During Covid, I picked up the guitar again, having given it up decades ago. I didnt expect to play gigs or anything, I just wanted to use the quarantine opportunity to do something positive, and I chose music, over writing a book, learning a language, etc.
Almost five years later, my guitar playing has gotten pretty good, upper intermediate level, and I am good enough to entertain myself, which is all I ever wanted.
What I hadn’t expected was how much of an improvement it would make on my mental health. After being energized by my improving skills, I realized that my mood and self-esteem and confidence were significantly elevated. I am proud of my progress, even if nobody else hears it.
I also realized that I think I’ve been operating under a low-grade depression for a long time, perhaps my entire life. I’ve never addressed it because I thought that was just what life felt like. Once I had a closer look at how much better I could feel, i realized that I haven’t felt “right” for a long time, maybe never. I’m still not sure I know what “right” really feels like.
Now that America has officially gone to Hell, I’m extremely worried about the future (I have a history degree, and am very knowledgeable about politics and history, and know where all of this is leading), but daily, sometimes hourly, doses of music are helping me cope.
Yeah I relate a lot with you on that. But I never managed to actually keep at it. I’ve tried 5 times to pick up the guitar again after giving it up, and always failed.
That didn’t really improve my mental health and self-esteem, ngl. So yeah, all props to you!
Yeah, I get it, guitar is a really hard instrument. I wasn’t starting from scratch during Covid. I was a professional musician as a teen, playing other instruments, and picked up the basics of guitar. I put it aside when I went to college for music history, and then spent many years in the classical music biz.
So I have a very strong music background to draw from. When I picked it up again, it felt like Id never held a guitar before, but I still rembered the chord shapes, and I still had a good grip of music theory. I also have enough musical experience coaching professional musicians that I didn’t need a teacher, I knew what I needed to do to learn this.
On top of all that, the best teachers in the world are on YouTube, so anything I couldn’t figure out on my own, I had plenty of resources to consult.
Despite all of that, the real key was establishing a solid daily practice routine, something I couldn’t do when I was young, in school, working in a record store, partying with friends, and chasing girls. Here’s what I tell new players about practice:
Put your guitar on a stand next to your bed, so it’s the first and last thing you see every day. Play it for about 20 minutes when you first get up, and 20 minutes before going to bed. Then find another 20 minutes sometime during the day.
That will give you 60 minutes per day of sharply focused practice. If you were to practice once a day for an hour, you’d be focused for the first 20 minutes, then your mind starts to wander for the additional 40 minutes. By breaking it up, every minute is focused practice, and you’ll progress much faster. It also gives your fingertips a chance to rest after 20 minutes.
Also, if you miss a session, you only miss one, and you’ll still get 2 others that day. If you only do one long session per day, and you miss it, you miss an entire day of practice, not just 1/3.
If all you do is practice once a day, then you really only get one serious 20 minute practice block each day. So if you do three twenty minute sessions a day, its like jamming 3 days of practice in a single day. At the end of a week, you’ve had 21 days of practice instead of 7. Obviously, your progress will be much, much faster.
So give it a sixth try, but use my practice regimen, and hopefully it will stick this time. Good luck!
I did the same with guitar. Stopped playing nearly 20 years ago and picked up again during Covid. Probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It gives me an outlet I didn’t have before, and I’ve put so much into it with practice and lessons that I’m better than I’d ever have thought I’d be.
Like you, I know enough to entertain myself and that’s perfect. Sometimes I’ll just pick it up and play along with new songs I hear and it still surprises me when I can do that well.
I’ve heard that there was a big guitar boom during Covid, but I’ll bet at least 75% moved on. We’re the survivors, and all the better for it. In a couple years, there will probably be a big used market of barely used Covid guitars.
I just wish Lemmy had one single decent guitar forum. Reddit had a bunch, and I was really active in them, but alas, now that they’ve gone MAGA and purged any dissenters, all I can do is lurk, which is frustrating.
We need to revive the sleepy guitar forums on Lemmy.
During Covid, I picked up the guitar again, having given it up decades ago. I didnt expect to play gigs or anything, I just wanted to use the quarantine opportunity to do something positive, and I chose music, over writing a book, learning a language, etc.
Almost five years later, my guitar playing has gotten pretty good, upper intermediate level, and I am good enough to entertain myself, which is all I ever wanted.
What I hadn’t expected was how much of an improvement it would make on my mental health. After being energized by my improving skills, I realized that my mood and self-esteem and confidence were significantly elevated. I am proud of my progress, even if nobody else hears it.
I also realized that I think I’ve been operating under a low-grade depression for a long time, perhaps my entire life. I’ve never addressed it because I thought that was just what life felt like. Once I had a closer look at how much better I could feel, i realized that I haven’t felt “right” for a long time, maybe never. I’m still not sure I know what “right” really feels like.
Now that America has officially gone to Hell, I’m extremely worried about the future (I have a history degree, and am very knowledgeable about politics and history, and know where all of this is leading), but daily, sometimes hourly, doses of music are helping me cope.
Yeah I relate a lot with you on that. But I never managed to actually keep at it. I’ve tried 5 times to pick up the guitar again after giving it up, and always failed.
That didn’t really improve my mental health and self-esteem, ngl. So yeah, all props to you!
Yeah, I get it, guitar is a really hard instrument. I wasn’t starting from scratch during Covid. I was a professional musician as a teen, playing other instruments, and picked up the basics of guitar. I put it aside when I went to college for music history, and then spent many years in the classical music biz.
So I have a very strong music background to draw from. When I picked it up again, it felt like Id never held a guitar before, but I still rembered the chord shapes, and I still had a good grip of music theory. I also have enough musical experience coaching professional musicians that I didn’t need a teacher, I knew what I needed to do to learn this.
On top of all that, the best teachers in the world are on YouTube, so anything I couldn’t figure out on my own, I had plenty of resources to consult.
Despite all of that, the real key was establishing a solid daily practice routine, something I couldn’t do when I was young, in school, working in a record store, partying with friends, and chasing girls. Here’s what I tell new players about practice:
Put your guitar on a stand next to your bed, so it’s the first and last thing you see every day. Play it for about 20 minutes when you first get up, and 20 minutes before going to bed. Then find another 20 minutes sometime during the day.
That will give you 60 minutes per day of sharply focused practice. If you were to practice once a day for an hour, you’d be focused for the first 20 minutes, then your mind starts to wander for the additional 40 minutes. By breaking it up, every minute is focused practice, and you’ll progress much faster. It also gives your fingertips a chance to rest after 20 minutes.
Also, if you miss a session, you only miss one, and you’ll still get 2 others that day. If you only do one long session per day, and you miss it, you miss an entire day of practice, not just 1/3.
If all you do is practice once a day, then you really only get one serious 20 minute practice block each day. So if you do three twenty minute sessions a day, its like jamming 3 days of practice in a single day. At the end of a week, you’ve had 21 days of practice instead of 7. Obviously, your progress will be much, much faster.
So give it a sixth try, but use my practice regimen, and hopefully it will stick this time. Good luck!
I did the same with guitar. Stopped playing nearly 20 years ago and picked up again during Covid. Probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It gives me an outlet I didn’t have before, and I’ve put so much into it with practice and lessons that I’m better than I’d ever have thought I’d be.
Like you, I know enough to entertain myself and that’s perfect. Sometimes I’ll just pick it up and play along with new songs I hear and it still surprises me when I can do that well.
I’ve heard that there was a big guitar boom during Covid, but I’ll bet at least 75% moved on. We’re the survivors, and all the better for it. In a couple years, there will probably be a big used market of barely used Covid guitars.
I just wish Lemmy had one single decent guitar forum. Reddit had a bunch, and I was really active in them, but alas, now that they’ve gone MAGA and purged any dissenters, all I can do is lurk, which is frustrating.
We need to revive the sleepy guitar forums on Lemmy.