Is your guitar playing feeling a bit stale lately?
Try these things to bust out of that rut:
• Imagine a time or circumstance where you could never play guitar again. You were in a car accident and both your hands had to be amputated. Yikes.
• Change the strings on your guitar and polish it.
• Ask yourself if there is anything that is really important in music that you’ve forgotten about
• Cry
• Go for a jog
• Meditate
• Stop playing the guitar for a few days and just listen to music, listening closely to what you appreciate and find inspiring
• Get Hypnotized
• Isolate yourself from guitar AND music for a few days
• Volunteer at the closest nursing home
• Sell all your guitar equipment on eBay and learn to play bagpipes
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Guitar Lesson #1: If You Don’t Know Where You are Going, Any Road Will Take You There. Guitar Lesson # 2: Thoughts on Technique
6 responses so far ↓
1 bruce casazza // Sep 24, 2008 at 9:33 am
sell all your guitar equipment and get bagpipes?
come on, not the most helpful advice I ever heard.
2 cy vereshack // Mar 18, 2010 at 8:57 am
Its true. Sometimes separating yourself from your guitar is the only way to appreciate again. I usually am more inspired when I pick it back up. Sometimes you just need a break.
3 Larry Smith // Mar 18, 2010 at 9:58 am
I have some other recommendations:
1) Go out and watch a GOOD band play. There’s nothing like seeing a MONSTER guitarist who is just as anonymous as YOU. And there are thousands of good ones out there – there’s bound to be at least ONE in every market.
2) Pop over to Indaba Music (http://www.indabamusic.com), start a profile there, and get involved in OTHER people’s sessions. Instead of having to write, record, and produce your own music, if you challenge yourself to ENHANCE someone else’s project (it’s their song – don’t try to take it over, just add to it tastefully!) it can really help re-connect you to what you love about guitar.
And yeah Jeff, the bagpipes comment probably doesn’t really help anyone…
4 Bruce // Mar 18, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Wow, this is an old article. I responded over 2 years ago.
5 jimmy mac // Mar 23, 2010 at 7:13 am
I am a multi-instrumentalist as well as a diversified stylist . I stop playing with a pick for a while and learn a tune from the REAL BOOK as a chord melody exercise. In the past i would focus on a violin composition and stay away from the guitar – absence makes the strings feel good again . Finally , learn an aspect of the instrument you are not familiar with . I studied Flamenco Guitar for awhile but there are so many options – African Music or Cuban music . Practice Rhythm exercises from the Hindemith book – be a part of the music community not just guitar . There are so many positive distractions and i think the list presented by the editor was too limited but what do i know.
-jimmy
6 Robert Riley // Mar 23, 2010 at 7:58 am
Or, learn to sing. Too few singing instrumentalists anyway.
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