avimuno -> RE: Flamenco guitar and criticism (May 12 2011 7:02:43)
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I'm also in a bit of a rut at the moment... i don't feel like touching my guitar at the moment because i just don't have fun anymore. I completely understand you... but bear in mind that there are periods like that. And that those periods go away eventually... sometimes you have to work at making them go away and sometimes they just disappear on their own. I find that sometimes, the smallest changes can make a world of difference. I'm a writer and I write for local papers quite often... I went through a period last year where I quite simply couldn't write anything. I guess that it's what people call 'writer's block'... I don't care much about the label, the fact was that I would sit down in from of a blank sheet of paper and that sheet of paper would remain blank hours after I started 'writing'. I really panicked because in my field of work, writing is very very important, and because I had never experienced such lack of inspiration before. The worst was that whenever I forced myself to write, it would get worse. I reached a point where I decided that maybe I needed a break from it all... I had just completed my thesis, which had taken a lot out of me, and having to write for the papers every week was very tedious. It's one thing to write journalistic reports (which consists in reporting events mostly), and another thing to have a philosophical column (I am a philosopher by 'trade'). So I just woke up one morning, packed my bag and headed straight to the airport... I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I just showed up at a counter and asked the the lady there which plane I could catch within the next hour. I ended up in Cape Town, in South Africa. Cape Town has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth... the city is quite simply gorgeous, and the surroundings are close to something out of a dream. I am a big aficionado of wine, and one is rarely more spoiled than in Cape Town when it comes to good wine. I stayed 3 months there, going from little town to little town... staying in very unique places. And one experience after another lead me to start thinking again... which in turn lead to start putting things on paper again. After my 3 months in South Africa, I returned home with a bag full of almost 200 pages of notes on a book I want to write. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, or if it's even slightly usable, but I know that whenever I have to put pen to paper now, it just sort of happens. I feel inspired, motivated and fresh again... and this is the beginning of my answer to you... Sometimes life drags us down... the same routine, the same place, the same people, the same thoughts... little by little things like that wears you down. The worst is that this depreciation happens so slowly that you can hardly notice it at all... until one day you don't feel like waking up, you don't feel like going to work, you don't feel like doing anything really, and until even the slimmest of challenge seems like a mountain you'll never be able to climb... I realize now that last year, before taking this trip, I was quite literally empty. I had worked so hard and given so much in the years before that that I had no energy left in me... I was quite simply empty and I needed a break from absolutely everything in my life. We all need a break from time to time. A break doesn't necessarily mean going somewhere... it means doing things you have never done before, or rather, not doing the things you do every day. I find that the lightest changes really make a world of difference... for example, I change the position of my desk from time to time, just to have a different view when I'm writing. I change the music I listen to quite often, even if I'm completely 'in' an album. I change my sleeping habits, my eating habits, my reading habits quite often... just for the sake of it. Change in itself has a way of healing which is quite extraordinary. To come back to the issue at hand... I also find myself in periods when I do not want to pick up my guitar. Periods when you feel that you'll never become good enough for yourself, in order to please yourself when you play. Those are challenging moments because you either give up or work your way out of them... either way, there's always a change ahead. And here again, I find that the slightest changes can make a world of difference. For example, a while back, I could not pick up my guitar because I was really tired and bored of its sound and the way it played... I'm sure that we've all had days like that. I quite simply ordered a bunch of strings I had never tried before and decided to experiment with them... now I'm in love with that guitar again because I have found strings that make it sound and play differently. The strings I use now make me want to pick it up all the time... it 'feels' great!! And I have realized that those strings give me a better sound than the ones I used before, so there's been progress in my playing too. Give yourself some time and things will improve... and don't forget that "The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind" (Nietzsche) This post ended up being much longer than I was going for... [:)] Just my 2 cents... Saludos!
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