Bad guitar days.. (Page 1 of 2)

I totally feel your pain. On the flip side, have you ever been away from the guitar for 4-6 weeks, picked it up and everything just flows from your fingers? Kind of weird and wonderful when that happens.

Mine is a little different.  I have a job that requires me to do a lot of things that are tedious and continuous.  So my hands hurt sometimes mostly in my right wrist.  I know its the dreaded "C" word that I'm not going to talk about.  But sometimes I play through the pain.  Now that I'm in a band I'm playing way more then I was just a couple months ago and I'm finding I have to pick different guitars every now and then to keep from my left hand from falling asleep.  I'm screwed!  30 years old, I know my guitar playing days are limited because of it.  But even when I can't play anymore I'll work on my slide guitar playing more ;P

We all have them.  Just like anything, it's time for a "vacation".  Best to put the guitar down for a few days.   I give myself a break for 2 or 3 days every once in a while.  When I go back to playing, everything just feels and sounds "fresh".  My 2 cents.

Jim

Playing guitar can be a love- hate thing at times. Just remember why we play and be the eternal student. You can learn something even on those bad days.

When I have a bad day it is time to try something different, try a different spin on a song, new licks, new riffs. I am always surpized how that can get me out of a rut and also spawn new ideas. Cheers Ron

Interesting to hear all your views on it...

yeah man, i can relate.  last rehearsal was one of those days.  generally comes from a stressful day where instead of focusing on the music to relax, you can't just shake the bad vibes and get distracted.  the ensuing anger has resulted in two shades of reaction: clam-city USA or major shred power fest.  There is no way to predict but mostly it goes to the former.  Get a good night of sleep, hydrate, and come back the next day is my recipe.

Completely agree with Ron and DaveW here.  Let's face it - if you're stuck in a rutt, playing the same stuff over and over will not necessarily solve anything - it's just going to accentuate the rutt!  Depends what you mean by a 'bad day'.  If that means not playing at speed or not fitting in enough notes in a bar, perhaps your strengths lie elsewhere.  I mean - I know I'm never going to be a Vai, Satriani or Metheny - it's never going to happen in my lifetime so I don't try - I concentrate on honing other skills like vibrato, phrase timing, fretboard familiarisation and song composition for example.  The stuff I can influence now.

Practice listening more - try leaving more (big) gaps in those solo's - BB does it so well - stuff like that.  It's surprising how many guitar slingers turn up at jam sessions thinking that more means more and end up boring the pants off everyone.  I tend not to go to those kind of jam sessions anymore. (: