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What if you don't feel like playing anymore
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kozz
Posts: 1766
Joined: Feb. 26 2009
From: Eindhoven NL
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 RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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Thanks for the replies amigos/amigas (is this correct :)
It's good to hear that it's a common thing, and probably will face the same thing again every now-and-than.
quote:
At times like that you need to go to a good concert, or visit a good workshop or (if you can afford it) have a week or two in Andalucia.
That might be a good idea. I was checking Val's 'Flamenco Holidays site.
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But then I think about how the guitar feels under my fingers and how much I enjoy playing even though I'm crap!
Hahaha, that sounds familiar. I really don't want to quit, but it felt it would be better....but having noticed that progression isn't linear perhaps all the frustrating effort will be benifitial someday.
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Have you considered personal lessons with a teacher? Perhaps your approach doesn’t match your goals.
I do have a teacher recently, I am going to put the same question to him tonight. at_leo sended me some information "how to study in the correct way", and I noticed indeed that my approach wasn't matching my goal(s)....just playing at home or at the beach for some friends, no fancy stuff as for dance-classes....not yet at least for another 10 years I think
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with me atm is not so much that i dont wanna play its just that i need to finish what i started on the editing to be able to relax and enjoy and focus, i know myself to well if i put something aside or allow it to become the back project it will never get done
Sounds familiar to, pretty enthousiastic starting and when it doesn't go quickly enough I'll loose the focus.
Offcourse there is so much more to learn that'll benefit the guitar playing. Perhaps it would be a good site-track to focus on palmas.
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One difficulty with giving up something like flamenco guitar is - whatever do you do with your time instead? Maybe there are other things in your life that might give you more satisfaction - maybe you simply haven't found what those things are yet.
I would say don't worry about it. Playing an instrument shouldn't be a chore, but a pleasure.
It'll probably will be something musical again. But its not the first time starting something very enthousiastically and 'run away' from it when it's not progressing...progressing isn't the right word maybe, it feels like I was getting bored with it....stupid, I know
I'll check your site better later this day, as it was a good idea what Ron posted. Have a break, go on a holiday, some good concerts, a few classes....and the pleasure will come back.
For me finding a teacher was also "een stok achter de deur" as we call it in the Netherlands. No excuses not to exercise, otherwhise its a waste of money, and a teacher being 'angry' for being lazy.
Thanks all for sharing your personal feelings towards this. In the end, for the first time yesterday, I just put on a CD and just listened, without grabbing the guitar and trying to play along,...a whole new experience.
Does anyone have experience with the Jeronimo Ultrilla "Las Palmas" DVD? Is it worth buying to understand more of all the palmas variations and compas?
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Date Apr. 21 2009 21:05:35
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at_leo_87
Posts: 3055
Joined: Aug. 30 2008
From: Boston, MA, U.S.A
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RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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It seems that I've reached this point, doing a lot of exercises and for as far as I can tell, no progression at all.
hey! be nice to my friend, kozz! you're too hard on yourself!
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I'm looking for all kind of excuses why I don't feel like playing anymore.....I need a better guitar, I'm not in the flamenco scene etc......
there's always an infinite amount of excuses no matter what hobby you choose to do.
the key is to focus on what you want and not on what you don't want. find excuses TO PLAY. not the other way around.
i just read about how carmen amaya had kidneys the size of a baby. her body couldn't clean itself properly so the only way she could survive was to sweat it out. basically, she had to dance or die!
so maybe trick yourself into thinking that if you dont do 32nd note 310 bpm picados for 5 hours a day, you might die! 
and take a look at django reindhart (not flamenco, i know!) he had only two fully functional fingers on his left hand! no excuses there... he just wanted to keep playing and that's what he did!
let's take a look at what someone in the advanced thread said:
quote:
I´m still not done with the piece. It still has some tricky parts which make me a little headache.  But I will solve these problems in time. 
look at that confidence! he admits that he has problems but he simply TRUSTS that he "will solve these problems in time." this kind of attitude will surely become a self fulfilling prophecy.
one more thing, and i'll shut up. if you need to walk through the woods to get to an appointment, and you're constantly stressing about how you're late and you need to get there fast, you will completely miss out and all the wonderful sites the woods have to offer and you wont enjoy your walk.
same thing with guitar. enjoy the process, the present moment as it unfolds. a million mile journey starts with one step, one at a time. you're in no rush and you're not late. enjoy!
and as a last resort, you can always contact duwen for some mushrooms to perk up your journey. maybe even see "duende."
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Date Apr. 21 2009 21:33:07
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mark indigo
Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007
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RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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hey kozz, you got some good advice here, from everybody, but a few i want to add to;
quote:
At times like that you need to go to a good concert, or visit a good workshop or (if you can afford it) have a week or two in Andalucia
get inspired! do you listen to guitarists play and think "i want to play that"? i'm wondering what inspires you, why do you want to play at all?
on the other hand;
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Playing an instrument shouldn't be a chore, but a pleasure.
and
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if you don't feel like playing, well, just don't play it.
'cos if you force yourself to play when you don't feel like it you will just get to hate it.... maybe you need some time off, maybe from a distance you will see what inspired you in the first place?
maybe this is the crux of the matter;
quote:
doing a lot of exercises and for as far as I can tell, no progression at all.
maybe you could drop, or cut down on, the exercises and just play?
Let me ask you, why are you doing a lot of exercises?
there is a paradox with technique, that without some kind of musical goal there is no point aquiring or developing technique, then it really is a boring chore, but on the other hand, without technique you can't play anything (that's not an original thought, I think Jingle told me that, and that he got it from Manolo Sanlucar, so i want to credit them both, but don't want to misquote either off them, so don't quote me on that.... ).
maybe you need a period where you just play what you know, at whatever level/speed you can play it at comfortably, and let yourself relax and enjoy it.
Then from there your next step might emerge for what you need to work on, ie. a particularly tricky passage you might want to make into a little exercise or something, or isolate the technique/s involved and find some exercises to work on them.
good luck wherever it leads
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Date Apr. 22 2009 1:51:40
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kozz
Posts: 1766
Joined: Feb. 26 2009
From: Eindhoven NL
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RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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Thanks again for all the responses.
Reading it all over, keeping all the advises in mind, I am/was having a to negative approach towards it. And from that point it seems that trying harder has the opposite effect, being to hard for myselves.
I agree it should be fun, but the mind can play terrible tricks in this matter. Next time when I'll run into it I can relate to all the advises, they all make sence!
To the question why I was doin so many excercises, that's because I have a lack of technique, especially right hand coordination, but perhaps I was doin to many excercises and got lost of the fun part of it.
On the other hand, as Anthony said, be more confidend about the things you can...makes sence.
quote:
i'm wondering what inspires you, why do you want to play at all?
Gerhard Graf Martinez.... :)
That's just making fun, I am really inspired by Parilla de Jerez, I love his aire. There's so much room when he's playing, that even when he's not playing it sounds like music.
The reason why I want to play, is to get totally absorbed into the music and forget about time. Funny as it may sound, but when I couldn't play a note at all, it seemed easier than it was lately.
I should also realise that within a year of guitar playing it's not possible to achieve playing all those wonderfull sequiriyas and solea's....
Tonight I'll have my weekly meeting with my guitar teacher...I'm going to ask him to narrow the things down a bit. I'm a slow student for guitar, so now I realise I should only do 1 thing at a time....instead of a little bit of everything.
I was doin a solea, a sequiriyas, a granaina, a tientos and than some arpeggio/pulgar excercises....that's way to much...
How did you people start playing? Just picked a transcription an go for it, or was there some path you'd followed?
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Date Apr. 22 2009 8:58:34
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mark indigo
Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007
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RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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quote:
How did you people start playing? Just picked a transcription an go for it, or was there some path you'd followed?
i first heard a record of flamenco guitar.... and started trying to get more recordings of this music.... and it just grew from there. I tried to find every recording I could, and listened to everything. I already played guitar, had done some electric, mostly rhythm guitar, and some acoustic fingerpicking stuff, and i found a local teacher and had some lessons for a few months, then via a workshop from a guitarist visiting with a dance teacher i started playing for the regular dance teacher at the local class with another guy, and it just went on from there.... that was a while ago now, i think i first heard that lp and took some lessons in '92, and started playing at the class in '93. I'm about due for some serious input from a new teacher about now to move me on a bit....
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Date Apr. 22 2009 13:11:05
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HolyEvil
Posts: 1240
Joined: Nov. 6 2008
From: Sydney, Australia
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RE: What if you don't feel like play... (in reply to kozz)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kozz
How did you people start playing? Just picked a transcription an go for it, or was there some path you'd followed?
Hi there Kozz, I've started playing again after about 9 years.
I've had 6 flamenco lessons since and I feel like I'm a beginner all over again, only that I can still play chords and keep time.
After my 5th lesson, I had a chat to my teacher after the class, asked him some questions about flamenco, and music composition (which he's really good at). And he said that a mistake that he and alot of other guitarist made in the beginning was that wanting to play a whole piece of music from the beginning, but of course failing because the guitarist didn't have the necessary chops to do it. and therefore can never play it 100%.
He keeps stressing to me the point of working on your techniques because without techniques you cannot play flamenco.
But of course to work on some music as well.
I think what he's trying to tell me is that while practicing we would do techniques/excercise about 90% and music 10%
then after we have gotten an ok technique, it would be easier to play the music and we would be more encourage to do more techniques and play better music.. Something like a positive feedback system,
rather than get discouraged because we can't play the music due to the lack of techniques and then get disappointed then get less motivation to practice because we dun see ourselves improving..
hope I'm making some sense.. lol
Also finding a new place to practice is a good thing. I head to the beach's cliff and find a spot with a coffee, sit down practice and not many pple walking around and it's really nice. And when I get tired of practicing, I bang out some guns n roses or stairway to heaven just to have some fun.
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Date Apr. 22 2009 15:14:43
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