I have just lost my will to play...HELP

[lixnaw]

andrea,

maybe you just need 2 totally different instruments, when you get tired of one, you take the other.
what about a button box? http://www.buttonbox.com/newba.html#but3

[johnz]

I've had the same problem. I'm not depressed, I just suck at music. After practicing a tune over and over I get tired of it and don't want to play it anymore. It takes forever for me to learn a tune.
My best tune, Merrily Kissed The Quaker isn't particuarly difficult in other peoples terms but I play it only sub-par, I'd be torn apart by the average 7yr old Irish kid.
The only advice I could give is don't play music if it upsets you. I'd still keep instruments around in case you change your mind, maybe you'll be ready to return with a different outlook. I'll never play sessions either but I hope to one day be able to play well enough to entertain the uneducated masses .
You'll make the right decision.
Take care, Johnz

[kevin m.]

Andrea, i'd love to hear you play a few tunes! Could you manage to send something to "Clips and Snips"?

Listen to some of the rubbish that I've sent into 'Clips'-if you don't think that you could do better than me,then you MUST be depressed!

[missy]

so many thoughts........

First, I agree, please do check out depression. It happens. It is treatable.

Second, as a teacher (dulcimer, not whistle) it really REALLY bothers me to hear that you were so discouraged in a workshop. I hope no one ever feels that way in ours. Even if we have someone in a workshop for more "advanced" players that isn't up to that, while I don't bring the workshop "down" to their level (cuz that wouldn't be fair to the others) I still try to give them something of worth to take with them.

I agree with the comment about trying another instrument, or at least trying different types of music. No where is it written in stone that the whistle can only be used for Irish traditional. If it's your taste, dig out some Jethro Tull and play along with the flute parts! I particularly like the whistle with slower songs in Em. Find any CD's and try to play along with them - you don't need to "go out" for someone to play with!

Also, don't feel that you must limit your participation to "sessions". Take that whistle to ANY music festival! Old time, blue grass, folk, whatever. Sit on the outside of a jam circle, and find some accompanyment notes or something. Take a tape recorder so you can have these songs for reference later (most jams don't mind you recording them for personal learning).

Hopefully you won't feel that you can't play for too much longer. Loosing a player, of any instrument, is a shame.

Missy

[Guest]

RE Workshops -waste of money and time. Your ANS has a clock of its own and that is what is controling your porgress- IOW 10 minutes every day is better than 365 every year.

RE The rest
Sometimes folks just get wore down at sessions and such so they quit or stop circulating.

First off - I began playing Irtrad as a kid - hard to believe today - but on a Harmonica. We used do Wrendays every year and I knew but a few tunes; hey, they were the best danged tunes in the universe to me.

So even if you get stuck don't let that bother you. Later I learned lots of other things including the weaselshtick and that seems to have taken a long time because when I used get stuck - my fingers would not want to learn - I would give up.

Ok so I knew a few songs and things but a reel in G was impossible for me--- till I met an older man who grew up in Co Sligo and learned both Fiddle and Flute there, though he played mostly on the whistle when I ran into him.

Anyways when I was fiddling along and listening to the conversation between my friend and some young TW players, he would go over it again and again about ' put your feet on the floor'. Later asking what that all meant he showed me how he began playing tunes.

You have to sit on a high stool - pretend you are a leprechaun- then with solid soled shoes - he suggested ' hobnail boots - just reaching the ground you practice making a deliberate loud slow stomp - like a slow blues -. When that is automatic then you take up a TW and playing the first few bars only of a reel - I chose Ms Mc Clouds first 2 bars -
When I did this the first time I could not get it right because I was not 'huffing' the onbeats - (Huffing = say huh but dont let the voice box sound!) Also dont 'tounge' the tip until your Huffing is solid and easy to turn on or off as you need!. Now go over your first DANCE piece until you are crosseyed.

It would be an idea to take a jig and do the same.

The idea is to make one play DANCE music from the start. So when playing tunes IF you mess up then you are always keeping a rhythm.

Essentially this is how some of the old time Irish players progressed - and it is fun as well.

Things to avoid like the plauge - fast sessions, egojacks in sessions, other people who insist on playing fast.

Things to embrace - slow sessions - slow players and if possible try some other instrument - I personally like mandoline or tenor banjo.
= if you would like I can send you some audio clips of Wrenday tunes :0)=

You need get a metronome if you dont have one so -
Tempos for fun practicing

Beats in a tune are the top number in the Time Sig - Jig 6 eigth notes
so there are six beats to a bar no matter what kind of notes are written there.

Reels are always 8 beats to the bar, with a metronome I half that to ignore the offbeats and get the ONbeats exact; so, one develops personal style as well.

Settings

Jig 60 ish BPM 3 beats to each click
My regular speed is about 85 BPM 3 beats to the click- hey I enjoy the sceenery and racing at my age is dangerous!
Sing this 'de deedle de deedle .....'

Hornpipe 90-111 BPM 2 beats to the click
I dont bother much with them but if people do play them fast I butt out and giggle - nobody can dance a Hornpipe @240 BPM
Sing the song 'The Little Beggar Man'


Reel 120- 139 Two beats to the click -
Sing 'Be deee Bed daaaah Be deee Bed Daaaah' Notice that Polkas and reels have a similar rhythm so you can learn a Polka with the same tempo. Hint they are reels with lots of notes taken out.

Tip listen to old recordings of The Tulla Ceili Band, the more recent recordings of Miko Russel.


Tell me please that they play fast ! You will be as surprised as can be when you get what this stuff is all about!

Search for CCE slow sessions

[lesl]

Andrea,

I think you should take into account all the advices so far, they are great
ideas all of them. But there is one more thing -

>the workshop I attended in Gettysburg in the summer was a
>discouragment

What happened with you in that workshop?? Did you go into it feeling
relatively ok and hopeful, but then .. .. ? What things were going on in
there?

Lesl

[jking]

Hi i agree about the depression thing. Its not going to hurt to talk to someone. I recently found myself getting bored (im sure i'll get stoned by others for this) with the whistle. I enjoy the weekly session but found the last month almost a chore to go to. There are some of us that try to introduce new tunes but for the most part its like watching a rerun on t.v. My appreciation started to go down hill. Anyway to cut a long story short ive started fiddle lessons and now find that after practising and feeling like a beginner its nice to pick up the whistle and feel somewhat accomplished in comparison. I definately suggest a second instrument.

[fancypiper]

A set of uilleann pipes may be in your future. That will ensure clinical depression will occur. A popular piping book is named "The Piper's Despair" and there is also a tune named that.

My reeds are misbehaving and screaching on octave E and my drone shot across the room at the last gig.

I love my well behaving whistle and toot some each day to see if there is anything new under my fingers. The old, boring tunes gain new life when a new variation pops out, so keep on tooting. I know it always calms my nerves when I am distressed.

Never learn any tune that you are going to get tired of playing, btw.

[PapoAnaya]

Hello:

A lot of people have given you a good deal of advise. You may be getting burned of dealing with your spouse's problems. Talking them all your feelings to a healthcare professional may help to get your bearing straights.

About workshops. There is something I know in life. There will be always people more skilled than you, there are always people less skilled than you. It is a fact of being a musician. I will never be as fast as Paco de Lucia (flamenco player). That's a fact of life, I can practice a lot and even come close to it, but genetics are not there.

I still cannot play "Recuedos del Alhambra" in classical guitar. It is a hard piece and I know that it will take time. There are times I never opened my classical guitar carcassi method in months. Why? because you get tired, you get dissapointed, you want to take the guitar and smash it against the wall because you could not complete certain part of a song. It happens, it is normal. Relax, have a bagel. It is the same on whistle. There are moments that a song will not come right and the fingering will not be there. Again, it is normal, relax, have a couple of pina coladas, try again in a week.

About playing by yourself. I DO play by myself and I have not play in a group since I moved to New Jersey. I think I'm skilled enough to play on a workshop, an ensemble or a session, but honestly, I just enjoy playing by myself. I always did that. While growing up learning to play the guitar, I used to close the door of my room. It is MY time to play.

Do I feel lonely, yes, absolutely, but on the other hand it relaxes me, helps me meditate, helps me reconnect on the mundane things in life after playing for an hour or so. If you take playing the whistle as a way for you to reconnect, you may feel better of playing by yourself.

If you feel that you need to play with "somebody else", somebody else can be a recording or an electronic drum machine. It'll never be the same, but at least will help you listen to "something else" while playing that it is essential when two or more people need to coordinate themselves while playing music. You'll get the hang of it, and if you can cope with the drum box, playing on a session it is not that different, just follow the Bohdram.

I'm not sure if this helps, but at least I hope that you do not feel that you're not alone when it happens.


Luis

[Zubivka]

Jig 60 ish BPM 3 beats to each click
My regular speed is about 85 BPM 3 beats to the click- hey I enjoy the sceenery and racing at my age is dangerous!
[...]
Hornpipe 90-111 BPM 2 beats to the click
I dont bother much with them but if people do play them fast I butt out and giggle - nobody can dance a Hornpipe @240 BPM

Thanks toasty: you wrote the most sensible (if passionate) post I've seen in a long time. Gave me a good laugh too

[Chuck_Clark]

Andrea

Not too sure I can add to the good advice already offered, but a lot of what you say sounds like it applies to me as well. I've been there. The only workshop I ever tried was a total bust. I'm utterly unwilling to risk even going to a session, let alone trying to play. My family is more likely to make fun of my efforts than to ask me to play. And I'm all too aware that my modest improvements are generally separated by long, frustrating plateaus. I'm a classic Type A personality - and the thought of just selling my whistles and doing something else has fleetingly occurred to me.

What you might want to ask yourself is what you would think of as a GOAL of your playing. If it's to be able to play in public, professionally or otherwise, then perhaps you simply need more personal help than a workshop or a session or a book or a teaching tape. A mentor or a teacher might be the ticket. Then be prepared to work even harder than you have already.

But if your real goal is just the enjoyment of the music and the whistles, maybe you need to just let up on yourself a little bit. So what if you never perform for anyone else, as long as you enjoy playing for yourself. It isn't a competition.

I know it's smarmy and overdone, but you might want to consider the following lines from the Desiderata:

"If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. "

Others will almost never be as hard on you as you are on yourself. Take care, and wherever you go with it, I hope your choice makes you content.

[mamakash]

I'm glad you posted what you're feeling, Andrea, because it's the way I've been feeling, too. No, haven't sold my whistles, but my guitar just sits in the corner and my whistles in their case. I really have no idea why.
I know I don't appriciate being 30 years old, working a full week, commuting a half hour each way to work. That's a change from the time I enjoyed playing, and then the time I played the most was when I took a hiatus from working. Maybe it's the weight of being an adult . . . stopping and starting projects as a kid never bothered me, but as an adult, I do feel guilty if I don't follow goals through.
The more I think about how I'm not doing what I thought I wanted to do causes anxiaty . . . which feels like depression.

Dispite this, are you engaging in activities that make you happy? If you've laid down the whistles for something else that you enjoy, then you may not have time for music or just enjoy doing something else. I would love to take lessons for whistle or guitar . . . but I just started take yoga classes and I'm much happier about a studio opening in my neighborhood than about the oppertunity to learn music. I would take yoga over whistle anytime . . . not because one is better than the other but I need a change and am happier doing something new.
The only thing that feels weird is that I continue to lurk here.

[talasiga]

Its OK Andrea.
Some of our deepest levels of development
occur during periods of apparent inactivity.
Music is a lot like love.
We cannot will it
but only crave.

[jim stone]

I hate whistle workshops.
There are these horrible little children who
can already play better
than I ever will, curse their little
nimble fingers. Also everybody else
can learn the tunes faster than I
can and usually I can't learn
them at all in the time frame.
I come away discouraged.

However the race isn't always to the swift.
Playing jigs and reels quickly isn't
what I do best, nor is it what I enjoy
most. I play lots of different music, as was
recommended above,
and I've shifted mostly to flute,
which is another world, entirely.

Wombat is quite right to point out
that learning an instrument can be
discouraging; discouragement
and set backs are not to be taken
personally. Goes with the territory.

Also, it is nowhere written that you have
to play any instrument at all.
Above all, don't kick yourself about
not playing. Get on with the music
or with something else in your life.
That part of things is entirely up
to you. Best

[anniemcu]

... But it torments me. All the whistles just sit there and I feel so bad all the time. Iv'e tried picking them up on occasion but just put them down again. I had so much passion to start. Can anyone help me or give me some advice? Has this happened to anyone else?? ...

Oh dear, does that sound familiar... thsi time mine has been 5 months and I know the interference, and it is about to change.

I do think that the advice on seeing about depression is excellent ... I have been there too, and anti-depressants can help immensely *if* appropriate. I found them a boon to getting through the depression brought on by the loss of my brother, and other very troublling events in my life.

I am not needing them now, somehow, and that's good, but when I did, they were a god-send.