Enjoying music/playing again?

Perhaps not the story you're looking for, but here's mine:

I was a lot like you, I played Trombone all through elementary, middle and high school and then eventually in college as a music major. I played a lot, I made it a point to be in every music group I could find: Jazz, Band, Orchestra, Salsa gigs, Regional/State bands. However, when I went on to play at my university I started to notice that I no longer had the desire to practice like I used to; even going to rehearsals was becoming a pain. Eventually I switched majors and nowadays my trombone is just sitting and gathering dust in my room. Part of me misses playing everyday but another part of me doesn't miss it at all, which is the strangest part. I've had a while to reflect on what changed for me and here's what I came up with:

  • Maybe I played so much that I got burnt out.
  • Maybe I was so motivated to play because I knew that I could get a music scholarship to help pay for college.

And probably the biggest reason for me personally:

  • I'm extremely competitive by nature and I enjoyed being better at something (trombone) than my peers. This competitiveness manifested itself in playing music and when I went to university I was exposed to much larger pool of players that were also as good as I was (many were much better). I went from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. So eventually the competitive satisfaction from being the best just faded away.

So, the only thing I can suggest to you from my experience is that you have to ask yourself why you don't like playing any more. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the actual instrument itself; maybe you enjoyed the social aspect of playing music with friends, maybe you were like me and you just enjoyed being really good at something, or maybe you just changed and your interests are different now?

Well, anyway, you can take my response with a grain of salt--it's just my experience. I hope you find your answer.

/r/Trombone Thread