keeping your skills sharp when you're not playing much

[friendship]

I haven't been playing guitar much this year; everything I do sounds hack and boring. My skills are getting noticeably rusty as a result. I've been playing other instruments, but guitar is my main instrument and I don't want to lose whatever skill I have on it. But when I pick it up, I just feel like everything's been done before, by others, and far better. I guess I feel kind of jaded with it? I've been playing for about 20 years so I guess that's understandable.

Anyway, what do you do when playing your main instrument is on the back burner and you're starting to not be as good anymore? Do you make time to practice even when you're not inspired? Do you heed the call of the mastodon and continue investing more time in your other instruments, with the faith that you'll circle back around to guitar and rebuild your strengths again?

[goroth]

Yes.

In as many words.

Because if my technique is sitting well then I enjoy playing more, or at least get less frustrated.
I go through phases of writing a lot of my own stuff, but also every now and then learning someone else's shit. That helps, mixing it up.

[Chankgeez]

I've been playing lap steel much more than regular guitar lately and I'm starting to lose the calluses on my fretting hand.

Pickup the guitar and play even if it's just for 15 minutes everyday.

[$harkToootth]

friendship, my friend. I hope you find this video as inspirational as I do. The whole video is great but 04:53 is when things get 'metaphysical'. Everything she talks about is transferable to any instrument.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o

[rustywire]

It's incredibly difficult to force creativity, your effort is better spent setting yourself up to facilitate [it].
Try something different. Take a string or 2 off of your guitar, maybe change the overall tuning of an instrument and re/learn how to make it sound good in ways you may not have approached playing in a while, like a noob. It will keep you sharp while (ideally) expanding your range. Sub $100 guitars are ideal for this purpose.

Also mix up your pedal steez. Impose a few limitations and try finding workarounds to finesse the sound/feel you're used to from an alternate recipe. Stumble upon some new flavors and see what happens. Signal chain, gain-staging, different tubes, so many options for tweaks...and weak links!

There's also that...reminder to check and see if you need new tubes/strings/etc which may be contributing to the dull sounds/vibes

friendship, my friend. I hope you find this video as inspirational as I do. The whole video is great but 04:53 is when things get 'metaphysical'. Everything she talks about is transferable to any instrument.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o

I've had that 321Contact ep on like every digital device I've owned since ~2009 and archived on comps since well before then.
Still on my regularly used ipad2 from 2012, last watched holidays 2016.

321Contact theme is stuck in my head 4L, from childhood like the Sesame Street bells credits theme.

[BetterOffShred]

I feel as boring and John Petrucci-like as it may be, I get a lot out of shredding the boring chromatic runs with a metronome a few times a week regardless of how much I'm playing.

Also good points made about forcing yourself out of your norm be it by instrument tuning, equipment selection, or even just learning a piece of music in a style you may not give a shit about.

Just like.. my opinions man

[bacegchsbis]

friendship, my friend. I hope you find this video as inspirational as I do. The whole video is great but 04:53 is when things get 'metaphysical'. Everything she talks about is transferable to any instrument.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk8G5-9E6o

Love this vid! Suzanne is such an inspiration - I've seen her play/speak a couple times and she just has such a great vibe all around.

[goroth]

I also like playing with textured fuzzes, lofi stuff. So you can just play notes and enjoy the way the effect/s do stuff to your signal. It's a good way to generate interest and"feels" out of boring stuff.

[01010111]

I feel as boring and John Petrucci-like as it may be, I get a lot out of shredding the boring chromatic runs with a metronome a few times a week regardless of how much I'm playing.

Also good points made about forcing yourself out of your norm be it by instrument tuning, equipment selection, or even just learning a piece of music in a style you may not give a shit about.

Just like.. my opinions man

This is sort of what I do: force myself to play scales, chords, and triads when I’m not inspired. I haven’t really felt motivated to play guitar the last couple of years, but that’s kept my skill at certain level at least

[BetterOffShred]

Yeah, I've managed to keep my "Chops" up in the years I haven't been in bands by keeping batteries in my Metronome and noodling heavily whenever I have time. I have never looked at playing guitar as a task or something with a goal to be achieved, rather a journey that I am supposed to enjoy as I go. Still I find it necessary to "practice" certain things to progress, and not let my "skills" languish or deplete, but ultimately it's just something I do for fun. I find that my skills progress more rapidly when I am jamming or playing with a group, maybe it pushes me harder to try different things, or in different ways.

[Jwar]

I've been stuck in the same place with bass playing for like the last two years. It's hard being a bass player and not having anyone to play with. Kind of fucking boring. I don't like guitar, so I don't do that even though I have one.

The thing I've been doing lately is using my Folktek Mescaline.

I know I won't lose my bass playing because I took a 3 year break once, came back and was 10x better than before. So, I think it's all about being in the right mindset.

I don't play nearly as much as I used to. Two or three times a week when I used to play everyday. Part of that is my mother in law lives with me now and I feel like I'm annoying the entire house. Fucking hate it.

I'd say, do what you want man but play like once a week on that main instrument just to be sure.

[friendship]

The Ciani video is outstanding, thank you for sharing.

These are really helpful replies. I’ve been playing throughout the week for short periods and I might need to return to the fundamentals. I’ve just been sloppily blowing through muscle-memorized stuff, and I’ve got to play more conscientiously.

[BetterOffShred]

Defense wins championships. Oh wait.. wrong thing. Yeah fundamentals are key to keeping you on top of your game with minimal time. I highly stress the metronome because we all think our internal clock is amazing .. but it isn't.

[friendship]

That's a very good idea, I've noticed that when noodling aimlessly my timing is pretty, uh, rubato.

[Mudfuzz]

Play when you are watching stuff, reading stuff, playing stuff, looking at stuff, not doing stuff. play with stuff, play at stuff, play against stuff.