I went through a 3-4 year break several years ago when I would pick up the guitar about every 6 months and play for about 20 minutes....and think....well I still remember how,but my fingers are sore.
Then my youngest son came over one night and we jammed and it sparked something and I started playing and practicing again,now I want to get out and play some more...at age 57....I'll never completely quit.
That time period of not playing kind of cleared my head.

I've had the thought cross my head a couple of times due to being stuck on songs or being told im going nowhere by "friends" who dont like rock metal or old school blues

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

i think about quitting my job and getting a new one so i dont have to work 50 hours every week so I have more time to play

I'm with you, I'm 45 and only started 6 string about 5 years ago. Been playing bass for 20+ years as well.

The great part about music is that for all the stuff I CAN'T play, there's tons of stuff I CAN play and have fun with.

To play music, or sing, just gifts to be appreciated and enjoyed. It's relaxing and amazing at the same time. You'll never run out of things to learn either, there's always something new to explore.

I cannot imagine not playing. It is very much a core part of my humanity. I don't understand how someone can stop playing guitar, making music.

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I'm with you fellers!
www.thissideup.us

you're right guys.. i may quit the band but i couldn't stop playing.. for the band well there may have some factors which i didn't like or maybe someday I might play in another much better group where nobody's forcing you what to do..

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If I Like It...
I Just Do It...

Ditto!

I only took up playing two years ago and i'm 40 next March. Man I wish somebody could give me a time machine so i can go back and kick myself in the $@! and go learn Guitar. 20 years later, who knows how good i could be. Such a shame wasting so much time.

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2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
2014 Martin 000X1AE
2014 Fender Blues Junior III

I am there right now. I've been seriously considering selling everything. I am frustrated by a lack of talent and a lack of time to improve said lack of talent with lessons and practice. It sounds like a majority of you are capable enough to be out gigging, I'll never be that good. I haven't been able to play anything for about 4-6 weeks due to crazy work and family schedule. I keep telling myself to hang onto the gear, this too shall pass. I seriouly doubt it right now. Very depressing because, like everyone else here, I totally love music. Nevin, I hear ya brother!

When I was 17 years old, I had some pretty good talent and a clear musical vision of what I wanted to do. However, by the time I was 19 I could not put the band I wanted together. Seeing that my a-bit-older guitar buddies were also getting nowhere (one of whom auditioned for Kiss but was barely beat out by Vinnie Vincent), I decided to quit trying to be a rock star and get serious about college. I planned on getting an Electrical Eng'g degree and back door my way in to the music industry. My standing line was "If I can't be Eddie Van Halen, I am going to build his amps..." (not literally EVH, but you get the idea...). Then by the time I was getting ready to graduate, I had the opportunity to become a nuclear-submarine Navy officer which had nothing to do with music. I went with it, thereby quitting any hope of aligning with the music industry. But ... in the end ... I am happy with how everything worked out for me, and taking a nuclear submarine to periscope depth was probably the coolest thing I will ever do in my life ...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Never crossed my mind. There were layoffs in the past because of other worthy commitments, but never thought about totally giving it up. My wife can't believe I'm still at it. When we met in '83 she saw me playing guitar and drinking a beer. It was a good indication that I was a beer drinking musician! I'd alreay been playing since I was 11 in 1969.

The only time I though that I couldn't play ever again was when I lost a finger in a motorcycle accident - 1978. Busted up hand and the loss of 3/4 of my right index finger (picking hand) was out of commision for several months. I did not want to give up. In fact, after the surgery/recovery, It made me a better player. I played with Chuck Berry a year later in NJ. I even took a year of classical instruction a few years later and warned the teacher before meeting that I was short an index finger. We worked around it. I'll be playing until I can't lift a guitar onto my shoulders!

One regret... I sold a 60's model Tele in order to get a double neck in 1976. Wish I still had that butterscotch Tele.

I stopped for 25 years and started up again in 2006. I regret losing 25 years of playing, forgot how much fun playing out can be.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e