Confidence

[CigBurn]

I lower the lights a bit, stand in front of the mirror, turn a fan on to blow though my hair all wavy like and play wild thing.

Works every time fifty-percent of the time.

Really though, sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes a week. But it eventually passes.

 

[El Gobernador]

Or just buy another guitar.

If you're a hobbyist/gear-flipper...sure. But I don't think Rich is going in that direction.

 

[nadzab]

I lower the lights a bit, stand in front of the mirror, turn a fan on to blow though my hair all wavy like and play wild thing.

Works every time fifty-percent of the time.

Really though, sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes a week. But it eventually passes.

Slap a little Sex Panther under your armpits, and you'll boost that ratio to 60%.

 

[rocknrollrich]

If you're a hobbyist/gear-flipper...sure. But I don't think Rich is going in that direction.

No new guitar for me. In fact I was contemplating selling a few.
Man, I am in a funk right now.

 

[Bob the builder]

And...

 

[33db]

Did you know men have emotional cycles? If I'm clean my stuff cycles at ~90 days, 60 or less if I'm drinking or whatever.
So I have these days I get up and it all flows, the food taste good, my chops don't sound like I've been playing the same pentatonic scale since high school, the barista gives me a knowing smile at the coffee shop, dogs wag their tails and cats look the other way when I walk by.

Then it traverses some neuronal gap and I go into my down cycle, generally less energetic, it's harder to find things are going well and food isn't all that great.

Sounds like depression? I actually went through getting diagnosed, in the end the diagnoses was "all shrinks are hacks and frauds... and dangerous".

The way to manage the down cycle is aerobic exercise, doing something fun that's different, and for me time alone.
Also eat well (meaning nutritious foods) don't drink too much and don't smoke everyday.

So don't feel bad, you will cycle back the other way, it's really only a problem if you stay at one end or the other.

 

[El Gobernador]

No new guitar for me. In fact I was contemplating selling a few.
Man, I am in a funk right now.

No need to get funked up brother.

I just sold my 65 Strat and my 71 Les Paul Custom.

I have my keepers. The rest is stuff.

 

[rocknrollrich]

No need to get funked up brother.

I just sold my 65 Strat and my 71 Les Paul Custom.

I have my keepers. The rest is stuff.

The black les Paul?

 

[El Gobernador]

The black les Paul?

Yep. I have my Tele-Gib. And my 355.

 

[CigBurn]

I have my keepers. The rest is stuff.

Amen to that.

 

[Bob Spumoni]

This might not be exactly on point here, but I was thinking that sometimes it's helpful to strip out all the fancy stuff, stop obsessing over how to correlate your flatfive substitutions with your aspirations in the area of quartal harmony, and just play simple, so that you can recapture the original delight you felt when you first started playing.

I usually play hybrid picking, and I have worked hard to make all my right fingers as independent as possible. I used to practice playing with just one right finger (often the pinky, since it needs the most work) to develop that dexterity, but I'm always delighted with the clumsy but innocent playing that results. You can find real pleasure, enforced by your chosen limitations, in playing something like "Irene Goodnight" (fer cryin' out loud: I love that song though), just revisiting every note and change, really listening, one clumsy note at a time.

Last week, when I got out of the cardio unit, I had only the use on my right hand of my ring finger and thumb to hold the pick (fingers are pretty much back in harness now, though sluggish), and I had the same experience, though the disability there was not my idea. That seems hopeful to me going forward.

Just don't don't try this with "Puff the Magic Dragon," say, or "Micah Row the Boat Ashore." Some songs are just irredeemably awful, no matter how many fingers are in play. lol

PS: I think no player takes better advantage of this than Jimmy Vaughn, whose right hand is magically awkward at times, deliberately so it seem. I used to think, "Poor Jimmy, his younger brother kicks his a** every day." Now I actually prefer the clumsy older brother, maybe because I increasingly am one such myself,

 

[Bob Spumoni]

Did you know men have emotional cycles? If I'm clean my stuff cycles at ~90 days, 60 or less if I'm drinking or whatever.
So I have these days I get up and it all flows, the food taste good, my chops don't sound like I've been playing the same pentatonic scale since high school, the barista gives me a knowing smile at the coffee shop, dogs wag their tails and cats look the other way when I walk by.

Then it traverses some neuronal gap and I go into my down cycle, generally less energetic, it's harder to find things are going well and food isn't all that great.

Sounds like depression? I actually went through getting diagnosed, in the end the diagnoses was "all shrinks are hacks and frauds... and dangerous".

The way to manage the down cycle is aerobic exercise, doing something fun that's different, and for me time alone.
Also eat well (meaning nutritious foods) don't drink too much and don't smoke everyday.

So don't feel bad, you will cycle back the other way, it's really only a problem if you stay at one end or the other.

It is irresponsible, I think, for you to extrapolate from your own idiosyncratic experience to say that all shrinks are frauds... etc," when for some such help is critical to their staying alive.

It's fabulous and all that you are so very wise and resilient, but you might, as you celebrate this, consider that others of your fellow men are not so gloriously gifted as you.

 

[33db]

It is irresponsible, I think, for you to extrapolate from your own idiosyncratic experience to say that all shrinks are frauds... etc," when for some such help is critical to their staying alive.

It's fabulous and all that you are so very wise and resilient, but you might, as you celebrate this, consider that others of your fellow men are not so gloriously gifted as you.

Call me irresponsible.

 

[BallisticSquid]

@rocknrollrich We are in unprecedented times with the pandemic and I think you need to take that into account. I go through phases like you describe...I think we all do to some extent or another...but it all seems to be amplified now. I've been working from home for a year. You would think that would give me extra time to really dig into what I didn't have time for before. It has had the opposite effect.

Guitar and music used to be my thing to the point that it was a large part of what defined me. Lately I've been thinking I should sell my gear and move on. At the very least, my guitars will likely be dusted off and put back in their cases.

I've decided I'm holding off on final judgement until we get back to something resembling normal.

This pandemic has wrought havoc on my psyche. Perhaps something similar is factoring into your situation.

 

[rocknrollrich]

@rocknrollrich We are in unprecedented times with the pandemic and I think you need to take that into account. I go through phases like you describe...I think we all do to some extent or another...but it all seems to be amplified now. I've been working from home for a year. You would think that would give me extra time to really dig into what I didn't have time for before. It has had the opposite effect.

Guitar and music used to be my thing to the point that it was a large part of what defined me. Lately I've been thinking I should sell my gear and move on. At the very least, my guitars will likely be dusted off and put back in their cases.

I've decided I'm holding off on final judgement until we get back to something resembling normal.

This pandemic has wrought havoc on my psyche. Perhaps something similar is factoring into your situation.

As always squid, you hit the nail on the head

 

[El Gobernador]

In my career...I've always done equal time gigging and recording.
And many hours self-recording since the late 70's with a 3340.

The lack of gigs doesn't affect me. So musically, the pandemic hasn't changed much when it comes to the making of music. Hell...I don't even need a guitar. Did this a few months ago. Just my laptop and a controller.



If you're in it to make music...go make music. There's no time like now to do it.

 

[simoncroft]

In my career...I've always done equal time gigging and recording.
And many hours self-recording since the late 70's with a 3340.

The lack of gigs doesn't affect me. So musically, the pandemic hasn't changed much when it comes to the making of music. Hell...I don't even need a guitar. Did this a few months ago. Just my laptop and a controller.



If you're in it to make music...go make music. There's no time like now to do it.

Hmnn, I like what you did there. To me, there's an underlying point to your post.

If your guitar playing presents some sort of stumbling block, try eliminating the guitar!

The lateral thinking guru Edward DeBono pointed out that you can design and redesign a stagecoach, but you only make real progress when you eliminate the horses from your design, and use an internal combustion engine instead.

For me, it's the same with music composition. I have less and less manual dexterity as the years go by, and I never was the greatest guitarist to begin with. As far as I know, Beethoven couldn't actually play every instrument of the orchestra (and by the end, he couldn't even hear them...) but that didn't stop him writing some of the greatest orchestral music ever composed.

I wrote something for guitar on a musical keyboard. It resulted in a part I probably wouldn't have developed with a guitar in my hand. The only trouble is, I'm six months on and I can only execute it on guitar at a fraction of the speed 'the composer' intended.

 

[BallisticSquid]

In my career...I've always done equal time gigging and recording.
And many hours self-recording since the late 70's with a 3340.

The lack of gigs doesn't affect me. So musically, the pandemic hasn't changed much when it comes to the making of music. Hell...I don't even need a guitar. Did this a few months ago. Just my laptop and a controller.



If you're in it to make music...go make music. There's no time like now to do it.

That was pretty cool.

 

[rocknrollrich]

In my career...I've always done equal time gigging and recording.
And many hours self-recording since the late 70's with a 3340.

The lack of gigs doesn't affect me. So musically, the pandemic hasn't changed much when it comes to the making of music. Hell...I don't even need a guitar. Did this a few months ago. Just my laptop and a controller.



If you're in it to make music...go make music. There's no time like now to do it.

Nice. I listened in the car, so I got to crank it up a bit. The bass is punchy and tight.

 

[rocknrollrich]

In my career...I've always done equal time gigging and recording.
And many hours self-recording since the late 70's with a 3340.

The lack of gigs doesn't affect me. So musically, the pandemic hasn't changed much when it comes to the making of music. Hell...I don't even need a guitar. Did this a few months ago. Just my laptop and a controller.



If you're in it to make music...go make music. There's no time like now to do it.

The lack of gigs has made me a little bit.... lazy?... no, not lazy.... just less pressure to learn this or that, or to get the work done.
I was in 3 working projects a little over a year ago, and I was hustling. Outside of my day job and family time, I always had a guitar in my hands.

I was constantly exercising the digits, and the grey matter (memorizing my parts, occasionally learning a new chord or inversion etc).

The pandemic gave me a break from that, but still wanting to play, I decided to get crackin on recording some songs.
I started with a few covers to get a handle on the recording process, and how to think like an engineer (which I'm not great at).
It has been a mostly good experience.

The rub came about a month or two ago, when I wanted to start branching out and write some. I've written a few good songs over the years, and I figured... "hey I can do this"..... well, I'm struggling with that at the moment.

The other thing that happened was less guitar time. Or I should say, less dedicated guitar time. I haven't been keeping up, and I got rusty.

So lately, it's been getting noticeable to me, and I'm having trouble getting the fire lit under my a$$.
While I was in 3 bands, I had that fire under my a$$ whether I wanted it or not.
Now I guess I'm just trying to get out of my own head if that makes any sense.

Edit
By the way, none of this is an excuse for my situation.
I hold myself responsible for myself, not the pandemic.
I didn't mean to be whiny, just venting