General Music Chat

There are times when one may lose interest in playing or performing music for a while.
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It may be a week, a month, or more than a year.
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For those who have been through this - and come back - I have 2 questions:
1) What caused it?
2) What happened, that you re-gained interest?
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- Alan

I took time off to learn a trade (IT). I was tired of being broke. I had a guitar and a bass but didn't play much.

Got married and focused on that for a while. I guess I was out of the loop for ten or twelve years. At one point I got drunk and burned my songbook, declaring myself a failure.

Then around the turn of the century I started playing more and brushing up on theory. Next thing you know I was writing songs again.

Getting back into it as you say, was I guess after I wrote a song called "Encore" and realized I'd gotten motivated again. Started jamming with various outfits and playing both lead and bass.

It was good to be back. I don't have the job or the wife anymore but I have the music and some clear goals.

Talbot

Yeah, Mike, I had a similar experience.
My girlfriend moved in, and I stopped playing. I guess I didn't like to have people around when I practice, or something, Idunno . . .
I quit for about 10 years.
If I'd kept at it, I'd have 10 years more experience.
I'd pick up the guitar once every few months, for 10 minutes.
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I got back into it about 10 years ago.
What got me back into it was wanting to hear new music, and only being able to hear the same old tired crap on all the radio stations around here.
To hear new stuff, I had to write it.
And then people started saying they liked my songs. That was pretty cool; I'd always thought my songs were weird or something.
Anyway, I liked writings stuff, and if people liked hearing it . . .
Well, that was my incentive for getting back into it.

In the early 90s it stopped being fun for me. I still played at home infrequently. My old Fender amp sat unused in the spare bedroom, gathering dust, as did my 72 Tele.
Then around 2008 my wife gave me a Line 6 Guitarport that let me plug into the computer and sample a ton of FX. That got me to at least change the strings on the Tele.
Then around 2010 the 'muse' finally returned, unexpectedly, and I started writing more songs. I played at a big party wiht some friends and realized how much I missed playing out.

Hmmmm . . . I'm noticing that a lot of these changes have something to do with a girlfriend or wife . . .

What caused your interest to change?

hasn't happened yet. i'm not a lot of fun to be around if i go more than a day or two w/o playing.