I really seem to have lost focus as far as learning the classical guitar is concerned. I started playing aged 40, have passed grade 4 (although not brilliantly). I have become friends with my teacher, and rather than helping the situation, I'm finding it's getting in the way that we see each socially outside the lessons. I don't know if this is part of the reason I'm feeling even lower in confidence than usual about learning. We had a very shakey start to the lessons, had several tiffs along the way, but survived them all somehow, and I love my instrument, so why am I feeling I've lost my way. Any ideas?

Hello & welcome to the forum.

You could try a new teacher? That might be tricky (having made friends with the old one). Similar thing happened to me - teacher became friend and then refused to charge for lessons.
I got a new teacher who expected me to practice and set me new challenges. Still have the old teacher/friend.

I find that my interest waxes and wanes, sometimes it's a few months in between solid periods of interest. The first few times it happened as an adult learner, I was a bit panicky but now I know the pattern, not any more. (I learnt piano as a child and then horn and piano again as an adult)

I'd agree with Corenfa, I had some real crisis' of faith when I first started piano as an adult learner, and have come close to quitting a few times. But taking a step back, maybe some time out, and then slowly reminding myself of why I do it, why I love it, really helps to get me back in (those first couple weeks after a motivational crash are usually the most productive imo!)

Also if you do feel your relationship with your teacher is getting in the way, maybe a new teacher is a good idea. I would probably first suggest though that you talk to your teacher about it. See what he thinks.



In general though I would ask you three questions to help others answer your own:

1) how long have you been playing.

2) do you often have motivational problems/is this the first/is this much worse than the others?

3) What motivates you/what do you do to get motivated/why did you start out?

I just tracked down an old post of mine about losing my musical mojo and here is what I normally do

* taking a break- totally forget about it for a few days / weeks, I never lost that much technique if I'd been regularly practising before that

* if I can't take a break, then doing minimal practise to maintain muscle tone / embouchure

* listening to favourite recordings to remind myself why I used to love the instrument

* making musical plans with friends for fun things to play

(linked to the thread anyway in case the rest of it is useful to you)

Can you find an ensemble to join? Classical guitar can be a bit lonely! Or a guitar society? There are some good ones out there. Google will help. Or even start up your own quartet or trio. There is so much wonderful ensemble music for classical guitar.

Thanks for all those replies, everyone. Think I'll try the tack of simply trying to talk it through, at first. If both our hearts are in weathering the "storm", then I hope I can come out the other side refreshed!