^you are a classical guy too? oh my…we should have an open mic aboard the S.S Scrivener!
radish is girl. 
Hence the interest of Le D’
I have myself a 12 string, a six string a electric and a 7 string electric but I don’t play classical really unless you count the misfits as classical. Just have the skill fer finger picking…
Ah! You who can play and court the writing muse at the same time are so fortunate! I can’t play my instrument of choice and do that. I sure wish I could. 
That’s why I have to rely on the iPod; I have to listen to someone else play.
Yeah. More ways to procrastinate…
I have, had would more accurate lately, several hours of practice A DAY. Electric, acoustic, bass, drum, keys. Not to mention a wife, kids, and job. Good thing I don’t plan to make a living at it.
My favorite quote from a song was
“I lost myself when I lost my motivation”
3 Strange Days
School of Fish
Alas, my shyness [or not-so-great technique = too much string noise for my liking] prevents me from playing whilst any witnesses are present. 
Irony of ironies, I cannot play guitar and type upon the magical Scrivener thingie at the same time, and vice versa. I resort to iTunes during the typing phase, but dink upon the guitar while mulling over the story. 
But at least you can think about what you want to write, when you’re playing! That must be great! When I’m playing, I’m completely occupied with struggling to approximate what’s on my sheet music. There’s no room in my brain for anything except whether I’m hitting the correct keys, whether my timing is on or off, and whether it’s sounding like I’m playing the piano or (egad!) typing the notes. No creative juices flow for anything else at the time; it’s complete concentration on the music. Come to think of it, playing the piano doesn’t help me with writer’s block. It’s really weird.
Jacqi,
I actively play 3 different instruments (collapsing the various forms of 6 strings). I have a background with 8 (more collapsing there). The first one was tough. The second one not so tough. These days picking up a new instrument is just a matter of learning positions and training the body to comply to the forms needed (I am too lazy to learn classical style guitar but it is on my list). Why do I tell you this? Because there are times that I still struggle to “make music” instead of just approximating the score. Music is like writing a fictional novel (in my opinion). You have to learn the mechanics, learn how to bend or break the rules, then learn FEEL where you are going. Once you have that down, and only after you have that down, are you really able to be creative in a way that you will be satisfied with.
Before anyone decides that I am a complete idiot let me make a statement that the above is an ever repeating process. Once you create and are satisfied you will inevitable find some mechanic that you missed and you will start over at the beginning.
I also would like to point out that I am talking about personal satisfaction or enjoyment, not professional. I have been professionally very satisfied with several of the albums I have assisted with, but I did not feel that they were creative. My creative work is still being developed after 15 years of changes.
By the way I have been “fooling around” with music for almost 30 years. I used to get paid for some work so I am not just a “hobby” closet player.
Creative work is for me. I might choose to share it, but more than likely it will be a family thing.
Kind of like my writings.
That might be the problem –
If you’re playing to take a break from the writing, try playing only those pieces you’ve already got committed to memory. Or just run through your scales and finger exercises,… keep it purely physical so your conscious mind can stay with your writing, because reading notation is still reading.
When I pick up my guitar – just for dinking around, not serious study – I’m still looking at the manuscript on the laptop, letting my eyes skim the text so the subconscious can work out the kinks whilst I distract the conscious with the physical actions of playing. And the reverberations of the guitar seeping into my sternum physically grounds me into the music – just scales, arpeggios, brief exercise pieces by Aguado and Tarrega, bits of Bach for the value of counterpoint and balance, etc.
In improvisational forms [jazz, flamenco, blues] you can wing it – push in the clutch and let 'er roll. As a musician you already have a stronger and larger corpus callosum, giving you a BIG advantage over all the non-musicians! 
[I did receive piano lessons for a while, but never really ‘took’ to it 
. Musically speaking, classical guitar remains my one, great love.]
Hmmm… Maybe that’s my problem. When I’m at the piano, I’m not taking a break from writing. It’s serious study. So, I guess I shouldn’t gripe. I just think it’s so cool that so many of you can enjoy two avenues of creativity at the same time! 
Well I am not trying to sound vain and get my feathers all pruned but I will say that one night I was hitin the “shine” right good and I pulled out my twelve string and wrote by far the best album ever written by man. Sung in drunkenese and had a back beat that would make any booty shake.
It was so great that any musician would ahve bowed before my feet and would have beeged to cover those songs I wrote improv that night.
Of course the next day my head beat a thundering noise and I felt like I slept in a cement truck left on all night and sadly I don’t remeber those twelve or fifteen songs I wrote.
Not a lick, not a lyric, not a melody. But I know when i was on the shine high it was the best music I ever wrote.
To bad I don’t remember any of it.
Yeah. The best short story I ever wrote – arguably the only good one – came about in just such a fashion. I don’t mind having lost the wealth and acclaim which would have followed publication, with movie rights and contracts and all that. I do feel bad, though, about the loss to world literature. It could have revolutionized the genre, created a new paradigm, set an impossibly high bar for all writers who came after me.
Phil
M`sieur Sheenan wrote
’
…one`s heart, doth bleed…truly 
Le D 
A warning to all who might come here with seriousness of purpose, high resolve, and noble spirit:
Try to open your soul, lay bare your innermost fears and desires, give of yourself for the betterment of art and humanity, and this is what happens.
Vic-k and his bloody heart.
I’m dismayed, distracted, disappointed, disillusioned, disarmed, deprived, denied, and ever so many other things, all of them beginning the le D.
Phil
Msieur Philipe Are you not aware that your fellow inebriant, is not in control of his half of the brain...Je suis!!...Once more Msieur?? eh?..Je suis!. 
Have you not availed yourself of my brilliant narration of the fools, downfall. If you havent… then I should do so. Hot foot it to the Psycho thread, for the sorry sagas denouement, is at hand, and one in which you Msieur, play a pivotal role. As do I.
Le D 
Oh, pooh, that’s no challenge at all.
Whenever anyone is so rude as to set the bar higher, I just gets me a taller bar stool.
so speaks the ships drunken lush. The pair of y` should get on well!!
Le D
Perhaps a full blown sulk is in order,…
Nah. I’ll just settle for a momentary pout.