Hello, all. First time poster. I apologize if this has been gone over already at some point, but I checked the first two pages of posts and nothing seems to quite fit my problem.
I played in a rock band (
) for years. Didn't have much of a "practice schedule" at home, since I rehearsed with the band for several hours at a time three nights a week as well as played shows once or twice a month. In November, I left the band due to various reasons I won't go into here... and I haven't played with anyone, aside from making up some songs here and there with my can-kinda-play-guitar brother.
I decided I need to get back into playing with a band, because I really miss it. However, 7 months of barely playing other than just sitting around idly playing random licks and patterns or playing along to the radio when I'm bored have left me with severely diminished chops. Also, they weren't even where they should have been in the last few months of the band, since we were in the studio and not playing out/rehearsing as much. So basically we're looking at almost a year of non-serious/non-constant playing.
Basically, I'm asking for some advice/tips on how to whip myself back into shape. Music reading/music theory lessons are irrelevant to my situation, since I will be generally learning music from recordings. Here are the specific issues I've identified so far:
Mostly I need to get endurance back, the endurance to play one or two sets of an hour a piece. I am not ready for that right now. When I try to play a moderately fast-paced song, or even a song with a lot of straight eighth notes where I am playing constantly throughout the song, I start out okay but lose speed by the end of the song.
Also, I'm finding that I am having flexibility issues; that is, trying to twist my wrist and stretch my fingers to hit certain notes is making my hand/wrist feel strained and making me not want to play anymore.
Finally, my fingers on my plucking hand seem to have slowed down a bit; I can't hit the faster runs that I want to. I'm not far off from hitting them, but it's still annoying.
I guess my question is really, has anyone been in a similar situation, and if so, what worked?
Alternatively, if you are a music teacher or something like that, what kind of exercises/rehearsal routine would you recommend to a student with my immediate goals?
Thanks for reading.
