"Losing it"??

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

I wonder if anyone else feels that their "best" playing days are past??.. Lately I can't shake this feeling... At 53, I should be at "prime time", but as I listened to some recordings I made with a band about 25 years agao, I realized I was a much better player at 28 than I am at 53... More energy, better time,more diverse, more "complex", faster too.... just all around better ... No contest..

anyway, I am not going to dwell too darkly on this, maybe if I were playing 3-5 nights a week and band practicing twice when I wasn't out playing, I would have the same edge... but, I don't..
I put recordings on and play to them, but I just can't get excited over sitting in a bedroom playing along to "records" at my age...

I can keep up [barely] with a modern high energy high speed"Modern country" band that I have done some gigs with, but its a struggle and I get pretty sloppy at times, much of it due to the fact that its ungodly loud and fast, and the "one referrence" is often lost to the blur of sound, speed, and energy...but I was able to hang with it years back,,, no longer..
I wonder if anyone else gets these feelings?
anyone else, slowing down?.. "losing "it"?.

Maybe just need the right "vehicle".. Its been a while since I felt really right on steel with a band for some reason... anyway, discourse here always helps when I question myself in this manner... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......

John Roche · From: England

Bob, it's a feeling that most of us go through at one time or another,I'm 63 , but just around the corner you will jump to another level, we grow tired of playing the same old thing over and over again. there were times when I could not bear to even look at the guitar then I found something on the steel that got me excited and would look forward to getting up in the morning and sitting behind the steel to develop my new discovery .
a holiday also works wonders.. John

Dale Hansen · From: Hendersonville,Tennessee, (USA)

Roland Buras · From: Kiln, MS, 45 miles east of New Orleans off I-10 USA

Bob, I been There. Im 58 and a passion for playing like no boby else. As a teenager at 13 i learned my first cords to your cheating heart. It all came natural to me. I played lead guitar mostly 'blues and rockabilly' all over the southern states and the east coast. However, in my mid 40s my Lead guitar slowed up tremendously began to lose the feel and passion for it. I had never played steel. never been in a band that had steel and never thought about steel. I was invited to play at a Church in south louisiana. The Pastor had played steel many years professional before becoming a pastor. as I listened to him something began to happen to me as i went back home to mississippi i heard that steel in my head day and night, huming tunes continually. a new passion was developing and it was for steel guitar. I bought a steel and got busy. it took a while mind you for me to play in public. now im playing again every weekend and twice on sunday at churchs. I love the steel and desire to get better as i go. one more thing, the flame has returned for playing my lead guitar as well. perhaps the lead became so common after so many years. Good Luck.

Roland Buras
Ms Gulf Coast

Bob Blair · From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I'm 54 and playing better than I ever have in my life, and at a higher level in terms of who I am playing with and what we are doing. A few years back I never dreamed I would be able to say that. There was certainly a time when I felt I had, as you put it Bob, "lost it". What I had really lost was myself for awhile I suppose.

You are a fine player Bob, and from what I've heard have still "got it".

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Bob.

At 54.7 I understand things that are happening at "our age".

Lots of it is physical, I've had 9 teeth abscess and get ripped out over the last couple years. 4 of which are sitting in a little plastic "gold collection" next to me here, the newest additions. That's luckily it, besides getting a reminder that my 20 year old high blood pressure HAS to go down, or I'll wake up in a wheelchair or worse..

I think another part is the state of live music. Getting paid is something a lot of "newer guys" put down on the list, and that is HORRIBLY hard on one's self image. Probably theirs' too..

What I've been able to do is take the time I really needed to focus off the pain of dental work and learn something "new". In my case it's been "telecaster". I told my dentist the other day, that if nothing else, 4 or 5 abxcesses has turned me into a pretty passable guitar player, thogh I don't remember a single thing about the year before last and the year previous other than playing guitar to relieve the pain.

Mainly, Like I and maybe other wrote in "What's it Take.." I think that it's FORCING yourself to plug in your steel or guitar and MAKING youself play something that you like TOTALLY removing the bad mojo that the people you played with the night before REALLY put in your head.

I have a good example.

One of the guys I play with is a very proficient guitar player. He plays every Aerosmith, Foghat, EVH, and Chuck Berry on steroid lick you'd ever want to hear ( about fifteen total of the whole menagerie) MUCH better than I'll ever want to play them, against every Merle Haggard tune you never wanted to hear them in. Add to that probably the three "most despised pedal steel licks" the way most guitar players play them. All of the above 'slower' on the 'slow songs'. Abve that, I get lectures on "playing with taste" instead of "speed", and "tone" from a guy with a hundred dollar amp and a guitar that won't stay or even 'get' in tune.. and full chronologys of things it's hard not to pay attention to..

Well suffice it to say, I believe it could make anybody of lesser "steel" than me fuggetabout playing guitar. ( Or pedal steel for that matter.)

That's where I win out.

I don't let it.

FIRST THING the next morning, I PLUG IT IN, and play. LOUD. A cup of coffee and a half dozen copyings of Brent Mason licks later, I REALLY want to learn new things.

I've played with a couple guys that made me feel like that.

Here's a good way to find to if they are "that kind of player": Check their fingers. No calouses? At that point I know I'm being poisoned.

IMHO, other than real arthritic motion consyriction, or real nerve breakdown, both of which I've got slight occurances of, MOST speed, or articulation issues are from not playing enough. Players, like Guns, Guitars, Amps, cars, and other impliments suffer most from disuse.

I think Bob, today's "musical environment' and lack of steady 3-7 night jobs is what has harmed "our" playing more than anything.

I remember having wimpy Mondays, standable tuesdays, and from Wednesday to Sunday "hitting my stride" for a dozen or more years. Then it went to hell when I played with lousy bands for three or less, and NEVER picked it up inbetween. Not from the above type of guitar players, but just ones that were REALLY LOUSY. I didn't even bring my guitar home to my 12 foot trailer.

Things changed for my day job. I kept playing, and focused on getting a nice big house, and worked hard, luckily not injuring myself.

THEN, about the time I found the Forum, my day job took a dive, and I went back to practicing every day, had my Profess remanned by Duane, and got as many gigs as there were out here. It mostly all came back.

Well, taking my guitar out from the side of the couch, and getting REALLY pumped about playing it every waking non working hour has given me a new perspective, and allowed me to screen almost all the adversity out.

That and still be lucky enough to have friends that have helped me work more, or actually less making more money this last year than I have in years.

(I got a day job that worked into from 20-60 grand, and the teeth that were poisoning my system got yanked.)

Besides 3500 hrs hauling heavy equipment and running a 10 man driving "crew".

I dunno Bob.

I'm wearing out, for sure, and am lucky that I don't have your physical pain with the back thins, but I can sure see that I could be at 40% or lower if I succumbed to the influences I mentioned.

As it is, I believe I'm a very HAPPY 80%.

Rambling I guess, but maybe there's a spark of something that you can relate to.

Gotta go.

Playing with "Whenever You Come Around" on tele, my new Classic 50 212 that really cooks, and some recording background for my Happy Eric Utube stuff.. Dumb as it may be..

Smile

EJL

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Find out what you don't do well anymore....and don't do that.

Find out what you still can do, and expand on that.

Don't let your enjoyment of music grow old and tired. That will cause everything you play to seem awful to you and you will give yourself the excuse to not care anymore.

Hang out with some younger players. You might not like what they play, but they will keep you on edge learning some new things, many of which you might not really like but will keep you gigging.

Don't take gigs that you don't like anymore. Take gigs that you really enjoy.

I am closing in on 60. I still play full time for a living. I am finding that I am not enjoying what the music business/environment/public music awareness etc. has become more so than what my playing is right now. I look for opportunities that suit what I do, rather than going in on any gig and forcing what I do on them just because I cannot do or don't like what they do.

I play better every day because I still work at it.

John Macy · From: Rockport TX/Denver CO

Like Bob Blair, I am 54 and also feel like I am playing the best I have ever played the last few years. Part of the execution comes from playing a good bit more than usual, and part of the freshness comes from being in the studio everyday with a wide variety of music and styles. Hope this feeling sticks around... Smile

As a sideline, I played a gig in November in San Francisco with the legendary Bill Purcell on piano. He is 82 and plays with the power and passion of a 25 year old--and is so on top of it--very, very inspiring... Smile

_________________
John Macy
Rockport, TX
Engineer/Producer/Steel Guitar

Casey Lowmiller · From: Kansas

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but, I am curious as to what kind of steel Roland is playing. The color of that steel is pretty interesting.

Casey
_________________
Known Coast to Coast as
"The Man with The Plan"

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

WOW, I'm younger than most of you cats, and I'm 52...
Bob,I don't want to go play in a bar till 3:00 AM anymore, so I don't. I remember when I was a kid, looking for a chord in "Stormy Monday," playing THAT CHORD over and over on the record, till I found it. Didn't find out it was a simple aug chord till years later. I don't think I have that kind of drive anymore, but I know a lot more, too, so I may not need it! Go to "Steel Without Pedals," and listen to Bill Hatcher's stuff on the Leavitt tuning---That'll jump start you!
The steel in most "modern country" that I hear these days, is a lot of A&B pedal stuff. Nothing too complicated, since the dumbed-down audience can't comprehend it. Most of us are comfortable with our playing, yet still want to learn more. You don't have to have an audience for your stuff. Enjoy learning for the sake of learning!
And you know, you and I got into a row about your negative postings a couple of years ago. I'm not gonna holler at you, but if you're feeling rotten, DO something. Quit this band, if it doesn't suit you. You're a fine player, and I don't think you need to jump in with the first band that offers you a job! Get with some guys that feel the same way that you do, and get at it!

Robert Thomas · From: Mehama, Oregon, USA

Wow!
You guys are so young!
I am about to turn 74 and but I still feel I am playing better then I ever have and enjoying it more, mostly trhee times a week. Please don't limit yourselves, you are younger then you think!

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Not really feeling negative.. just feel its a realistic observation... Musically,I don't react the same way, can't "feel it" like I did years ago..

Not lamenting it, just noticing it...
It is a fact..
Stuff I did on a daily basis years ago, today I can't even figure out...can't say why, lack of motivation is a part no doubt, but I still feel "sluggish" in a musical sense,,,again, perhaps its just a lack of playtime.. I did play a LOT more 25 years ago..From the replies I've gotten so far, it seems like my feeling is uncommon. Most of my friends here feel they are playing better than ever, I wish I felt like that, but I do know what my own ears tell me. No big deal,, just hope I don't get to the point where I dwell on it and let it effect my desire to play.. bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......

Ricky Newman · From: Ontario, Canada

Well for what its worth,

I'm 25, have been playing Dobro and PSG for just a few years, and I can play pretty fast. The truth is that I'm not really very good yet but I'm clearly getting better every day.

What excites me about playing isn't the possibility of touring or "making it," though I expect I'll give that a shot in a few years. It's something closer to the possibility of someday getting a smile on my face like the one worn by Jay Unger at about 1:37 into this clip.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hq5P-9ijac

In the meantime, I'm going to work on sounding like that long haired fellow with that weird guitar on his lap.

John De Maille · From: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

Bob,
I'm 58, soon to be 59, and I can empathize with some of your post. Yes, I've lost a few of the fast licks that I used to do at lightening speed years ago, but, that was when I was playing 5-6 nights a week and litterally learning on the job. There was a lot more free time to experiment with new licks back then, because, I played so much. Now when I play, it's usually to a concert venue and the regiment is much tighter with set patterns to follow. Not as much fun, but, still it's fun. I have more time to develop more finesse with what I'm doing when I'm not playing out. I'll pick a tune where I really like the steel part and work it out to perfection. Inevitably, I can use it when I play out and I love that. I play out about 6 times A YEAR now and love every time I do it. I have to be honest and say that, I miss playing out a lot, but, my enthusiasm for the steel has never left me. I've burned the candle at both ends for 20 years and it's caught up to me, but, the deep seeded embers have never left. If the old fire bell rang, this old horse would harness up in a minute. I would suggest that you stop beating yourself over the head so much about it. Keep trying to find something that suitable to your liking. I can tell from your posts, that, you are, so don't give up. Making sone kind of music is better that not making music at all.

Jerry H. Moore · From: Newnan, GA, USA

And I thought I was by myself!!!!! I have had the same thoughts and experiences, Bob. I'm approaching 54 in a few months and I feel like a plow mule being replaced by a tractor!!! My dear friend and I discuss this a lot lately and he describes life as a series of waves. Like the first wave being a kid and here comes puberty. Then adulthood and on and on. With each wave comes new adventures at the cost of letting an old one go. Arthritis is causing my old bones to ache and made it hard to load and unload our equipment and to stand up for a three or four hour show so I decided to take up the steel and be able to sit down. It has been a blessing. I play less and less out now because of the new style music and loudness you spoke of. It's more like Hard Rock to me. Lately I've been invited to play with some very good local musicians and really enjoy it. My next wave I hope will be playing some old Honky Tonk sounds with these guys and play a gig every now and then.
I use a Redd Foxx quote from time to time: FOLKS SAY: "I don't want to get old and get in people's way......I DO!!! If I get in your way, MOVE ME!!!"
That's how I feel...just move me Smile

Thanks to all the comments from other forum members on this subject.

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

54 and 5/12ths... Still get excited by a good country tune with solid steel accompaniment.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

I feel yer pain. For me it's mostly just the lack of steady giggage.I'll work on a bunch of new stuff and get it together for a while but if I'm not out there gigging steady I'll never really internalize that stuff permanently into my playing. I'm 60 now,have no real physical problems and I feel like I can potentially play as well or better than I ever have.Also.there just comes a time when the realities of a family,private school tuition and a mortgage intrude on living out the dream of a 14 year old kid who wants to "make it big" and one gets to the point where everything you do has to make a certain amount of money.Even the times when I was touring constantly with money making acts,after expenses it was still always "boy money" never "man money". I still gig a lot but it's usually with singer songwriters whose music is worthwhile,showcase bands trying to "get a deal" where I'm the oldest guy in the band,bar bands made up of guys like myself that just don't gig much(and it shows)because there's no steady gigs. I've got a day gig in the legal profession these days and it's at least as interesting and a helluva lot more lucrative than driving 85 miles to play 6 Days On The Road with a drummer who rushes in some urine-stained beer joint full of mutants in Oildale,CA.
So there ya go.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

When I moved to Lake City in 1972 I had just bought my steel. The Church band leader liked my Trombone playing so much more than steel I played Trombone in church 1st chair,3 of us, for the next 15 years. In 1991 I bought emmons course 4 13 weeks of lessons, Hughey, Russ Hicks, 2 others. then Emmons lady told me about Jeff Newman I have almost every thing Jeff sells, Custromer of the year and Jeff sent me a steel Bar. I practice every sunday after noon for a year.
It was interfering with Pastoring duties, so back in the case till 4 years ago.
I drove to Quitman 3 nights a week, practice Tuesday nite, a Senior dance Friday and Saturdat nite, A drive of 400 miles a week, cause I love it. I still play Quitman some but not every week.
I started a groupe playing in my living room on Tuesday nites, it grew so big we had to move to another location, this continueed on for a year and a half.
Nick Reed, Larry Bullock, John Dougherty, Jim Price, Lonnie Portwood, and several others have played rhat gig several times.
It is still going on but I turned it over to another, because my wife and daughter was putting in to much time prepairing for it every week.
At 77 I am practiceing on a daily bases trying to get it all together, I love it and hope to continue on till it's over. I am working on new things every day I want to improve my playing till every one can enjoy what I do.
I play for parties and such and for senior dances on a regular basis.
Have fun and enjpy what you do, that to me is the real thing.

ernie

basilh · From: United Kingdom

I'd DEARLY love to contribute but it's very difficult to read this post because this is the full width of my monitor :-

Maybe THIS would help ?

Bob Hickish · From: Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, R.I.P.

Mr. C

As long as your name is not listed in the Obits when you
get up in the morning ! What's your Point ? Embarassed

IMO here is how it goes for most of us .
@ 50 --- I was a lot better a 30
@ 60 --- I was better at 50
@ 70 --- I played this better this morning ! where did it go .
@ 80 --- I played what ? Shocked

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Charley Wilder · From: Dover, New Hampshire, USA

Another poster here who has had and has the same experience, Bob! I'm 66 and one of the problems that I've faced is my dislike of what has been coming out of Nashville the last so many years. Somewhere along the line Country music took off in a direction that I couldn't care less about. So now what? I love the old tunes but I also get bored doing them time and time again. I have gotten into playing Blues some, and also some Bluegrass/Folk type stuff. Also old Country from the 1930's. I kind of mix them all together. The problem is I'm the only one I know who does this. So when I get together with others it's always 50's/60's Country and I'm bored in ten minutes! But that having been said, I don't ever worry about how well I'm playing compared to years ago or against somebody eles's playing. If I'm enjoying what I'm doing that's all that matters. I've never believed in making music work. If it comes to that I'll sell my instruments and give it up.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Man, I can really identify with this topic. I used to play at least six nights a week until Oct. of '85 when I left southern California and moved to Virginia. I have a cassette tape of a show we did in Long Beach on which I was on steel with the great Al Bruno on guitar. Al does a ride on "Workin' Man Blues" on guitar and then I take a ride on steel which knocks me out for the fact that even to this day I don't know how I played what I did and I can't figure it out!.........

Some years ago I was in a band called the Legends which was a well respected group in this area. When I joined the group they already had a steel player (Larry Sutphin) so I came on board on lead guitar. I was with the group for around 4 years or so and got to the point that as I wasn't playing steel much I didn't take it out of the case for a couple of years at one point! One year I went with a friend of mine (John Floyd) to the Saluda Steel Convention. Someone cancelled and Buddy Walker asked me to play a morning set. I had my steel with me and said I'd do it which turned out to be the wrong thing! I played very poorly and was totally embarassed! I got a tape of the show and I'd never have believed it was me! From that time on, I've always kept my steel set up and play the thing every time I think of it. I'm also playing one night a week regular on steel and occasionally a couple more. I still don't think I've got my old chops back and maybe never will but I still love it..........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

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