Members Minitruth Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 I did. My old teacher said he quit completely for five years. Anyone else? Why? What made you quit quitting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thatsbunk Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 I was in a band in High School & College back in the late 70's early 80's but stopped playing entirely for about 20 years. I was motivated to start up again when a close friend picked up the guitar for the first time at 43. I saw he was having a lot of fun & realized I missed it, & have been going strong since the early 2000's. I've found this time around since there's so much guitar related information available on the internet as compared to the "stone age" when I first started, it's easier to keep learning new stuff & not get bored with the instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted February 28, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 I was in a band in High School & College back in the late 70's early 80's but stopped playing entirely for about 20 years. I was motivated to start up again when a close friend picked up the guitar for the first time at 43. I saw he was having a lot of fun & realized I missed it, & have been going strong since the early 2000's. I've found this time around since there's so much guitar related information available on the internet as compared to the "stone age" when I first started, it's easier to keep learning new stuff & not get bored with the instrument. That's awesome! Let me ask you this: What were your goals this time around? Jamming at home? Playing in a band? Open mics? Do you actually find it satisfying or gratifying now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 I once went for 3 weeks without playing. Never doing THAT again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 Actually - I'm pretty sure the second longest break was 6 days. Pretty good commitment over a 38 year period. I should be committed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 There bed a few times I was too sick to get out of bed. Back in the 80's I had mono that beat the living hell out of me or 2 weeks. Wore my butt completely to a frazzle about 6 years ago and didn't play for a few weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted February 28, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 This teacher would force "Hideaway" on students so he could trot them out at his gigs. I got to know one of these guys and this was the ONLY thing he knew how to play. No surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RaVenCAD Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 A few years ago I developed some tendon and nerve problems in my left wrist. I could play for just a few minutes at a time and I was in agony. So I quit playing for about 2 years. Then I finally decided that the pain didn't matter anymore. I picked it back up, played it, felt the pain, said screw you pain, played on and eventually it just stopped mattering to me. It still hurts, but I don't let it ruin my life. When I bought my Marshall a few weeks ago I played for 9 hours. Pain, psh... Ain't nobody got time for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 In the late 80s - early 90s I was pretty active in our local music scene, played in a couple of bands and did a bunch of gigs and recording with one of them. After some big initial success the first year or two, the band started to fade. Our charismatic lead singer quit or was fired, I don't remember, but it was he got addicted to the junk. Our then band leader/lead guitarist was also addicted, but "found Jesus" and basically didn't want to play anymore. By then our band had run out of steam. We even recorded an album's worth of material that was never released. I kept most of my equipment, but a lot of it was in storage for a year or two. I think I kept my tele around and strummed it every so often, but for all intents and purposes, I didn't play music for three or four years. In the early to mid-aughts a friend of mine moved back into town and we began working on various music projects together, and I've been doing *something* musical ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted February 28, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 That's hardcore! 10/10 I read it twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted February 28, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 What I'm getting from this is that this happens more than I'd thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 I quit playing in the mid 80's, around the time I got married. Then in summer, 2003 I got inspired to write a hymn for our church's centennial. Mind you, my only guitar at the time was a 12-string acoustic. I got it out of the case, tuned it up, turned on a cassette recorder and started playing. I've kept at it ever since. So all told a gap of about 18 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thatsbunk Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 back with a band with a bunch of old friends- We play out 3-4 times a year & just play for the fun of it (that & it keeps me relatively sane). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted February 28, 2017 Members Share Posted February 28, 2017 3 months. Blew out a tendon in the hand playing bass in 89, then picked up guitar seriously since it didn't hurt as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted February 28, 2017 Moderators Share Posted February 28, 2017 I 'quit' around 1978; Sold my Marshall Half Stack, and some other things. I was doing sound for a number of bands that were working steadily [the punk/Hollywood New Wave scene], which made it hard for me to play in any bands for myself. When I finally burned out in the early 80s, I was finishing college [at night as well...didn't sleep much in those days]. Two weeks after I graduated, I was in a working band, that was 1986...so about 8 years where I rarely picked up a guitar, played piano, bass or sang. During that period, though, I fathered 3 great kids, bought a house, did a number of other things...music had just sort of lost its attraction. Since 1986, a few short breaks due to injuries, but I have been working in, fronting, siding etc pretty much for the last 30 years. Also worked for a few music industry manufacturers in the 90s... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 No. My father played and I don't remember ever not playing. I got serious about it (practicing every day) when I was eleven and that was fifty years ago. About ten years ago I had a serious bout of tendonitis and thought I was finished. When I told the doctor what I did, he suggested that I quit playing. I still had to work so I decided that I would stop except for gigs. That didn't work because I got stiff and couldn't get warmed up until the last set. Once I discovered that Yoga is the cure for many ailments, including tendonitis, I was back at it full time again. I always had some interest in the Yogic lifestyle but never did anything about it until I couldn't play guitar anymore. When I started, the Yoga teacher would talk about incorporating things into my morning practice - which always conjured up visions of a semi-acoustic guitar and a cup of coffee. Now that I've been doing it for a while, I'm convinced that a regular Yoga practice is the best possible thing a person can do for his/her self and I think of the tendonitis as a blessing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 Yeah. You gotta leave space to keep it interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AJ6stringsting Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I was a road dog / gigging musician that traveled all lower 48 states of the U.S. and 6 Canadian Provinces. Man jamming with local musicians, playing / learning from them was awesome and learning different styles of Blues, Classic Rock and other forms of music.I stopped traveling after I moved from L.A's Fair Fax District to my home town.Grunge came in so I put the guitar down for four years. Soon, I was cutting fire lines for the U.S. Forestry Service. Then at a fire camp , a fire crew member from out of state was playing a Les Paul copy with a tiny Crate amp. He let me play it for a few hours and I knew then I had to get my guitars out of their cases and get back to playing.I was a total Shred guitarist with the left hand of Allan Holdsworth, picking hand of Yngwie Malmsteen, doing 8 fingered /two hand tapping and love both Blues and Classical guitar styles. It was very hard getting back into shape to play that way again, good thing I had play with more feel.It was like falling in Love again and I'll never quit ever again !!!! 👍👹😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emory Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I'm a geezer, started trying to play in 1965. Had some problems with my Magnatone amp in 77, didn't have money to fix, so just put it all away. In 1998 was out on stress disability, got old nylon string out of the basement, started strumming and found out it didn't hurt my head to do so. It was therapy, and still is. I'm no great shakes on guitar (though some think I am, but what do they know?). I walk down to beach just about every day it is not raining with one of my gits, one of my battery powered amps. If someone shows up to play with, fine. If no one shows up, fine. Beats drinking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bucksstudent Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I went through periods were I stopped playing electric and focused on acoustic, or even bass, but never all together. Lately with work and my wife, I don't get as much time in, but I try to play when I can. As long as I can still run through my routine without major quirks, I'm not paranoid about losing my chops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 longest was something between 3 to 5 weeks, i don't remember what my longest vacation was, without any guitar at hand.but i had a time during my university time, where i would only grab the guitar once a week or less and only for 5 minutes or a song or 2. so it was not really playing for a couple of years. since 2003 we have our band and try to rehearse regularly, for some time we managed two times a week, but now with kids and other stuff it would be great to have it once a week. since almost one year i started a daily practicing/exercis routine and never had more playing time before, as i have now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Warning - injury description post - this may be a bit difficult to read. Guitar? No, I've never really stopped playing. I started messing around with it when I was a high school freshman and I started getting more serious when I was a junior. The only time I stopped playing was when I was 17-18. I was working in a local music store, and one of my jobs was to deliver pianos. The store had a delivery truck with a lift gate and a roll-top door on the back, and I got distracted while closing it one day after getting back to the store after a delivery, and instead of grabbing the handle, I grabbed between two of the slats and yanked the door down hard. The fingertips of my left hand middle and ring fingers were in between the slats as the door shut. It tore the tips of both fingers off, basically down to the bone. I was taken to an urgent care place where they stitched me back together and put some rather large bandages on my hands that kept me from playing anything for two or three weeks. After that they went to smaller bandages that I could kind of work around enough to hobble through stuff on a nylon string, and it was a couple more weeks before I could start trying to mess around with an electric again. I wasn't able to play a steel string acoustic for even longer. I have to say, the Doc did a great job - you can hardly tell anything ever happened to those fingers now, even if you look really close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 Lucky no nerve damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 Got your basic "unplayable starter acoustic" back around '66 or '67 when I was around 10 or so. Couldn't even figure out how to keep it tuned. Later bought a cheapo imported electric around 1970 or so. It was also set up poorly and I never found an amp for it because of limited shopping where we lived.skip forwardskip forwardskip forward1984 I buy a Gibson Les Paul Studio Custom Shop Edition and haven't quit playing since. I'm not a great player, consider myself to be a bit of a hack, but it's a rare day when I don't pick up one of my electrics. I drive my wife crazy by watching TV and playing guitar at the same time. I can't seem to sit still and just watch TV anymore unless I'm "multi-tasking" with a guitar in my lap. Half the nights I fall asleep in my living room chair with a guitar in my lap and an amp hissing next to me. So I kind of wake up playing guitar, go to sleep playing guitar (I do stop short of "frying bacon while playing guitar") but despite that dedication, I'm still no Jimi. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I know what you mean about TV but I don't dare sit there and play while my wife is watching "The Voice" ,so I do a string change ,general cleaning and check the set up or maybe work on the latest mod I have in mind. I have fallen asleep playing and had my hand fall across the strings to wake me up.That's when i know it's time to put it away . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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