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Spanish Manlove posted:The question was "i'm having panic attacks when I try to practice guitar, what do I do?" and we can not provide any worthwhile answer other than "see a doctor" because we ourselves are not doctors or trained psychologists. Managing performance anxiety is part of learning an instrument. Its not likely that its a medical issue. I don't experience anxiety around practicing but I definitely do when trying to record anything. Even kicking on a looper pedal spikes my anxiety a bit. Noodling around doesn't have the mental "stakes" the way practice or recording or performing does. You can't get noodling "wrong" but practicing exercises or trying to record your playing can feel stressful because it will make you acknowledge where you are getting things wrong. I'm not sure of a good strategy to overcome it, other than to just knuckle down and keep at it until it becomes more comfortable but its certainly a valid thing to talk about. Somewhat related, I just bought Reaper after evaluating it for 865 days lol. Trying to overcome my own anxieties!
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Nov 28, 2022 15:15
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Mak0rz posted:Does anyone else experience "practice anxiety?" Closest thing I experience is recording anxiety. Something about needing to get it right instead of just going with whatever happens. It makes my playing much worse!
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Nov 28, 2022 15:28
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My theory about that is that my playing is always poo poo and I just plow through it and my brain forgets instantly when I'm not recording, I just focus on getting the rest of it right.
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Nov 28, 2022 15:29
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800peepee51doodoo posted:Managing performance anxiety is part of learning an instrument. Its not likely that its a medical issue. There's a difference between stage fright and run of the mill performance anxiety, but what they were talking about as those are the clinical symptoms of panic attacks and that's neither of them. We can help with performance anxiety, how to deal with the yips, how to calm yourself down before a show, but not that. We're not doctors and that's something a doctor should be asked about as that is not normal
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Nov 28, 2022 15:37
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Spanish Manlove posted:you should see a doctor instead of posting about it here Quit being a dick.
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Nov 28, 2022 15:45
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800peepee51doodoo posted:Managing performance anxiety is part of learning an instrument. Its not likely that its a medical issue. Helianthus Annuus posted:Closest thing I experience is recording anxiety. Something about needing to get it right instead of just going with whatever happens. It makes my playing much worse! It's good to feel the validation in any case. Thanks. Baron von Eevl posted:My theory about that is that my playing is always poo poo and I just plow through it and my brain forgets instantly when I'm not recording, I just focus on getting the rest of it right. Yeah I've thought about this too. When I was a beginner and could hardly form chords I had no expectation that what I was doing would sound good, so I didn't have any hangups about it. Now my stuff can sound good and it bugs me when it doesn't. It's probably why this is all happening I guess? What exactly do you expect my doctor to say if I go to her and say "Hey I experience these symptoms but only when I pick up my instrument. In no other aspect of my life right now do they appear" besides "Wow sounds like you should quit music forever for your own health"? There is a reason why I chose to post about it here, come on.
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Nov 28, 2022 15:54
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I don't think Manlove was entirely out of line tbh. If you're experiencing full on cold sweat heart racing anxiety attacks, that's absolutely a medical issue. I don't think asking here was wrong, but do consider a doctor if you have access to one.
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Nov 28, 2022 15:59
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as far as performance/anxiety while praciting performing: it's an inconvenient answer but the only thing i've found is that immersion helps a lot. in school, i had to perform every couple of weeks (we all did this). i would make mistakes, and sometimes get in my own head so much that i would just bail during the performance. no one in the audience of people at school who i knew could tell why. it's a common refrain that "the audience can't tell" but i never really believed it until i saw it in action. but i bailed in the middle of performances. and i've given bad performances too, where everyone could tell -- i lost lyrics, or hit something horifically off pitch. that made it easier for me, because something i was afraid of came true, and afterward? my teachers told me it was normal to have a bad performance. my friends told me stories of bad performances they'd done. it was ultimately fine-- no one remembered the next day. the positive side of it is that actually after i went through that, i felt like a more real musician. it was weirdly legitimizing -- those bad performances, that scar tissue, is part of growing as a musician, just like getting rejected for a date is a part of high school, you know?
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Nov 28, 2022 16:04
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Hellblazer187 posted:I don't think Manlove was entirely out of line tbh. If you're experiencing full on cold sweat heart racing anxiety attacks, that's absolutely a medical issue. I don't think asking here was wrong, but do consider a doctor if you have access to one. talk about gear, manlove tells you to get a boss katana talk about theory, manlove tells you it's honestly not that important talk about issues with anxiety as a musician, manlove tells you to see a doctor talk about e/n, manlove tells you to see a therapist i'm pretty sure he just doesn't want people to post
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Nov 28, 2022 16:06
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Mak0rz posted:It's good to feel the validation in any case. Thanks. A proper doctor (as in psychiatrist) can help dial down what exactly is causing that anxiety and can help treat that. Any other answer is not useful. I can tell you the tricks I use to calm myself before recording or before I give an important presentation. My anxiety manifests itself as racing thoughts and it's like I'm sticking a mic in front of a speaker inside of my brain. So I take a few breaths and focus on not focusing, like a little meditation. I tell myself that I'm good at what I'm doing and I shouldn't worry about loving up because no one cares or will notice. Once the old brain is calmed down and not on fire I'm good to start and then I can hopefully get in the zone and stop caring entirely. Overall I just take little steps to relax and calm down. Brains are complicated, and that particular focused anxiety you reported is worrisomely severe. We can tell you to count to ten and calm down. Or to wear a weighted blanket, or practicing at times of day when you believe no one can hear you so you don't worry about judgement (or play with headphones). But overall I don't believe we are equipped to help you in a meaningful way.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:15
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landgrabber posted:as far as performance/anxiety while praciting performing: I fully agree with this technique if done correctly. Too aggressive and it can quickly become "sink or swim" In between an actual job and starting grad school I worked at a science museum giving presentations and generally walking around teaching people the lessons behind the exhibits. It was a ton of improv and some days I would feel overwhelmed and didn't want to talk to anyone, so I would take a little breather and just start talking. The more I did it the more I built up little routines of jokes that worked and I could fall back on if I couldn't think of anything on the spot. You joke about my dismissal of music theory but that's entirely wrong, I'm just more descriptivist than prescriptivist when it comes to theory. You should know it. Improvising stuff is actually where I lean more into prescriptivism as you can use little phrases and shapes as your repertoire to help you stay comfortable and in the zone. Overall yes, practice does make perfect and performing in front of people takes practice. Repetition helps build comfort which fights that anxiety.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:29
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Boss Katanas are cool. I'm still a baby guitarist compared to most people in this thread and I didn't start in earnest until I was in my late 30s. A lot of the reasons for that are E/N, so I won't go in to them, but I did learn about how practice works quite late in life. It's not a straight line upwards, it can even dip, and sometimes the progress is imperceptible. It doesn't work like Skyrim (I know that likely sounds obvious to most of you). I've heard it said that your ears get better than your hands do, so knowing something doesn't sound great is an important step because it allows you to calibrate and analyse. Basically, it's okay to step outside your comfort zone and fail, because it's the first step towards expanding it.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:32
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I have a hard time practicing when I hit a point where I stop making noticeable improvements or even start to regress. Like, practicing major scales, I turn up the metronome and maybe today I can't consistently hit 16th notes at 100 bpm, but could yesterday. What works for me is sticking to a practice routine, with plans in place if I can't do something one day. If I'm struggling with 100 bpm, I drop it by 5 until I get clean runs. Sometimes I end up dropping it down to 80, some days 90, some days only 95, but doing it consistently and increasing the top speed incrementally (i.e. if 100 feels easy today, now I try 105 as my new "max") seems to keep me going. Plus it's only 10 minutes of feeling like I suck then back to noodling.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:46
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I'm With Manlove. sounds like a more serious issue. if you ARE able to sit down to practice and get something going, i would recommend taking something you already know how to do well and bring it one notch up - like playing something with a metronome when you normally don't, or strumming chords you know well with a slightly different pattern practice is all about listening. play something easy, but listen more closely and reflect after you played it. this is, imo, the difference between noodling and practicing.
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Nov 28, 2022 16:51
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also "see a psychiatrist" kind of assumes that you can afford one. which a lot of people can't. and especially not a _good_ one. like, personally, i need two specialties-- i need to make sure a psychiatrist/therapist is familiar with complex trauma, AND is trans friendly. those exist, but they sure as hell don't take medicaid, and the ones who aren't out of pocket/out of network only often have waiting lists a mile long. that's why it sucks to be told "yeah see a doctor" as if treatment for mental/psychological afflictions isn't treated like a luxury.
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Nov 28, 2022 17:01
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That's more of a commentary on how lovely the American healthcare system is. To relate it to guitars, it's like someone asking about sharp pains in their wrist and numbness in their hands when they play guitar that persist for a while after playing. We can help get them the proper ergonomics and suggest wrist wraps in lighter cases, but in extreme cases we're utterly useless.
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Nov 28, 2022 17:08
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All this healthcare talk makes me think of St Vincent - Pills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwFx0ROBf7o
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Nov 28, 2022 18:54
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In any given hour of guitar playing I will range from thinking I’m a prodigal genius to thinking I’m dogshit. I went to music school and ended up feeling not talented enough and then completely changed careers so I have plenty of weird anxious thoughts associated with that when I play too Anyways when I feel like I can’t make anything sound good I just take a break from playing or switch to something really simple. Rather than try to tackle lead and chord combined solo pieces like soloing jazz standards or whatever, I have a lot more fun just keeping it simple, like a blues or something, and playing open chords. Let it complicate itself from there but I hate going straight into writing with deliberate chromatic alterations a la jazz chords when I don’t even know what I want out of it. And that’s a good way for everything to sound like jazz instead of what I want Something that really has radically changed now I’ve been writing is using logic to record rhythms with the AI drummer. So much less space to fill and I can have a lot of fun making a rhythm in my acoustic and then switching to some melody or lead on my electric. I’ll then do hundreds of takes to get something right if I’m feeling it sounds good. With the drum track i feel like I have to fill in soooo much less space
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Nov 28, 2022 19:30
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Yeah whenever I get bored or tsuck I just gently caress around and come up with like a dozen hardcore riffs. It's a great way to keep limber, mentally.
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Nov 28, 2022 19:33
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There is an idea of affirmation therapy. It acknowledges that what you think is happening to you is. Once acknowledged, you need to forgive yourself and others to overcome that obstacle. It sometimes needs a reframing of ideas or viewpoints. As many of the problems are ones we create and internalize. If you find the source is within you, you can work on changing it. This is just an idea. I also understand that real problems that require medical attention exist and I'm a random guy on a guitar forum. Another idea is that in the U.S. we are taught to compare. I mean that all well and good. As a whole, every person's journey is different and almost nothing is the same. Noone had the same upbringing, didnt live in the same house, probably ate different things for breakfast... You may or may not understand what I'm saying and that's ok. But go be you and have some fun doing it! Your journey is uniquely your own. Funkadelic - Free your mind and you rear end will follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zZfbkUkodY Just a perspective from a random internet guy that doesn't understand why things aren't simple. My viewpoint can mean nothing to you and that fine. If medical attention is needed DO THAT!
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Nov 28, 2022 19:38
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landgrabber posted:also "see a psychiatrist" kind of assumes that you can afford one. which a lot of people can't. and especially not a _good_ one. Yeah, that's why I specified if you have access to one - either good insurance in the US or living in a proper country with a medical system. If not, I'll go back to suggesting daily MBSR for general anxiety management.
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Nov 28, 2022 22:05
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I keep getting these emails from Proaudiostar with squier contemporary strats for $199 and stingray short scale HS for $199 and even classic vibe 60's strats for like $249 or even $199 and the GAS is loving killing me. hnggggg
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Nov 28, 2022 23:00
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duodenum posted:I keep getting these emails from Proaudiostar with squier contemporary strats for $199 and stingray short scale HS for $199 and even classic vibe 60's strats for like $249 or even $199 and the GAS is loving killing me. hnggggg I gave into a Squier Paranormal Offset Telecaster they marked down to $179 from them. I’ve be eyeing the Squier Paranormal Toronado. I’m hoping it doesn’t go to below $200 or my wife is going to yell at me.
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Nov 28, 2022 23:37
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And now Firefly has one of the thinline Teles for $139.91 on Amazon, which is what paid for one of the first run versions when those came out. And it's the Seafoam version, which is blue in the pictures but more green in real life. I don't need another Tele, but I don't have a "standard" pickup thinline in my hoard and I have a couple other seafoam guitars... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R5HB9H3/
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Nov 29, 2022 02:24
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They're probably not awful but I think people should just buy Good Guitars to start with
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Nov 29, 2022 02:28
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the first thing that comes to mind whenever you guys complain about GAS for squire products is gently caress i wish i had it for squire instead of for american series
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Nov 29, 2022 02:50
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I came out to family this past week or so (another transfemme in the thread, hi y’all) and might have indulged in a bit of retail therapy when Thomann launched their “cyber week” deals. Between the HB-35+ (335 knockoff, $185), the GuitarBass (Bass VI w/a hard tail, $185), and the $350 acoustic with a pain in the rear end model number, I figured something would be defective enough to at least hassle em for a discount or something, but drat, these things are really good. They’re all gorgeous, the acoustic and the bass have a few rough fret edges as the only flaw I can find, the 35 is the worst cosmetically with some uneven finish on the bottom, a bit of paint overspray pretty deep inside, and tooling marks on the fretboard, but the frets are very smooth. The pickups in the 35 sound great, which is nice as semi-acoustics look like a pain in the butt to work on. They’ve all got roughly correct neck relief, which is pretty impressive as they just got shipped from Germany to Colorado. They’re all even intonated pretty well. Action’s a bit on the high side all around but far from unbearable. I’m quite impressed. Bass will benefit greatly from new tuners. The ones on there now are fffffine I guess, they work, but they feel pretty low ratio and cheap.
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Nov 29, 2022 06:42
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1) hell yeah sister 2) what kind of tuners do you usually see on a bass vi? Just standard guitar tuners, or do you need something specialized?
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Nov 29, 2022 13:34
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Baron von Eevl posted:1) hell yeah sister Thanks! They all seem to use standard guitar tuners, though I guess some sets you might need to drill out the low E tuner’s string hole to get it to fit the string. Especially if you use the sets that use a real .100 bass string there instead of the .084 that the Squier and HB models ship with - haven’t decided if that’s worth it yet.
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Nov 29, 2022 14:42
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Arcsech posted:Thanks! They all seem to use standard guitar tuners, though I guess some sets you might need to drill out the low E tuner’s string hole to get it to fit the string. Especially if you use the sets that use a real .100 bass string there instead of the .084 that the Squier and HB models ship with - haven’t decided if that’s worth it yet. Firstly congratulations! Second I just did an eyeball comparison of my Squier Bass VI and Jaguar, tuners look to be the same into-the-top vintage styles, with the low E looking a bit more snug in the bass with the stock strings still in. Although myself I feel like I want to stay under 100 gauge on the Bass VI to play off what distinguishes it from a standard 6 string bass. Course I'm sure a set of bass tuners would be fine, so long as they fit bunched up like that.
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Nov 29, 2022 15:20
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duodenum posted:I keep getting these emails from Proaudiostar with squier contemporary strats for $199 and stingray short scale HS for $199 and even classic vibe 60's strats for like $249 or even $199 and the GAS is loving killing me. hnggggg Ooh, thanks for the heads up. I had been looking at one of the flame maple top Squier strats at $300. It was very nice to get it for under $200 out the door. Some of those Classic Vibes are mighty nice looking, but I’m just not down with a 6-point trem in this day and age.
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Nov 29, 2022 15:54
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I’m a jazz guitar player who recently got back into the instrument; I’m currently using dadario half flat round string, how much of a difference are the full flat round strings because the half’s are way cheaper?
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Nov 29, 2022 16:21
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LG have you ever tried transcendental meditation?
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Nov 29, 2022 17:56
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DOPE FIEND KILLA G posted:LG have you ever tried transcendental meditation? i haven't. i'm the sort of person where i have to be actively listening to music/youtube or reading something, or watching something, or doing anything, because if i don't, and my mind wanders, the first thing that comes back is the ptsd. bad memories and emotional flashbacks popping up out of nowhere -- basically waiting for my mind to not be active. i don't have the tools to confront those or a way out of my lovely situation right now, so it's hard to process them while i'm still living in trauma response mode. so i'm always scared that meditating and trying to just give myself a mantra or something, i'm going to get distracted and not realize it and before i know it, my mom is hitting me as i sit in the passenger seat of her car again. i'm sure it would help, though. i'll probably try it/get into it eventually, once any sort of treatment can actually be effective for me... also interested in vipassana and maybe some crunchy/granola rear end yoga stuff too.
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Nov 29, 2022 20:53
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smoke weed buy gear shred riffs
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Nov 29, 2022 21:24
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Why do my "little F's" always sound so weird? Overthinking it and bending a string or two out of tune?
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Nov 29, 2022 21:25
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The Fear posted:smoke weed buy gear shred riffs weed doesn't agree with some of my psych meds unfortunately
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Nov 29, 2022 21:46
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Disco Pope posted:Why do my "little F's" always sound so weird? Overthinking it and bending a string or two out of tune? Could be a few different things, but too much finger pressure can do it as well as a nut needing some attention. I try to barre just the E and B with my first finger. That does seem to help keep me from squeezing the chord out of tune.
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Nov 29, 2022 21:58
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it's a vibe !
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Nov 29, 2022 22:52
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I found an old handout with a blues that ends on an E7#9 which sounds like garbage to my ears. A7/D7/A7/A7/ D7/D7/A7/A7/ E7/D7/A7/E7#9/ Is it some kind a jazzy thing I don't understand or what?
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Nov 29, 2022 23:28
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