<human>: My husband plays guitar; he's amazing at it and he gets really into it. When he's playing he's so focused on it that he tunes everything else out (this is from my perspective, though he says he can still pay attention). I've always found undivided attention important, so I never text while he's talking to me (and he's not much of a phone user but I would be upset if he were texting while I were talking). 

It happens often that I'll start talking and he will pick up his guitar and start playing. He claims he can continue paying attention. The problem is that even without this distraction, he's not the best at interacting about topics he didn't himself bring up. I'll tell him something and he doesn't have a natural instinct to respond. I know it sounds strange, but he is a well-functioning adult with some good friendships. He's tried to get better about responding when I'm talking to him, but his natural state really seems to be to just listen without responding.

I've told him over and over that I need him to fight his instinct to start playing guitar when I'm talking, but every time he gets annoyed or frustrated. He's been accommodating with other requests but he doesn't seem to understand how important this is to me. And for a person who's already not great at some conversations, adding a distraction makes it even worse!

I'm open to the possibility that I also need to make some changes in this. I've already tried to give him fewer details when explaining situations, and he definitely has plenty of time when he can play guitar (I encourage his hobby). Any suggestions about either what I can request from him (since just asking him goes nowhere) or how I can change my thinking about this (if necessary) or anything at all would be helpful.

Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?
<bot>: The combination of my husband's poor conversation skills and often playing guitar while I'm talking to him make me feel I'm not being listened to or respected.