Backward step

Technique
1

Has anyone here experienced any kind of backward step since they began playing?
For the past 3 days I’ve had buzzing frets,fumbling fingers and basically sh*t coordination between my plucking and fretting hands. I’ve also lost a lot of the songs I’ve memorised.
I’ve slowed things down which has helped a little but things are still far from being where I was this time last week :scream:

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2

It’s natural. We all have klutz days, sometimes more :slight_smile:

Don’t sweat it.

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3

Are you stressed? Overtired? sick? aching? any severe weather change where you are, like from cold and rainy to dry / heat?
anything that you have been thinking a lot about and you can’t fully focus on playing?
Have you changed anything in your routine?

Have you skipped any baby steps that you usually, or used to do in your warm ups, like finger exercises, stretching?
Even if you think you have outgrown an exercising, like for the value of learning notes or the fretboard, if you stop doing it all of a sudden, prior to playing, you have lost an element of your warm up, so you might be starting to play in a cold state, instead of fully warm???

IDK, just things to think of that might be the cause

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Thanks @howard

Stressed ? @T_dub . Yeah I spend a lot of time stressing about things mostly out of my control. Very insignificant when you look at some peoples troubles but they do affect me mentally. I am having trouble concentrating fully when I play too. And I’m on new meds which are making me feel permanently angry.
I do religiously practice scales,fingering, and the basics but even these have been a problem.
The weather is improving as we are hitting spring .
Good suggestions @T_dub. Thanks mate :+1:

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5

Most likely culprit. Hopefully they regulate soon and you can feel normal again. If they don’t, you may need to get dosages adjusted, or get off it and on something else.

I think you may have found a way to measure your med’s. If you have trouble playing bass, something is wrong with the medication and you need to talk to the Dr. to get them changed or adjusted.

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Yeah I hadn’t even thought of them being the culprit until I started typing a response to your post. So I thank you for that :+1:

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anytime brother, happy to help. I know you would do the same.

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You can count on that bro :+1:

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9

That’s a biggie right there!

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10

also, in general, learning anything is hardly ever for anyone a straight arrow up.

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There are entire books on child development talking about regression phases where they temporarily go backward. It’s how humans are.

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12

just rest a bit. that’s fine.

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A few months ago I took a free Coursera class called Learning How to Learn (https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn). I forget exactly where it talks about this, but I seem to remember a section in which they talk about this as a natural aspect of learning something new. Especially something you are spending a lot of time with and really trying to master. I forget the exact reasoning for this, but just be aware that this might be, in part, your brain really solidifying what you have learned. So in the long run it should be a good thing!

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14

Thank you all for the positive comments. I thought I was loosing my marbles!

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15

@Mac I think you said in another thread that you just quit smoking. That could do it for sure.

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I have @eric.kiser
Day 6 and it would be very easy for me just to roll one up but I’ll I’m not going to.
Having a cigarette or 3 was definitely part of my practice routine.

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Man, you have a mountain of logical reasons for this regression, and rest assured, it is temporary, possibly natural learning process as mentioned above, but also your body re adjusting to not having things it is used to, with other things added that it never had before.
You will be over this in no time, and you will look back and probably think it was not all that bad anyhow.

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OMG that’s it right there. I remember when I quit smoking 35 years ago I was absolutely out of my mind for the first few weeks.
It gets better… Trust me.

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19

I’ve been an off and on smoker a lot but this time I really want/ need to quit. Harder with my wife still smoking but I had my last cigarette last Sunday and it tasted bloody horrible! This is what spurred me into giving it a go. That and the fact I worked out all the gear I could get :joy:

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Yeah it’s not a cheap habit :slight_smile:

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