Anyone else done a hard reset?

[bassist_lewis]

I've been playing for almost 25 years now, and gigging regularly for 15 of those, largely in covers bands with a few originals. Five years ago I qualified as a teacher and have been full time for two, all the while doing gigs on the side. This last August I did my last wedding (sort of... I booked one next June because it was 20 minutes from my house and I finish at 9pm!) because its too much working full time, gigging most weekends and being married.

Income was the main reason I played, both gigs and practice, but with a full time and very reliable job (feeling very grateful amongst all these layoffs), I've felt at a bit of a loss as to why I play. So, in discussion with my wife I decided to take a month off playing to reset and see what happens at the other side. I've not burned any bridges. I still have 3 bands on the go (one is gigging at the end of the month), but I want to see what kind of motivation is left with now money isn't one of them.

Anyone else taken time out from playing? Did it change how you felt about playing or why you played?

[steve-bbb]

i stopped playing for a few year about 20 years back and when i resumed i found i was more able to identify and drop bad habits that i had previously gotten used to

[Beedster]

I stopped playing for close to 20 years between 1985 and 2003. I had far more success and status in the former, far more joy and satisfaction in the latter 👍

[Lozz196]

I stopped in the early 90s for about 5 years. I’d been in 2 bands since the late 80s that had been trying to make it and both experiences had made me completely fed up with music. 
 

In that 5 year period I hardly bought any music, wasn’t that bothered about listening to it either, only went to a few gigs if that.
 

But the bug bit again, guitar first, bought myself a Strat, from then on pretty much been in gigging bands ever since, guitar occasionally but bass is my home. And it’s my hobby, what I do for fun and to chill. I’m glad I picked it up again, I’ve achieved more than I ever thought I would, but I needed those 5 years off.

[Burns-bass]

I don’t do gigs for money really (although it’s an added bonus). I do it because I enjoy it and if I didn’t I’d stop. Sometimes I find it hard to turn things down because the people I play with are friends. 

 

I had a similar thing as you did in August and took the whole month off. It didn’t impact my playing at all and I felt loads better.

 

I’ve started listening to different music. I’ve found some incredible new stuff I’d never have ever considered listening to and (guess what?) it’s made me pick up the bass and try and play along. 
 

 

[SteveXFR]

I took a year off and the got back to it at the start of this year with all new gear. It was like starting again, I could still play but I had a new motivation and different targets. I miss my old band but now have another and its fun again. 

[NJE]

I took about 2 years out a few years back, my kids were small and I just wanted to be with them and not be thinking about gigs etc.

 

I always used to play to earn some money and that was a bit motivation to keep playing. Since starting up again I don’t worry too much about money (my job is decent and I’m not counting pennies these days), the big thing for me is getting out of the house and seeing people, having a laugh and just doing it because it helps my mental health.

[neepheid]

I stopped playing during the COVID lockdowns. I don't get much joy from playing bass on my tod, so I didn't.

 

Honestly, it was 50/50 whether or not I would go back. Then I gave my head a wobble, treated myself to a royal purple G&L CLF L-1000 and got back on the horse.

Edited yesterday at 20:09 by neepheid

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I hardly touched a bass for the entirety of the 90s, having got into using a computer (first the Yamaha CX5M, then the Atari STE) and synthesisers / drum machines etc to make music. When I decided to get back into playing bass I ditched using a plecky and forced myself to get good at playing fingerstyle which I was unable to do well before.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Stopped mid/ late ‘90s . Then one of my best mates who taught me,and got me gigging , pushed me into doing a gig for my 40th birthday.Then I got motivated again, and played in a couple of bands. Got fed up when bands imploded like they do in about 2010, so stopped again .

Last few years got into synths ,and started recording rubbish on soundcloud.

 

As I’m old , I should be downsizing the bass collection but for some reason I’m thinking of getting one more bass that would be the dearest and hopefully best .

I seem to have more fun noodling without any pressure to learn anything , which for some reason means my playing has got better without thinking about it .

[bassist_lewis]

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

I stopped playing for close to 20 years between 1985 and 2003. I had far more success and status in the former, far more joy and satisfaction in the latter 👍

If this happens for me I'll be happy.... I hope!

[bassist_lewis]

3 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

I had a similar thing as you did in August and took the whole month off. It didn’t impact my playing at all and I felt loads better.

 

I’ve started listening to different music. I’ve found some incredible new stuff I’d never have ever considered listening to and (guess what?) it’s made me pick up the bass and try and play along. 
 

 

I'm kind of hoping for this: having a sense of what I actually want to do on the instrument. I've been practicing technique pretty hard for the last 18 months. Its been great learning how to learn, but its not quite music is it...

1 hour ago, NJE said:

I took about 2 years out a few years back, my kids were small and I just wanted to be with them and not be thinking about gigs etc.

 

I always used to play to earn some money and that was a bit motivation to keep playing. Since starting up again I don’t worry too much about money (my job is decent and I’m not counting pennies these days), the big thing for me is getting out of the house and seeing people, having a laugh and just doing it because it helps my mental health.

I've met a few dads with the same story!

[bassbiscuits]

I stopped playing bass completely between about 2002-2005 after a really acrimonious parting with my band which just took all the enjoyment out of things. I was also quite bored and burnt out by it all.
 

Focused on enjoying my guitar playing for a bit instead, eventually gigged a few times with a local band on guitar, and then that folded shortly before I moved city anyway. 
 

I wasn’t looking to play bass in a band but it was an easy way to get to know people in my new home city and I fell back into it eventually. 

 

Certainly that break for a few years gave me breathing space to get out of old habits and come back with a fresh pair of ears and some new ideas too. 
 

[Stub Mandrel]

Nearly 25 years out getting married, having a daughter.

Getting back into music helped me cope with divorce.

 

I'm only an amateur but I identify more with being a bass player than my various work identities.  

[casapete]

Took a year off in the mid 80’s when my daughter was born, then got offered a job in a resident club band and needed the dosh so back I went. Went pro in the early 90’s and apart from the Covid thing have been busy ever since. 

I think that year off made me realise how much of me still wanted to play music for a living, so in a way it did me good. 
I’m supposedly ‘semi- retired’ now, but still doing a fair few gigs, just more locally than before. Can’t see that changing for a good while yet either. 

[BigRedX]

About mid-way through 2002 the band that I had been playing for almost 13 years ended with a bad split up. I had got fed up with organising every band-orientated aspect of the other members lives and therefore following the split I wasn't ready to form another band. I did have a look at trying to salvage something from our finished and half-finished recordings but in the end I couldn't be bothered.

 

Then at the end of the year for some reason I Googled the name of the first band I was in back in the late 70s and early 80s and came across a glowing review of our contribution to a multi-band double EP that was released in 1980. I got in touch with the web site that had published the review and it turned out it was run by a record label in Chicago who were seemingly on a mission to release every UK DIY band of the post-punk era. They asked me if we had any other recordings and if we did would we like to release a retrospective CD of them? 

 

So for the best part of the next two years I was involved with getting all our recordings that were on a mix of 1/4" reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes digitised, cleaned up; and then in discussion with the other band members about which tracks from about 4 hours worth of recordings should be included on the CD, and designing the cover for it. During that time I barely picked up an instrument and I certainly didn't write any new songs. When the CD was released in early 2005 I was just about ready to start making music again. I decided that my next band would be one where all I had to do was show up for rehearsals and gigs and play some bass (or guitar or synth). That was fine to easing me back into being in a band and starting to writing songs again. After that the next band I joined was the one that became The Terrortones, and since then I've not looked back. 

 

Having taken a break I came back much more relaxed about playing in bands and I would like to think I'm a better band member these days than I was in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Overall the bands I've been with for the past 20 years have overall been far more popular and successful than those I was in before.

[Shaggy]

I think we've all of us been here at some point, and it can apply to any part of our lives, not just bass 

 

In my case, learning other instruments whilst I've taken a long time off bass not only kept music as the main theme of my life (which it always has been) but also improved my bass playing no end when I came back to it

 

 

[Franticsmurf]

In the mid 2000s I remember standing on the stage of a club in one of the Welsh valleys with the band I was in at the time and thinking 'I'm so bored with this set, I need a change'. We hadn't changed the set for more than a year and we seemed (to me) to be playing the same venues over and over (a lot of the clubs looked the same and had the same characters running them and booking the bands). I quit the band on friendly terms and as I used to share bass and rhythm guitar duties with the other rhythm guitarist/bassist in an attempt to make things a bit more interesting, they were able to carry on without me. I took about 3 years off and initially I had no plans to return to bass, so I sold almost all my gear. 

 

I was tempted back by an offer of an Eagles tribute act (which didn't fully materialise) and ended up with the same guitarist/vocalist as before in a trio/quartet (depending on who was available). It was good for a while and I stuck to bass but the same stagnation crept in again (the BL's argument was that we were gigging so often that we didn't need to rehearse, which was true of the current materiel but meant we weren't getting new stuff in) so once again I took a break. This time it was for the best part of 5 years. 

 

In 2018 I retired and with time on my hands I helped the previously mentioned BL with his rockschool (a summer school for his music students). At the end of the rockschool week, he organised a gig for the bands that the students had formed and somehow, I ended up in a scratch band with him that finished the night off. And stayed in that scratch band until 2022 when I left to join my current band.

 

Both times I left for the right reason, at about the right time and it did me no end of good. I stayed friends with the band members and didn't burn bridges (that's not who I am). I think I came back a better musician both times an this was as a result of taking the pressure off and allowing myself to enjoy playing music rather than it becoming a job. 

[Geek99]

I had six years forced on me whilst I turned our house into a home. I used the time re-writing other people’s lines that I heard in my head, and thinking about what I was bad at before 

when I finally got my bass corner, I was objectively better at playing bass 

[dave_bass5]

I stopped playing bass during lockdown. I switched to keys. Still playing keys, but have a renewed love for bass. The time away really helped as I was getting bored with it and felt I was stuck in a rut. 

[JapanAxe]

No.

 

The closest I came was a break of about a year when I moved South, leaving behind a gigging band and having to start all over again in a town where I knew no-one.

 

And the pandemic, but I kept up my practising.

[KingPrawn]

On 07/11/2025 at 17:32, bassist_lewis said:

I've been playing for almost 25 years now, and gigging regularly for 15 of those, largely in covers bands with a few originals. Five years ago I qualified as a teacher and have been full time for two, all the while doing gigs on the side. This last August I did my last wedding (sort of... I booked one next June because it was 20 minutes from my house and I finish at 9pm!) because its too much working full time, gigging most weekends and being married.

Income was the main reason I played, both gigs and practice, but with a full time and very reliable job (feeling very grateful amongst all these layoffs), I've felt at a bit of a loss as to why I play. So, in discussion with my wife I decided to take a month off playing to reset and see what happens at the other side. I've not burned any bridges. I still have 3 bands on the go (one is gigging at the end of the month), but I want to see what kind of motivation is left with now money isn't one of them.

Anyone else taken time out from playing? Did it change how you felt about playing or why you played?

 A timely thread. I'm about where you are. Playing live for over 40 years. I find I'm pushing myself as I don't want to let others down. Two gigs this weekend, and if they were both cancelled, I'd be quite happy. Hadn't thought of a reset, but maybe finding something that suits me. I also think I should give the gig to someone else and not be selfish. I'm going to think about a reset for sure.

[Lozz196]

23 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I stopped in the early 90s for about 5 years. I’d been in 2 bands since the late 80s that had been trying to make it and both experiences had made me completely fed up with music. 
 

In that 5 year period I hardly bought any music, wasn’t that bothered about listening to it either, only went to a few gigs if that.
 

But the bug bit again, guitar first, bought myself a Strat, from then on pretty much been in gigging bands ever since, guitar occasionally but bass is my home. And it’s my hobby, what I do for fun and to chill. I’m glad I picked it up again, I’ve achieved more than I ever thought I would, but I needed those 5 years off.

Thinking about this a bit further, I think going to see The Sex Pistols when they reformed in 1996 was probably a big factor in me getting back into playing. 

[Cat Burrito]

I quit for 4yrs at the tender age of 27yrs old, because I felt that I was getting too old. I cringe thinking about it now but I needed to get my career and life in general kickstarted a lot more. I had always promoted my bands so had less time than band mates who were getting on with their lives away from music. 
 

I felt invigorated coming back. The pressure to “make it” was off and I have since worked in groups where someone else does the behind the scenes stuff. Ironically, I feel that I have had far more success in my later years. 
 

It is never wrong to stop or have a timeout when the mood suits. I have scaled back in the last year or so as the multiple band life was causing me a mild amount of stress. So, a soft reboot, of sorts.