Stopped playing Guitar?

Just wondered if theres any guys here who actually dont play guitar.... or who used to play but havent picked one up in a while.

I rarely play now. Probably because I got a new girl and Im concentrating on my pool!!

Im even considering selling my equipment because its worth a fair bit!

Weird thing is that people say to me to get into a band or learn new stuff.... but realyl I dont want to. I think I played guitar and got a lot out of it for 3 years but Ive sorta grown outa it. I used to like football when I was younger too but I dont anymore. weird huh :rolleyes:

Well, I'm sincerely sorry to hear that you're growing out of the guitar. Myself being the fanatic that I am, I encourange anyone to participate in music and I'd just say think about it nice and hard. As far as I can recall, since I've gotten into music everything else is second...Including my love life. I've been playing guitar for 2 years and bass for 3 years, 20 years old and I've never had a girlfriend. Every so often I wonder if I should go find one, but when I've got my guitar in hand I just forget everything I normally think of. All I know is that music is the very reason why I am here today and I'll never leave it, not for anyone or anything, but that's a lengthy/personal story for another time.

Originally Posted by: Axl_RoseJust wondered if theres any guys here who actually dont play guitar.... or who used to play but havent picked one up in a while... Weird thing is that people say to me to get into a band or learn new stuff.... but realyl I dont want to. I think I played guitar and got a lot out of it for 3 years but Ive sorta grown outa it... weird huh :rolleyes:

[font=trebuchet ms]I stopped for 2 or 3 years during my twenties, but I never stopped thinking of myself as being a guitar player. When I picked it up again, I did so for the joy of it, as well as the need for it. I haven't played in a full-time band since then. I just jam with different people to share that special feeling of making music together.

It may be that your years of buying and selling guitars has caused you to regard them as a commodity. My time as a professional musician showed me that turning a hobby into a business killed the joy of doing it.

I'd suggest hanging on to one special guitar, if you have one. Sell everything else, and get on with your life. If making music is really part of you, the need to play will bring you back. If that doesn't happen, it's OK. No-one says you have to be a musician to reach your potential. The appreciation of music will stay with you forever. That doesn't mean you can't live a full life without actually playing music.

Good luck to you, whatever your choices may be.[/font]

Don't sweat it. If ya get the urge to play again you'll know it and there's no point in playing guitar if ya don't feel it.
I pawned my guitar and didn't pick it up for two years once cause I was too busy going to college and working evenings.
Ya don't lose the ability to play over time so when you go back to it, it only takes a coupla days to get your fingers warmed up again.
Think of it like going backpacking through Europe while you decide whether you want to go to University or not. While you're gone you can learn all kinds of new cultural stuff (new styles of music), and when ya get back you'll know what direction you want to take with your future.
Kinda poetic ain't it.

Man it's sad to hear that you're thinking of quitting the guitar. Especially if you stuck it out for 3 years. You should get a case of beer and listen to the Appetite for Destruction album to get reinspired. If you do end up quitting I have a hunch you'll be back at some point like the others did.

About two years ago I sort of quit playing guitar.
Like yourself, I felt that guitar didn't give me anything anymore.
It was a strange feeling, I wanted to play guitar, but I didn't.
Since I was 8 my life has more or less circulated around guitarplaying,
so my mind refused to let it go. But once I started playing, something
was missing, it just wasn't fun anymore.
Then I did my military service, so even if I wanted to I could'nt play.
And so my service came to an end, and I found myself without anything
to do, so I decided why not give the old Strat another chance?
Unfortunately, the results were the same this time.
But then, as I saw that little chinese girl playing (you know in the
"Now THAT'S unbelievable!"-thread), and I instantly got this strange
feeling "wow now I just GOTTA learn those songs!".
So I picked up the acoustic for the first time in a while, and sat down
and tried to learn Gran Jota.
Now 4-5 months later not a day goes by without at least 4 hours of
classical guitar practice, I just can't get enough!
I've gotten further in my guitarplaying in 5 months than I have
done the last 5 years before. I have however come to terms with
the fact that my interest in electric guitar seems forever cool.

So:
If you miss having fun playing guitar, take it easy.
In 1, 3, 10 or 30 years maybe you will pick it up again. You never know.
And if you don't? Well, that's the way it is sometimes.
I was, like you, in love with football (or "soccer" as you yanks insist on calling it),
but now I have'nt played it for 10 years.
I used to love mashed potatoes too. I hate it now.
Don't worry too much, it's not the end of the world.

But for the love of god, don't play if you don't want to, that'll make you hate
guitar for sure. There's nothing worse you could do.

Trading guitars has definately not helped. Ive not had a steady guitar for two years... never one set up like I like em, or even string n tuned as I like.

Im giving up trading though... selling off my last 5 then... or 4 and keeping the one that doesnt sell.

I'll always consider myself a guitarist... Im pretty good even for a player of 3 years. I just dont even listen to music as much these days. The two bands I grew up idolising, GnR and Aerosmith, have slowly lost my attension. Music isnt really a big part of my life now.

At nights I used to sit at the bottom of my bed, on a bean-bag, in the darkness, lit only by the small blue LCD of my hifi! I'd play records and pretend I was a DJ on a rock show! Sad huh! But back then I was really passionate about music.

Music has always been the backdrop to memorable moments in my life. Almost every song I like can be tied to experiences or feeling I felt at one time while that song was on! I guess thats why music canbe so emotive, cos when you hear that song you relive those feelings from the past! :(

I'll NEVER forget the first time I heard Aerosmith... was in my cousins car and she played "Love in an Elevator"!! Totally blew my mind!

I've had to stop playing the guitar twice in the 10 or so years I've been playing. Both time were because I broke my right hand. Both times it was a little awkward getting back into the groove of things, but I think having to work harder to get my hand to work right helped me have better right hand technique. I also used to be an artist and drew ALL the time, but after the broken hands, it never came back to me :(

Yep, don't sweat it, it comes and goes and trying to force it could kill it for life !!

My wife had piano lessons / recorder lessons from an very early age and has been able to sight read music from the age of 6. She took music at collage and rarely touches an instrument these days. It is a pity cos she can wipe the floor with my best musical efforts when she so much as breaks wind however this can be what happens when you try and force it !

I first started playing when I was about 10. Dropped it for a couple of years and took it up again when I was 13, and played right through to 1992 when I started my Masters Degree.

I stopped playing right through my PhD.

About 4 years a go I decided I'd give it another go and it just hasn't stopped ! I went out and got me a strat and a small Marshall and was buzzing like a good un !

And now Im just loving it more than ever and the more I play, the better I get !

The fact that it feels weird for you that you wanna quit means that there was passion there while it lasted. It wasn't a fling or a one night stand,lol.
So you felt it. And it felt good. And that's the only reason you should play. Coz it feels good.
If it's stopped, no one's died. Do whatever feels right. If it ever comes back, s'all good. If it doesn't, s'all. Different people love their things; some their guitars, others their paint brushes, others their poetry, others their students, others their research materials and equipment and stuff (there's a coupla PhD's in here), and so on and so on.They do it for love.
Do what you do for love man.

DOC:
Still have those tiny walkman amps?
And whatever happened to the hedgehog? (I love idiosyncracies like these!! A hedgehog. I should get me some animal too).

As you can see, most everyone has a time where they don't play...I went through it for about 2 years while I was in college. I picked up my guitar maybe once every 2 weeks, for a few minutes....If nothing else, wait a couple of years before you sell your equipment. Give it some time so you won't regret anything.

Both the hedgehogs have died, very sad ! We will probably have more one day however as Im still looking for a faculty position either in the US or the UK we are not really settled enough for another just yet !

As for the mini amps we I still have them however after getting the TSL100 they don't get a lot of use !

I've never stopped on my will, i break my fingers in sports alot, so that is probably the only time i have stopped playing for a bit.

Originally Posted by: Dr_simonBoth the hedgehogs have died, very sad !

You know, we were all quite happy and here you go depressing us with this. :mad:

You can tire of any of your LPs my way any time.

I couldnt bring myself to sell one of my guitars, their like very loud little people, WOULD YOU SELL YOUR OWN CHILDREN, WOULD YOU.

Everyones got their favourites but no two guitars feel the same, once you sell them thats it, if later you decide to start playing again and buy another of one of your guitars it just doesnt feel the same, it may look exact and have all the same specs but when you own and play a guitar for so long you imprint part of yourself on it and when you leave this world you will be stuck in limbo for ever searching for the lost pieces of your soul that you sold away.

If at the moment you truly feel that your passion for guitar has well and truly burnt out then by all means stop or at least take a break so you can put things into perspective but dont force yourself to be interested and most important of all dont sell all your guitars, if you want to sell them than find the one that you connect with the most when you play it and sell the restbut never all of them because if a few months or years down the track you feel like having a play and you dont have a guitar than you may be miss out on regaining what it is you once loved about th e guitar

Originally Posted by: Dr_simonAs for the mini amps we I still have them however after getting the TSL100 they don't get a lot of use !

Is the tsl that thing you posted a picture of and asked "... you mean a rack as in this?..."?
I don't know why that thing makes me think of fancy high performance cars. it just does. Maybe it's all the knobs.
It also depresses me. Learning guitar alone is hard enough. Only to find out I'll need to learn how to work something like that as well. I'll try do handle the first part.
And now that i remembered, when I announced here that I'd formed a band, you're one of the people who wished me well. So i guess an update is not out of place.
So we formed a band. But we lived about 200km from each other (the three of us). Then one of the guys lost his cell phone. And since no one memorises numbers saved in a cell phone, we couldn't reach other. Then guess what? The guy who was the farthest joined Kenyatta University, which is about 30 km from my home town, Thika. The other guy was a final year education student at the same uni, and they bumped into each other. How's that for cincidence? Then the final year student goes for teaching practice. And where is the school he goes to? THIKA. If that is not God, I dunno what is.
Anyway, we've started practicing together. And we've found two gigs. One is at some gas station/ pub called metro fill, the other is a small but storied hotel called The Blue Posts Hotel (it's mentioned in Expelth Huxley's The Flame Trees of Thika).
Not a bad start, if you ask me. We'll take it from there.
I'm feeling good. Really good.

I gave away my first guitar to a friend of mine that had an interest in learning guitar. He didn't stick with it and gave it to his brother for a tattoo and I've regretted giving it away since. Tried getting it back, but that's not happening. That's the only piece of equipment I had that is no longer in my possession. Only piece I intend on losing too. It wasn't much of a guitar, but it was mine and there's something special to me about a guitar that belongs to me personally. Don't know what it is...materialistic maybe..? but all I know is I'll never get rid of anything else of mine. All my gear has been a milestone for me.

Originally Posted by: meandmyRG... Everyones got their favourites but no two guitars feel the same, once you sell them thats it, if later you decide to start playing again and buy another of one of your guitars it just doesnt feel the same...

[font=trebuchet ms]I used to agree with that until I bought my second 1984 Yamaha SBG1000. Until I plug in to an amp, I can't tell them apart unless I look at the pickups. I installed different models of DiMarzio pickups in them. Otherwise, they're twins. They both weigh the same, feel the same, and sound the same. Right down to the crazy harmonics that fade in as a note is held! As one the reviewers on Harmony Central said, these guitars were made by people who care![/font]

I can't live without music. I CAN'T asleep unless I'm listening to music. And I haven only been playng guitar for 2 years but at one point I wanted to be good at guitar but I didn't love playing it, then somehjow it just sparked back.