how often do players blocks hit you?

[scuzzo]

i mean you pick up the guitar and BLAH... just cant get it to groove.. its the freaking holiday and i should be able to enjoy my new guitar and stuff... and this freaking players block is like smacking into a freaking wall!! vent...

if it never happend to you and every note you string together is gold count your self blessed.. cause when it hits and the the ideas just smear together and its all gray.. its not fun..

 

so..

 

how often do you hit the dreaded players block...?

[=JL=]

I just put some unfamiliar CDs on and jam along. It soon disappears.

[Meowy]

For me I take note of when it is lifted, not when it is blocked.

Seriously though when the creativity is not there but I still want to play, I will just do some more mechanical / technical practicing so that I don't get frustrated trying to overcome my present lack of creative flow

[ExiledCrow]

On days like that I just put it down. I'm doing this for fun and if its not then I just stop because the last thing I want to do is make it a "chore", y'know?

 

Obviously though, its just for me, and I don't have any upcoming gigs to get ready for, YMMV.

[TheBlueStrat]

There's only one thing a man can do when he's suffering from a spiritual and existential funk. Go to the zoo and flip off the monkeys?

Nope. Buy new suits! Yay!


But seriously, I get this quite often. Sometimes I play very well the previous day and then suddenly I play and it's like it's my first time playing.

[FUBTAG]

you know what? A new guitar ALWAYS has the ability to break players' block for me. There something about the new tones and sounds (of a decent guitar) that is inspiring enough to get those juices flowing.

 

Relax.. it will happen...

[caveman]

One of the things that I do is to change things up. Sometimes I'll dust off the bass and fire up the SR-16 and lay down a trac. Then I'll see what that sugests with guitar.

[RickBeall]

I try to do my technical exercises on the days I get "players block". Another way around it is to .... Damn there is no other way around it.

Hmmmm.

There are a couple songs I want to get good enough to play in public. I like to sing and play at the same time. So, I grab my trusty acoustic, head to the basement, sit on the stool and pretend there is an audience, and then play. Sometimes if you imagine the audience the juice will start flowing to some degree.

If that does not work, then I prep the hallway for painting.

[jpnyc]

I had it for most of the last ten years. Then, last month, I was listening to Pantera and just got inspired to play again.

[crowguitar]

if you have a few guitars, its always good to put your "Number 1" away and pick up one you havent played in awhile. its like getting a new girl, all hot & steamy vs. same ole same old...lol

[abrasive]

I'm in one right now, actually.

For the last week, no matter what I start playing with, it always ends up coming back to the same boring bluesy thing.

So I stopped trying. I don't have time right now to sit down for 2 hours and just play until I get back into a groove, so when I do have time to grab a guitar for 15-20 minutes, I just run through scales, work on theory, try to build speed, etc.

Seems like that's just the way it goes, but as long as I'm working on something, when the juices start flowing again, I'm better than I was before.

 

I spend more time in player's block that out. As such, Suckage Block probably better describes my temporary state better than Player's block.

[csm]

I'm also into one, and it's SERIOUSLY HUMILIATING.

 

Just totally rearranged one my old songs for Crosstown Lightnin' and thought it'd be hip to quote part of Jeff Beck's old Yardbirds instro Jeff's Boogie (which JB, incidentally, nicked off of Les Paul) for the solo. And, as of right now, my arthritic old fingers can't play it. Oh, the shame!

 

(Especially since JB played it when he was only a little over one-third of the age I am now.)

 

Even my having just seriously mashed up an essential picking fingernail (index finger, right hand) is an insufficient excuse for the fact that those cascading pull-offs (one triplet per beat of each bar) keep collapsing.

 

Still, since my new bass player (whom some'a y'all may know) is a WAAAAAY better guitar player than I am (oh, the shame!), at least I can get some quality coaching before I have to lay this {censored} on the public during our minitour of South London in the new year.

[ashasha]

I just hit one myself the last few nights. I had been working on something pretty cool (which is rare in itself) and it really flowed well, but I tried playing some of the parts and it's just not the same right now.

In the meantime I just kind of suck more than usual. My bends aren't precise, my vibrato is off and I'm missing notes left and right. I tried playing a few songs that I'd learned the last month or so and I am lost.

I think that it is stress related; I've got a lot of stuff going on in my personal life right now and it's probably starting to get to me more than I am letting others know.

And no I don't need mojo or some pity or something, just need some answers to some stuff that is up in the air. It's just stressful not knowing sometimes.

[Orange Jackson]

I think you have to play though it. I have come to see that a block for me means that the way that I am playing has become stale. You have to push yourself into a new way of playing when you feel a block. Just sit at the guitar and play till it comes, it might take an hour or two.

Playing technically is easy, creating and being soulful, or honest, is a lot harder.