When did you stop playing guitar? · Intermediate Guitar

When did you stop playing guitar?

Tying into Mike's post yesterday, I want to check in with everyone. Sometimes it can be difficult to "find the time" to play guitar. Life almost always figures out something to get in the way. I've seen many people over the years, stop playing for 2 months, 6 months, years even, and all because life got in the way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, and as Ray the truck driver (also known as Ricky's dad) from Trailer Park Boys says, "Way she goes".

However, I've always been of the mind, that if its something you truly enjoy and get some sort of gratification from, why would you set that aside? I can understand not "having the time", but at the end of a long day, sitting down with a beverage and plucking around for 10 minutes, becomes a sort of cathartic "decompress", almost a meditation. I've always thought that even if I don't want to play today, I'm going to anyway because I've already put this much time into it, I may as well continue (sunk cost fallacy? Nah, not this time).

When I was young, my father enrolled me into martial arts hoping it would teach me discipline (he grew up in Japan, my grandfather was a pilot in Korea and Vietnam). Even though I eventually discontinued my training (I moved away to go to college) I think that it did instill that in me. I think at this point in my guitar journey, it has become less about, "Man I want to be the best guitarist" (i still do), and instead more about, "Do I have the discipline to do this today". I think it becomes a testament to the quality of my/our character. If we are willing to put time and dedication into something that "isn't really that important", imagine what we would do for the things that are.

Like getting up in the morning and making you're bed. That's not important at all, but boy it sure is inviting when you get done with the day and see it all made up. Just a little thing that adds something for you later, a small amount of time invested in your future self. Now I'm not saying that you should go out of your way to start sitting down with your instrument for an hour or two every single day, but more, think about adding in a little bit here and there. Keeping with something, no matter how small, can shift a change in perspective in perhaps more "important" areas of your life.

I admit, that I am guilty of setting the instrument aside for a week and found that during that time, I felt like my days ended incomplete. Like I didn't, "get it all done". Have you set your guitar aside for a time? How long? How did you feel? And how good did it feel when you made it a part of your day again? Let me know down in the comments!

Keep on keeping on, in everything.

-Ben

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