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(4 votes) 
I use to wake each moring get a cup of coffee and start playing my violin. I woulld go do my chores and then back to the violin. It's like I had a reason to play and now that reason is gone. I started lessons in hopes of rekindling my passion. Who knows, maybe when the summer is over I will find myself back with my violins.
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Passion is work, maintenance, reinvention, different perspective. Stand on a chair, play something different, play something that has emotion for you. Sometimes, set it down and walk away only to return at a later time. For me, I feel like I have failed in life, but this instrument is my hope to accomplish something. Its a challenge, a mountain, a brass ring, a goal, a marathon......Thats why I play.
"Please play some wrong notes, so that we know that you are human" - said to Jascha Heifetz.
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I hope so too Kevin but I feel it is perfectly normal to loose and regain interest in all hobbies that we give much of ourselves to. I believe you will get it back. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Everybody hits some "dry times" on any instrument once in a while, Kevin. Take some time, maybe try some different things, and let your enthusiasm re-kindle. I'll bet that some morning soon, you'll be drinking your first cup of coffee and go "Hmm. I need my violin. Some violin would go good with this coffee right now.." and it'll be all back to being fun again.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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I gotta tell ya Kevin... the summer days, longer than the winter ones, are a real obstacle for me too. In the winter (back in Jan-Feb) when it was rainy and things were slow, I had more mental time to devote to the damn thing. Now that summer is here, the days are almost 14 hrs long and the list of stuff to do takes every one of them, and the violin is somewhere on the lower half of that list. As stuff gets done, the list still has stuff on it that didnt get finished and so it goes at the top of the next days list to get done first, and same as yesterday... the violin slips down a few more notches.
Don't fret, when the days shorten up, the crisp feel of fall and winter set in, when there's a fire in the fireplace and the coolers are all shut off, you'll be looking for that violin again, I guarentee it.
"If you practice with your hands you must practice all day. Practice with your mind and you can accomplish the same amount in minutes." Nathan Milstein
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Let's all try to find motivators for Kevin.
First of all Kevin, are you going to play in our project? I would really like it if you did.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Fiddlerman said
Let's all try to find motivators for Kevin.
Yeah Kevin - You wouldn't want to wake up one morning and find out I had caught up with you!!
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Hi Kevin... first of all I am sorry you lost your mojo. Here is my story: That does happen to me with my great passions, reading, knitting, spinning. I had a dry spell in the violin when I couldn't seem to learn more on my own. I needed help to make it click...(not saying you do).... but if I have a stumbling block and can't solve it...or I am too tired to solve it, then sometimes I would just put it off. Since I took up lessons, I have got some mojo back. But now I don't have a recital...and I have some learning to do... and advancing.... equals work. And No hell NO, I don't work 14 hours or outside, but I work on the computer and I come home tired after my nine hours and dinner....and I don't know that I have mental energy to learn or practice. (at least that is how I feel). Because practice as a newbie involves learning and stretching those fingers. Things that help me...listening to great violin music, chatting on the chat box, looking at the forum. Allowing myself to play Twinkle, Mary had a little lamb, Happy Birthday, Ode to Joy...and of course 1/2 of over the rainbow, and now I can do Scarborough better. So I just play for me sometimes. Sometimes I allow myself to be tired and don't beat myself up for chatting and having fun on the forum when I could spend practice time. Okay.... so that was all too much info... that I am sure... What can we do for you? Any challenges from any in the forum that are at your level...something to work on with a fellow violinist? A new song? A new occasion. New strings? I hope your mojo comes flying in the back door and you get down and Bile Em with the rest of the group. Good Luck and chin up!
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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Hi Kevin
You will get it back. I've been there and pushed through. It helps if you can make it fun. I find that on the days that I don't want to practice, I make myself start the session and end up enjoying it. Pick up the violin every day and practice every day. Ten minutes is better than none. That ten minute session will probably turn tnto thirty
'coolpinkone', You have stolen my whole repertoire 
Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of 
..... What was I saying???? 
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It's not necessarily a bad thing to take a break, but please don't give up! You'll get it back. It'll probably be when a good fiddle song comes on the radio and you'll get the urge to play.
I agree with others who said that you might need a new challenge, shake things up a bit. If you're tired of practicing the same old tunes and feeling like you're not making progress, try learning something new, then go back the old familiar ones. They'll probably seem a whole lot better.
Hang in there!
When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low,
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow.
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Let is flow smoothly Kevin, don't force yourself you'll end up playing less because it will be a chore. things changed for me also with the coming of summer. I still play everyday but I'm more relaxed about it, I search less for violin info on the internet or chat about it (hence why I'm quiet lately) and use the free time to play more. I don't push myself to play this by that date anymore, I just play and enjoy it and also enjoy going to the swimming pool with my kid and other summer activity. Let it come back to you, don't
run after the motivation.
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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Kevin M. said
"....It's like I had a reason to play and now that reason is gone."
Kevin, when I read what you said I became concerned; did you have a tragedy in your life?????? Or am I reading more into it? Hope you're okay; and as FM said, we sure hope you'll be a part of the project!!!!
I've had the same issue as Denny for the past three months, and it's a chore to find time to actually pick up my violin; but when I do, I still have a ball. And I'm finding that the Bile 'em Cabbage project is driving me to pick it up because I want to participate and I want it to be good, so I'm focused on that,,,, the task and deadline provide my motivation lately.
Hope the fire comes back to you soon and that you and your family are okay!
Goals are very important and FM provides great goals with the different group projects.
It is also unique that the projects provide a type of training that a private teacher would not provide, even given the usual once a year recitals.
I would guess that many learn more from projects than from routine practice.
Of course, there are those times when the violin is simply a lonely task but that can not be entirely avoided.
Don't know what to say...
Never felt demotiveted 
Of course i don't learn so long to feel something like this..
Too much things to do and no time...
I hope those things that suggested ftufc is really not true!!
I guess my main motivator is... my job. Open one eye in a morning i dream that day is ending. Cup of coffee... Running after the bus, leaving the buss stop (great feeling! running is super!)... W.O.R.K..:
- " Hi, my Internet doesn't work..."
Always want to answer:
- "Really? What a surprise!"
But i can't!
And non-stop... sometimes 16 hours a day...
Then back home: eat, shower, sleep. And all over again.
mp3 player saves my mind and the violin saves my life..
During the breaks i list the songs i want to play and thinking, how would i do it and what skills i need... how many parts... I feel alive in those moments.
Kevin! Please take a break if You feel tired.. But it won't let You go. It doesn't let go anybody who had a purpose once.
I guess i can't find a good motivation for You. Only You can.
It's much more easy to stay motivated for those like me, who sees only violin-shaped light at the end of the tunnel =)
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If you can manage to keep playing at least a bit of basics every day, it will help keep you from getting rusty during the interim and might get you back to enjoying playing sooner. Even 10-15 min a day would probably be enough. I wouldn't just totally pack up the instrument and forget about it, though. Makes it harder when you come back to it.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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