Conference napalm::guitar

    My suggestion would be to stop thinking of your music as a means
    of impressing other people. I get into such "slumps" myself if
    I start comparing myself to other musicians, or thinking about making
    a name for myself. Then I ask myself, "Do you want to play music
    to be a superstar, or do you want to play to enjoy yourself and
    share your enjoyment with others?" If you look at music as just
    as means of feeling and sharing the joy of life, it stops being
    so serious and competitive. I know there are thousands, maybe millions,
    of musicians out there who could blow me away with their little
    fingers. So what? If I'm happy doing what I do, who cares?
        
    As far as I'm concerned, I come to work to get a job done. When I'm
    playing music, it should be a pleasure. I think if you look at it
    this way you'll find that you play more, enjoy more, and will
    ultimately be more creative.

    - Ram

    
    Dennis, you? in a slump??
    
    no way!
    
    Whenever I get in a slump, it usually because I'm bored with the
    guitar, so I find somthing that will make it unboring. For me, I
    start listening to other sources. I recently went thru a playing
    slump in the dead of winter (maybe a weather factor here too), I
    have been taking banjo lessons since then and I am out the that
    slump period. I'm not really taking banjo lessons, I don't really
    like the instrument, but I'm in there with my guitar trying to cop
    his technique and phrasing and its cool. They are similar and different
    and it makes me look at the guitar in a different light. 
    
    So, maybe try somthing like that.
    
    wjb
    
    ps - violin and piano lessons are suggestions for vicious slumps!
    ;^)

    
    
    When I get in a slump I usually try to concentrate on another
    instrument.  I'll dive heavily into my keyboards, or pick up
    my classical guitar and struggle through some Fernando Sor
    exercises (I don't practise them anywhere near as much as I
    used to).  Other times, I might try working on my voice alot
    more.  Anything to get away from the electric for a while.
    I usually find that when I'm in a slump on the electric,
    I'm NOT on my acoustics...just because I look at the two in
    a totally different light.  In the meantime, I never TOTALLY
    stop playing my electric.  I'll at least pick it up and
    do some scales etc. for a while just to keep my hands aquainted.
    
    re .2  playing the banjo on the electric....hmmmmmm.....sounds,
    uh....interesting.  Definately a different perspective on things!
    :^)
    
    Ralph
    
    

    	Playing slumps, sometimes I think I go through one of these
    once a week!:^} When I need to break out of a slump, I try playing
    solos written for other instruments such as fiddle tunes or sax
    solos. Because my technique centers around the guitar specifically,
    I find that trying to play a sax solo on the guitar challanging
    as well as different enough to get me out of the doldrums. 
    	If this fails, I go out and buy $400.00 worth of new effects
    and signal processors. :^) After that, who can afford to be in a
    slump!
    
    Don

Ah yes, the infamous slump.  I just worked out of a real nasty one by taking a
few weeks of guitar lessons from a new instructor (not my usual one).  The
approaches he showed me were new to me and lit up some avenues I hadn't thought
of.  I've since gone back to my regular instructor and the slump is gone. 

This is the only time I've ever tried a guitar lesson to get out of a slump and
it worked great!  Probably won't work next time -:).

steve

    Did someone say SLUMP?  This happens to me every now and then. 
    It's definately an attitude problem, since I don't play well enough
    to say it's my playing...
    
    Perhaps it's just time to back off on the playing a little and study
    some about music (I don't know your background, so maybe that's
    not applicable for you), it helped me.  
    
    Another thing that I've done is buy another guitar.  Maybe it's
    just a personal thing, but I 'hear' different things from different
    guitars and find that a different one will spark something in me.
     Maybe it's like someone in a previous reply said...you can't afford
    to be in a slump (great line).
    
    Greg

    Well...at least I know I'm not alone ;-). I find all of your 
    suggestions/solutions quite applicable and helpful.
    
    Recently I've been playing with a hot sax player. Instead of playing
    guitar oriented licks, I've been picking up sax oriented licks. The
    challenge has helped me get out of my slump. It's also helped me
    learn to do some interesting things with whole tone scales :-)
    
    Someone also mentioned new toys, which could cause me digress to
    a whole new topic! I NEED A NEW GUITAR!!!!                
    
    Thanks
    	Dennis

    I gotta agree with .4   Buy a new toy !
    
    Seriously though, I've had this slump deal myself, and also with
    the band I'm in.  Did ya ever go to practice, and you play the same
    old stuff, and everybody gets a little too impatient (or whatever)
    ?  SO, you try to work up some new material;  you work on this new
    item a couple of times, and somebody gets frustrated, and sez "f***
    it !
    
    How about some ideas here ?  Speaking of new toys, check out the
    note I'm about to write....
    
    Jeff

    While the slump is usually a sad time for me (and apparantly everyone
    else) the time just after a slump is one of the most productive
    times I experience...so while the slump sucs,, I look forward to
    the growth that follows...
    
    When in the slump mode I find it easiest to just play slow blues...:-)
    
    dave

    I try to sit in with guys that have a different style or method.
    I sat in with a guy that played a right handed (strung for a righty)
    left handed and to top if off he used to be a drummer and couldn't
    help adding a few slaps in there. I started trying a few of his
    cord prgressions an techniqes and I found some stuff that worked
    well for me.
    
    Mark
    

    Huh... playing slumps???? boy.... I've had years of experience with
    this subject. I was told by a much older musician than myself to
    use it to MY best advantage. My problem was that I was bored!
    Completely bored with the music I was playing. The music,musicians 
    and the same old bar circuit just didn't thrill me anymore. Anyway,
    in regards to the advice I was given, if you're in a down and depressed
    mood, play some down and dirty blues, but then progres to some style
    that brings you up alittle, not alot, but just enough to make you
    feel alittle bit better. You can't break out of a slump quickly,
    nor should you! Take your time, but realize that you'll feel better
    about your playing real soon. Maybe it's just a moon-phase or something
    in the air, I don't know why it happens, but IF this doesn't
    work...... then get your VISA or MASTERCARD and buy something for
    yourself.... you'll feel better about it! I like the ideas about
    a new teacher, buying new toys, a new guitar will certainly help
    you out of a slump. Maybe you're not happy about your sound?
    Newer/older amp maybe with a different tone to make things work
    for you. My solution may not work for the next guy. It works for
    me, (most of the time).
    Cheer up! It could be worse ya know. How about your first REAL
    gig at the Centrum and you break two strings in the first solo
    of the first song and you don't have a back-up guitar.... NOW
    THAT WOULD REALLY PUT YOU IN A SLUMP!
    
    :^)     
    
    TOMATO-FRED 

    
    Two cents worth from the Great White North.............
    I can identify with playing slumps too. A cure that really works
    for me is to get out and play/jam with different people. The different
    mind sets and individual styles of other players always inspires
    me.
    

    I was gonna say, just get out and gig somewhere !  That will always
    cheer you up !
    
    Jeff

    I know just what you mean about slumps!   When they hit, I usually
    try to go back to basics.  I'm a firm believer in rudiments as a
    way to keep your chops in shape.  When I can't seem to make myself
    happy with my playing (either from boredom, or from getting sloppy)
    I go back and put some time in the woodshed with the ol' scales
    arpeggios (sp?) and chord inversions.  Invariably, I hear something
    in the exercises that I didn't notice before and I'll slip that
    into my solo repertoire (such as it is...).  
    
    At other times, I'll just start switching styles to see what happens.
    Try putting a country solo in "Moondance" and see what happens.
    It may not seem like it would work, but you'd be surprised at what
    can happen when you don't limit yourself to "accepted" styles for
    any particular song.  
    
    I have to disagree with the idea that buying new stuff is going
    to help you break out of a slump.  It may work for a while, but
    it seems to be a bad substitute for a little more work with the
    ax you have. (or effects, etc...)  I think the folks that talk about
    working on another instrument are right.  Doing this will force
    you to think about music in other terms than the guitar.  This may
    or may not help your guitar chops but it'll help your mental attitude
    for sure, and since you play with your brain, not your fingers...
    Of course, if you can cop a hot sax solo on the guitar, it's GOTTA
    help keep the fingers limber and teach some new patterns in the
    bargain.
    
    -TED

    Change the way you have the guitar set up. for a longtime I had
    .008's on my Strat. I (unconciously) developed a style which
    used a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs. It sounded okay, but
    the range of licks gets kind of limited. So I raised the action
    up a fair amount and put .010's on. In about a week I felt comfortable
    with the new set up, and I have completely broken out of the style
    I was playing in. I think your mind/body adjusts to the way guitars
    are set up, and your playing style is partly a reaction to that.
    
    -Dave

    
    One thing that works with both guitar and drum slumps is to change
    your setup.  If you've been playing through distortion boxes, take
    'em out of the path and go with choruses and phasers, an andy summers
    type sound.  Vice-versa too.  Sometimes what really helps for me,
    since I use tons of effects, is to go straight into the amp.
    
    Or go out and buy a Lexicon for dedicated guitar processing. ;*}
    
    Ashley in smogland

    It seems we have stumbled on to a universal problem.  In addition
    to many of the suggestions in previous replies (some of which I
    knew, some of which I have applied this week to try and break out
    of a slump) let me put in an acoustic player's two cents worth:
    
    Even with less control of the guitars action (unless one risks really
    screwing it up) you can still change strings to something weird
    (or at least different).  I just went from normal tension Augustine 
    Blue's to high tension Sovarez (?) for just a couple of weeks -- I 
    didn't like them, but they made me feel the instrument differently 
    and concentrate on the left hand which had gotten sloppy.
    
    Trying something fairly different -- fingerstyle blues or flamenco
    are favorites of mine -- that makes you look at the instrument
    differently. 
    
    Accompanying a singer -- almost any of them who aren't instrumentalists
    would like to sing with accompaniment and are likely to think you
    are pretty good (because they don't know that those licks you played
    this evening are the only ones you have.)  In particular, accompanying
    someone else's voice (a necessity for me because only my 5 year old
    doesn't mind my singing) requires you to play their interpretation
    of the music -- my slumps tend to come when I think everything I
    do sounds the same.
    
    None of this stuff is all that different from previous replies,
    but maybe helps for others out there who play amp free.
    
    - Evan

    I swap guitars - I don't like to diddle with the set ups of the
    strings or pickups. But all my instruments have different personalities
    and that helps. I usually practice on an acoustic, and play live
    on a solid body electric. Sounds odd, but the acoustic forces me
    to stick to the guitar only issues, where as the electric allows
    me to step out & play with the amplifier & my various stomp boxes.
    I actually set the guitars up to feel very similar, so they transistion
    is not as major as it seems.
    
    								Jens

    I'm not a guitar player (so what am I doing here? :-), but to get
    out of playing slumps, I do four things...
    
    I'll pick up another instrument, or
    
    I'll play music with spouse and/or friends, or
    
    I go to a concert and get psyched again, or
    
    I revert to a discipline that I started but don't keep to as well
    as I'd like - I set my goal at learning a new tune a day...
    
    BobW

    If this is a slump, it's been a long one. 
    
    Last night my GB band started working on an old ZZ Top tune, "La
    Grange".  Something to make a little noise with.  Anyway, we were using
    a tape of La Grange that I had made with an R+R band in 1978.  When my
    old solo came up, it was very clear to me that I couldn't play it
    anymore.  I was much faster then and had better, smoother chops. 
    
    Now, I don't play as much now as I did then, but I guess I never
    realized how much I had slipped.  Sure, I do many things better now
    than I could do then, and my range of styles is broader.  But when I
    tried to recreate my own solo, the guys in the band had a few laughs at
    my expense.
    
    So, I am now in the odd position of re-learning and practicing my own
    solo.  I don't mind being blown into the weeds by someone else,
    in fact I usually like listening to players who are better than
    I am.  Being out-played by myself is another story!
                           
    Kevin

    
    re -1
    
    I can relate to that feeling of not being able to play what you
    used to.  I usta practice a lot of fast (!) staccato picking
    ala Malmsteen (I call it flutter picking).  I recorded a few solos
    in the studio with technique.  Now, every once and a while someone will
    ask me to play them.  I've long since stopped that type of practice.
    Weird, ain't it?
    
     

    There are good nights and bad nights. Depending on my mood I can
    do many things that are otherwise impossible for me to do normally.
    Recordings have proven that very clearly to me. Playing in my studio
    is tough because of it, hard to get in the mood when you have to
    watch meters, & start & stop / restart / stop etc.
    
    No matter what, my best guitar solo work occurs to a random audence,
    and only rarely on tape....
    								Jens 

    Gee, this may seem kinda controversial, and yet I'm sorta surprised
    that no one mentioned it (or I didn't notice).
    
    My slumps usually amount to me just being burned out.  What do I
    do - I TAKE A BREAK.
    
    Sure, you lose a little of the feeling in your fingers, but I find
    that I come back with a freshness and renewed sense of enthusiasm
    that can be very dramatic.  The few weeks after I start playing
    again tend to be very good times to write really "fresh" music.
    
    	db

    
    
       I have found a good way to break out of a slump is to try a differnt
    tuning. After your tuned different go try and play some of the things
    you were just playing. Your positons will change differently and
    your mind and fingers will have to adjust. (Ex.) Try running a D major
    scale with both E's tuned to D and your B string tuned to C.
       I have found tuning differently helps me get out of a slump and
    hopefully it will help you.
    
    
                                              Take hold of the flame,
                                                                     R.C.