day off

hmmmm....good question. I honestly can't remember the last time I went a full 24 hours without playing guitar....even if it was just picking it up for a few minutes and strumming a few chords in a half-hearted manner. I always have a guitar near to hand, and if I can see a guitar, I want to pick it up and play....

So, my honest answer would probably be, the last time I had a "day off" would be when I severed a tendon in my hand - I had nearly a month off then, and that's a good couple of years or so ago.

Most days, it's at least 6 hours guitar playing.....these days, it's the only thing that keeps me sane. Although that depends on your definition of the word....

:D :D :D

Vic

6x365=

I saved up all my days and then took a year off. :lol:

I probably do have days where I don't play the guitar, or practice the guitar, but I'm not too conscious of it. I do, however, listen to lots of music, so even if I'm not playing my guitar(s) I am learning and prepping myself indirectly for where I want to get to by listening to music. And I'm fairly open-minded about music styles, so my record collection kinda resembles HMV (but better, heh heh).

2190 hours of playing/practicing per year.

Meh. When I read this thread earlier, I thought, hmm I could post an interesting analogy here...

Yet when I posted, I completely failed to do so. Sorry, I was distracted by thinking about guitars. :wink:

When sports people work out, it is pretty much a cardinal rule that you should have a day off on a regular basis (how regular depends on the specific form of exercise, but it's usually e.g. one day's rest after doing resistance work, one day per week off doing cardio work). Once you've established a routine, it is also often recommended that you take a few consecutive days off practice every few months or so. It prevents fatigue and limits injuries, basically allows the body to repair itself and refresh.

I think there's cause for arguing a similar thing can hold true in music. Often, if I'm learning a new piece, I'll work on it for a few days, then take a day off working that piece, and when I come back to it, I've often solved a lot of the problems I had with it. Unless it involves string bending, but that's another story. I also think any guitar playing/music making which requires creative input (improvising, composing, rearranging tunes, etc) is the kind of thing where you can literally play yourself out of ideas, in which case taking a break is a good thing. Heck, even practicing scales and the like, if you're concentration isn't there, you're not getting 100% out of it. If you take a break (30mins, 1 day, 1 weekend) and regain that 100% concentration level when you return, surely that's a good thing? I rarely put my guitar down because my hands can't take it anymore. But I will put my guitar down if my mind can't take any more. But I'm usually back at it after a small snack.

Okay, that was partially analogous. Kind of. :roll: :lol:

When I first started playing, my guitar went everywhere with me (my wife accused me of sleeping with it). Now that I've reached a certain level of incompetence, I take a day off from time to time. Infact since I purchased a banjo my guitar playing time has really suffered. I think a day off once in a while from anything is good for you. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. As long as you go back. As for sleeping with my guitar, Buttercup stays next to our bed on my side, so maybe my wife has a point :wink:

There are some days for me where I play a lot less than others. Maybe I'll just do a bit of strumming while watching baseball or something. Right now that's about as low amount as it gets. It's fair to say that I pick one up 6 or 7 days per week. How long I do and what I do depends what I feel up to. I begin to feel the affects If I do too many consecutive days of just noodling or too much time tinkering with the gear. Mainly the tougher chord switches and some less clarity on my barres chords.

Nothing encourages me to take a couple of days off like my gear not working. There's something about e.g. running through scales and have your amp cut in and out that just doesn't let me concentrate on the task in hand. Or axe in hand, maybe. So having functional gear is always a good groundwork for getting me to practice regularly and successfully.

On the other hand, I started working on some Jerry Reed style playing yesterday, and my Martin is loving, and responding well to, all the sudden attention it's getting, so I can't complain. 8)

I agree, everybody needs the day off every now and then. It doesn't have to be a total rest either; on Tuesday I should have been practising for an Essex Guitar Orchestra rehearsal, instead of which I sat in my study with an acoustic in my hands and just chose MP3s at random on the PC to play along with - Reel Big Fish, Tenacious D, Chilli Peppers, Green Day and so on. Needless to say, Orchestra rehearsal didn't go quite the way it should but there were only 8 of us out of a full complement of 20 so we didn't always have all the parts represented.

Normally, Wednesday and Thursdays I don't play a note, so that means I play five days a week. Every week. I notice from my practise diary though that whilst I was out of work earlier this year I was playing every day for a good couple of hours each day plus the lunchtime concerts. Your needs change depending on what else is happening in your life.

A :-)

HI,

I'm probably not qualified to answer this - because I took the first 58 years off... :o

And since taking up guitar about 4 years ago I've had frequent lay-offs, sometimes for weeks or months, while I concentrate on another instrument. I don't honestly think that it's made a whole lot of difference in a negative way. I still listen to music, I still read about it, and I still tinker around, even though it's perhaps on a piano instead of a guitar.

When I do pick up the guitar again I'm often surprised to find that, if anything, I seem slightly better not worse. The fingers might be a little rusty, but that takes only hours rather than weeks to fix. But things like reading music, timing, sense of rhythm or whatever have all been helped rather than hindered, by resting and also by playing something else.

I fully agree with Scrybe's analogy about the value of sporting and other rest days. I feel that the playing I do during the day is more or less like scribbles on a sketch pad. That night while I'm asleep, the gnomes that do the maintenance on the ancient brain get out their tools and cobble up a bit more circuitry, based on my sketches. I relax, and trust them to do a good job. Plus, I'd far rather have a rest day - or week - than plough on obssessively when I felt tired or disinterested - because that's when I give them crummy, undecipherable and vague sketch plans, and they run up dodgy wiring....

So, yes, I wouldn't worry about a day or two off. Your enthusiasm and motivation is the most precious thing you have with any learning, and it's a big mistake to screw it up by flogging on just for the sake of it, when it's asking for a short rest and refresher....

That's how it works for me, anyway. And I'm already a legend in my own lounge-room... :roll:

Cheers,

Chris

days off -- especially after intense playing -- seem to be critical in developing muscle memory (personal observation: can't play it; can't play it; can't play it; two days or a week away; can play it). also seems to spark creativity.

days off -- especially after intense playing -- seem to be critical in developing muscle memory (personal observation: can't play it; can't play it; can't play it; two days or a week away; can play it). also seems to spark creativity.

And that's why I often have a few different tunes or exercises on the go at once. It seems that no matter how many I'm working on, they always take the same amount of days to get right. Must be my sleep hours that do the trick.

I'll admit I haven't practiced for three whole days. I know. My GN membership should be revoked and all my guitars given to Oxfam.

But I've been noodling on a few acoustic ideas, listening to a bunch of new (to me) tunes, working on my computer setup, and doing lots of mundane things. I've also spent countless hours attempting to learn about interfaces for recording. I say "attempting" as there has been little success (my shortlist is still the same as it was before, with no idea what it the best on that list).

I have been playing everyday for years. then something happens and I have no desire to pick up the guitar.
I just came off a ten day holiday. I didn't play once. I thought about it, but never did. too busy with house projects and netflix.
I grabbed my uke last night and played all kinds of things. I found blues licks that I did not play before. perhaps my mind was clear and hungry. stuff just came out.
playing for as long as I have now I hardly worry about neglecting my playing sometimes. there is a reason and I don't bother to explore any deep meaning.
I used to. boy did I fret. (no pun intended).

days off -- especially after intense playing -- seem to be critical in developing muscle memory (personal observation: can't play it; can't play it; can't play it; two days or a week away; can play it). also seems to spark creativity.

That's actually correct. I can relate it to the gym and weight lifting. Muscles do not grow while you are working them; they grow when you rest them. To work the same muscle(s) the same way every day will actually "overtrain" them, causing possible injury and definite CNS burn-out. The next time you do that movement, after adequate rest, you come back stronger and fresher. And you create new neural pathways.

I'm sure I have more than a few posts :roll: lamenting guitar burn-out and overthinking a song, strum pattern, or whatever. If I bag it for a while, work on other things, when I do pick up that whatever again, I'm better at it. Not perfect, but better. And encouraged. :D

I don't think missing days here or there make a bit of difference and like others have mentioned it actually can help.

I usually try to play for awhile everyday although most of the time it's working on the song of the week. I've pretty much on the learn a song a week schedule. Sometimes it only takes a day sometimes longer but usually not more than I week now.

But I have to travel for work 2 out of 3 weeks so on those weeks I don't touch a guitar from Mon - Thurs. Does make me miss it a bit when i get home so usually when I roll in about 10:30 or so on a Thursday night and after I pet the dogs and cat I'll grab the geetar and play for awhile.