Why I Stopped Playing Guitar - (And how I found motivation again)

It’s so fucking awesome to see people already connecting and leaving their details in this comment section – love you guys, may this lead to great things :-)

Man the " we bend steel so others may process emotions" needs to be on a t shirt, Chapman guitars shirt, something. Epic. Great exploration of this.

I'm 59 and played since age 15. I have a song in a movie, some radio play in on band, and I played with some great musicians (e.g. Dan W. last drummer Frampton toured with last 8 years) etc. WHILE all that was fun I learned years ago that having 5 guitars near my office desk gave me the ability to escape for a few minutes and de-stress in life. Non musicians maybe play a video game but playing guitar (or other instrument) is the greatest gift you can give yourself. It is a gift that keeps giving.

I think social media like yt plays into why some people stop playing. You see people who are ridiculously talented. It makes some people just quit, thinking they will never achieve those levels of skill. Play what you can and have fun with it. I live in a small, west Texas city, with a totally nonexistent music scene and not many other musicians to jam with, so I do covers on yt. My channel is tiny and doesn't receive very much traffic, but I have a lot of fun learning new songs and posting them and hopefully helping another bassist out there. Am I a great musician, not by a long shot, but I do what I can and I enjoy doing it. Now grab your instrument and have fun!

COVID killed it for me - changed country, changed job, left all my gear behind in storage - stopped playing, stopped putting up YT vids... took me almost 3 years to "wake up", get some gear to play with and get my fingers working again.... To all my fellow players, please don't let your talent go to waste... I've taken pleasure from playing the old stuff I learned as kid again!

"We bend steel so that others may process emotions." That's deep!

I know this is a guitar channel but Rob you talking about Elden Ring put a smile on my face.

What a great video, Rob. Me and my axe-wielding mates have all had this conversation over the last few years. All die hard guitarists of 20+ years who found ourselves lacking motivation at some point or another. If you truly love the instrument, or any passion for that matter, it WILL return. With that in mind, I’m based in Felixstowe, Suffolk and looking for a band to join/start. Alternatively, I play with a couple of old high school mates in Colchester every couple of months and need a bass player to join us!

I was like this on Friday….thought sod it…..leave my iPad and iPhone alone…..I picked up my guitar, it was my American Strats turn, quick tune up….then it was Spotify on…..my go to for sheer joy, I play along with Slade in Flame soundtrack, followed by some Johnny Hates Jazz, moving over to Never Say Die album by Sabbath and then a nice medley of Hawkwind ….Warrior on the Edge of Time…..2 hours….whoosh, just lost myself in the music, jammed along, had fun, made mistakes, had success…..and just thought afterwards……that was effing great….must do this again…..and I will…..tomorrow……cheers Rob…..inspiring as ever….

Been playing guitar on and off since my late 40's. Now mid 60's. We now have a little bunch of friends called a band and this year we started doing gigs at old people's homes. It is brilliant having an audience that actually sits and watches you. We mainly do country pop sort of music and it really makes my heart swell looking into the crowd and seeing the oldies tapping along, singing along, or holding hands with a little tear in their eye remembering back when. Our drummer comes and goes, so I often have to use a drum peddle, which is interesting.

This is my favourite year of your channel so far Rob. Your attitude, your humour, your playing, your good vibes. You’re killing it right now mate, great work. Video made me smile after a long day, much appreciated 😊

Almost every night I fall asleep visualising the fret board… hearing the notes and finding new patterns and the next day I try to remember these new paths I came up with. It’s a super sick way to stay creative and motivated. Also take your guitar outside, play to backing tracks through a lil spark amp while sitting under a tree or at the beach etc. you’ll play for hours and feel awesome at the end of it!

If you are struggling with motivation just set a goal to play for 10 min per day and have a goal for that time, whether it be working on speed, improvising over a jam track, working on a lick/riff/song you started writing, etc. 10 minutes tricks your brain into thinking this is easy, I can easily set aside 10 min per day, very attainable, and then often you'll find you end up playing longer when you get into the groove. And if you decide, meh 10 min was enough for today, you met your goal, feel better about yourself, and can put it down and wait for tomorrow when perhaps more inspiration or desire hits. It's also been scientifically proven that consistency trumps long and infrequent jam/practice sessions anyway for growth and your mind will remember more. Thanks Rob!

Hey Rob it’s Rob from the US. You don’t know me nor ever have you ever heard of me unless you’ve been peeking in the window of my home office to hear me failing miserably at the guitar for 20 + years. Anyways, been watching you on YouTube for years. You’re really awesome! Great video; one of the best I’ve ever seen. I really appreciate you. The most important thing that guitar does for me is give me hope. Hope that someday I will play something beautiful that will touch someone and that it will connect with them and give them a sense of peace - even if it’s only for a few moments. And it will by okay that the person doesn’t knows my name. Love to all of you!

Thanks Rob, been struggling with my 'why' for quite some time. Super helpful.

I'm an old bloke guitar player looking to form a geezer blues band in West Michigan. I need to throw some water in my face and get movin'.

Great video! I stopped playing about 2 years ago, I just lost the drive and motivation to pick up my Strat and Les Paul(an Epiphone but still an LP) I just lost interest and it wasn't fun anymore to just crank up the amp and just jam a bit o' ACDC or anything simple. My gear is just sitting in the corner gathering dust bunnies. Hearing that you went thru the same kind of thing gives me the kick in the old rumpus and motivation I need to start playing again. Thanks again for the great video Roberto.

Dear Rob, I saw you paying a visit to Marshall with red cheeks. Or in the guitar shop in Leeds (I can't remember exactly) when you met the old man with his old guitar. That inspired me so much that I started playing the guitar again. I tried to get my skills back for over 6 years. Our 3-man band stopped in 1982. For professional reasons. Then I started making music again over the internet with my old bandmates. It doesn't work. Nothing can simulate the flapping of jeans in front of the amplifier. I carried on and found a following. But it wasn't satisfying for me. Because there was no pressure. I then stopped making music again. That was 15 years ago. At 70, I don't have the strength or motivation to learn the skills again to be as good as I used to be. I love my guitars. My advice is: never stop playing. You'll forget how to play faster than you know it.

Everything you said Rob was spot on. I'm 56 and consider myself an intermediate player and lately a shocking procrastinator. My problem is getting new gear like the BOSS Katana MK II Head I bought during lockdown. Great unit, but I wasted so much time setting it up I wasn’t getting much play time. I’ve even had 2 of my guitars signed by Steve Vai & George Lynch. (Still can’t play like them) In the end I went back to basics and bought a 3 channel HK TM40 Deluxe and use a POD HD500 to control it with a couple of effects. Happy Days. Thanks for the backing track ideas. Keep up the good work. Cheers

Amazing advice! I’ve been fortunate not to get stuck in a major rut. I may have a day here and there where I’m not feeling it, but it’s usually about something else in my life and not really the guitar itself. I have a guitar routine that I follow each night and/or morning. I aim to do some warmups, learn something new or practice something I started, and then I always spend ample time jamming along with songs and enjoying the instrument without any specific goals. It’s a routine for me. The only other reason I might not play other than a very tough day (which I rarely use an a reason not to play because playing is a great fix for a tough time) is because I’m disabled/ill and having a rough day with my symptoms. I don’t even use being tired as an excuse because I’m always exhausted in reality, and I’d never play, lol. I generally use a variety of guitar education apps so I have a curriculum of sorts (ie: Gibson, Yousician, Justin Guitar, Ultimate Guitar, etc.), but I also keep things fresh by diving deeper into specific skills by finding YouTube videos that contribute. Other times, I observe pros playing my favorite songs to see if I can try to copy what they’re doing. There are all kinds of things to explore whether you’re actively playing or not — but the more you play, the better you will become. Guitar proficiency requires muscle memory like athletes require to play spots. Just playing even 10-15 minute a day will help a great deal. And you’ll often end up playing longer because you’re having fun. Last week, I got a D’addario capo for $8 bucks that simulates Drop D tuning in E standard — in the blink of an eye, I was having fun trying chords shapes and creating lush sounding music. And then I flipped the capo and clamped it upside down on the treble strings, and again, it created a really pretty voicing on my guitar in a split second. Just $8 bucks gave me something new and interesting to explore. I love alternate and open tunings, but it takes a little time to dial them in and it’s annoying to always have to switch with a single guitar — so this capo helped me create a new voicing in a moment. I also learned there are all kinds of capos out there — the Spider capo looks like it could be a ton of fun. You have some really nice suggestions to try to get people to enjoy their guitar and not see it as a chore or feel like they’re not skilled enough to play. I may try some of your ideas as well. I want to improve my soloing skills, and I may just go use your Monkey Lord tracks for that purpose. Never type doing that! Thanks, Rob!