mandolin 10 years ago (which involves a lot of melody lines) I've branched out to melody breaks and leads on guitar as well. By the far the best trick I've found to keep learning, keep improving and most importantly keep motivated is regularly getting together with friends to play.

[jschmitz54]

In sixth grade about 12 years old, myself as the singer, two friends, one on guitar and another on drums started a band. They wanted me to learn guitar and I was all for that. I bugged my parents for an electric guitar and amp but when they decided it might be ok and took me to the music store the salesperson talked them into a Harmony nylon string acoustic starter guitar. Not to be deterred I started private lessons but was kicked out of the band. I took a few lessons and this will sound incredibly ridiculous but I didn’t put together the idea that the notes on the page corresponded to a string and fret on the guitar. After about three or four lessons this idea of the notes, strings and frets finally became real to me and I understood it. I was so completely embarrassed that I didn’t understand this that I quit lessons. I had no one to explain that that was how learning can be, that is, the light bulb coming on concept. I just felt ridiculous for not getting it from the start. I kept the guitar for years but never progressed beyond a few chords. Eventually as a poor college student I sold the guitar to a pawn shop.
A little less than a year ago, at 63 I decided to deal with the regret of quitting lessons and take up guitar again. This time I’m committed to learning and really enjoy the challenges and playing. I’m sticking with it this time around.

[Chickee]

It’s so odd, that thought had never occurred to me before. Bahahaha🎶

[Naboz]

Quit? Never, never, never...
even when I was "out on the road" with just a backpack and my thumb, I carried along my FG 335 ("it's a girl my lord in a flat-bed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me!")
Playing accesses my Muse, and sets me in a place of comfort and relaxation
(I can honestly say I've never been angry while playing my guitar).

[Kerbie]

Started at 13 and haven't quit yet.

[lt20dbl]

Tried at 11. Failure. Again at 17. Failure. Again at 19 (saved up for a decent guitar). Success! Now 65 and a 30 year veteran of making a living at it.

[s2y]

2001-2013. I played bass guitar during that time.

[Johny Tenthumbs]

I quit one time, thousands cheered.

[mercy]

Quit and started several times but something happened to change that. Many years ago a friend said to me "Ive quit quitting". Ive been playing ever since.