Not played for about 6 months - How to get going?

[Elliot]

Due to excessive work, I've not picked up my guitar properly for about 6 months - and now I find I have lost about 3 years worth of muscle memory 

Any tips on getting back up to speed - should I focus on relearning old songs or take advantage of my loss and start a new regime?

[Philly Q]

Blimey, I've no idea.  The muscle memory in my fingers hasn't changed in 30 years.

[Telerocker]

Pick up your guitar and go!

[Plenum n Heather]

Stop posting and start playing. Yeesh!!

[JDC]

+274 pickup and play

It'll come back sooner than you expect

[Ian Price]

Stop posting and start playing. Yeesh!!

Yep, that's the spirit!

[Kiichi]

IŽd say do a mix of learning new things you always wanted as the work part and putting on backing tracks and getting back what you used to know in a fun organic way as the nice part. Especially the latter should quickly get you up to speed.

The playing freely and seeing what actually remains and building upon it seems like a great strategy to me if you had a drop.

[FRockStar]

A good warm up exercise before you start playing again is to, first, screw up all the fingers in your hand to make a fist. Then, lift your arm up in front of you. Lastly, raise your middle finger up to the world!

If you can do that, you are now ready to play whatever the hell you want to & fuk em all!!! 

[gwEm]

+274 pickup and play

It'll come back sooner than you expect

I agree.. probably just a handful of practise session needed!

[AndyR]

Yep, just a couple of practice sessions and you should be good to go. You might even find, after a longish break like that, that you seem to be playing better than you could before. That's certainly my perception, an hour or two of "oh f*ck, no wonder I stopped playing", and then suddenly "hey! I don't remember it feeling this good" ...

- It's actually made me wonder about this muscle memory thing... perhaps we forget "bad habits" and wotever, and it takes longer to pick them up again than it does the ability to play?

[gwEm]

Yep, just a couple of practice sessions and you should be good to go. You might even find, after a longish break like that, that you seem to be playing better than you could before. That's certainly my perception, an hour or two of "oh f*ck, no wonder I stopped playing", and then suddenly "hey! I don't remember it feeling this good" ...

- It's actually made me wonder about this muscle memory thing... perhaps we forget "bad habits" and wotever, and it takes longer to pick them up again than it does the ability to play?

I experience something like that too. I'm not sure if I am actually been playing better, or if my subconscious has had more time to pick up fresh musical ideas in the interim.

[Ian Price]

I'd also not played for a fairly prolonged time  - mainly due to having a fairly manic family life! I call playing anything more than just a casual strum (steady on) on the sofa.

At the end of last week Jane said the 4 words that every guitarist hates to hear "X-factor is back on". I took that as a hint that I should really hide upstairs and play guitar. Since X-day I've played about 60-90 minutes each night. I'm not sure why but all of I sudden I seem much more focused and disciplined in my playing. In the past I'd learn a bit of a song and then, when it got to a 'difficult' bit, I'd move on to part learn another song.

Whilst many of you won't see them as difficult I've now cracked the fingering on Day Tripper when the key changes, can play Message in a Bottle without having to think about it and have even got much better at finger picking. I'd always struggled with finger picking but have really stuck to it over the last couple of days. The tune that has got me to really focus is non other than 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'. A it of an odd choice but it is genuinely great fun to play and, when you break it down into it's component parts, there really aren't many chords shapes to crack - most of the melody is done by the right hand.

So - in short, get yourself disciplined and sit down and play that damn guitar. 

[AndyR]

I've had a bit more of a think about this...

When I first pick a guitar up after a lay-off, I usually go straight to a "boogie in A" sort of thing, in a lazy "hey this should be easy" kind of way. When I'm in practice, I just flop the hand on the neck and the vibes come out...

But when I'm out of practice, applying my usual "level of attention" to the playing, it invariably sounds naff - maybe buzzing, maybe out of tune cos I've forgotten how to press the strings consistently, no attack/vibe or "life" to the thing...

So I start concentrating, and after a bit, there it is, the good ole boogie sounding like it always did... hang on! Maybe even better? Was I sounding this good X weeks/months ago?

.....

I suspect it is subconscious, but I think there's also a bit of a "reality check" on the attention/accuracy that you're putting in to the instrument. If you're really practicing hard, I suspect you'll be putting it in anyway. But for the level I play at nowadays, I get a bit lazy in how I play. And picking it up again after a break perhaps focuses things a bit better.

By the way, I also find, like Ian, that I'll start learning to do something that maybe I wanted to do before but didn't have the energy/discipline to actually figure out properly.


Mebbe it is a subconscious thing - but if it makes you play better, then it's an improvement!

[Philly Q]

At the end of last week Jane said the 4 words that every guitarist hates to hear "X-factor is back on". I took that as a hint that I should really hide upstairs and play guitar. Since X-day I've played about 60-90 minutes each night.

I'm sorry to say I just watch the X Factor. 

[Ian Price]

Ha - no need to apologise. Each to their own! It's not my cup of tea at all!