If you’re an avid musician – and I don’t necessarily mean “pro” or anything like that – a good piece of your free time is spent playing your instrument. Like, every day. But sometimes you just need to take a break and do something else to get your perspective back.
A couple of weeks ago, I had to go out of town on a family emergency. Usually, when I go out of town, I have my trusty acoustic guitar with me to fill up my free time. But because I had to leave and hop on a plane at pretty much a moment’s notice, I didn’t have time take my guitar. Up to that point, I had been busy in my home studio, writing and recording songs for a few weeks, and I found that I was hitting a state of emotional and mental block. It was taking me longer and longer to motivate myself to set up my gear and play as the days wore on. Then this emergency came up (it wasn’t anyone sick or hurt, but it did require my presence), and that was probably one of the best things that happened to me with respect to playing guitar.
On the return leg of my trip, as I was sitting in my seat on the airplane, I really looked forward to playing. But by the time, I got home, I realized that I just wanted to sit at home with my wife and kids and just enjoy being with my family. And I did that for the rest of the week!
The net effect was that by the time I picked up my guitar, I had a renewed verve and appreciation for playing. I got just a tad bit rusty, but 10-15 minutes of warm-up exercises got me right back into the groove.
So if you’re feeling blocked with your music, take a break and do something else entirely. You’ll be surprise at your renewed strength!
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