Is it possible to play guitar too much?

hmmmmm ...... it's hard for me to say much about this. I gig from 16-28 hours a week and then when I'm home I almost always have music that I need to work on for some upcoming 'hired gun' gig.
So I kinda don't have much choice in the matter ...... I have to play every day even if I have a gig that night and I also have to work on specific stuff.
If I didn't I might not pick up my ax when I'm not gigging but that's rarely an option.
 
Lt. Bob said:
hmmmmm ...... it's hard for me to say much about this. I gig from 16-28 hours a week and then when I'm home I almost always have music that I need to work on for some upcoming 'hired gun' gig.
So I kinda don't have much choice in the matter ...... I have to play every day even if I have a gig that night and I also have to work on specific stuff.
If I didn't I might not pick up my ax when I'm not gigging but that's rarely an option.
Click to expand...

That's cool man, you don't even have to think about it really because you're a working musician. I guess when you're a hobbyist you only really play when you have time or no other fun things getting in the way lol.
 
You kill me. First of all, good for you for being honest. Most of us wish all guitarists would notice this. Here's a suggestion. Get a keyboard and practice. Take lessons if you have to. Otherwise, put the guitar away and start listening to all kinds of music. ALL kinds. tune your car radio to NPR. Listen to music at night as you drive back from gigs and hear jazz, Romanian, Caribbean, Indian, Spanish, everything. Get with other musicians and scout your record stores for unusual ethnic music. Stay off the guitar until you soak up some of that music and style. After a few months, your ears will guide you. Start by playing slowly, searching for different approaches. Now, here's tip two. You might need to study more on your own instrument. Do you know modal scales and all the blues scales? What about all the minor scales? If not, get with a guitar teacher and tell them what you told us. Let them test you and see where you are missing some of this. Good Luck,
Rod Norman

FoulPhil said:
So, when you've played your guitar so much that you run out of stuff to play and can't think of anything to play, what do you do? I normally go to finger-style blues or classical, but I'm getting bored with that too!
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You, my friend, are in a unique and wonderful situation. When I get bored playing all the stuff I already know (which is difficult, because I play piano, bass, guitar, drums, sax, violin, etc, etc.); that's when the songs come out. It's songwriting time. Put your heart into playing something that no one else has ever played before! You will be surprised. You may end up with something marketable. ;)

Have you heard rory gallagher...assuming you like blues.

or maybe try this link from an old Odd Couple. This should keep you busy for a while...
Roy Clark Guitar Wizard - YouTube

Google Charo if you want to lean spanish style. She was actually amazing.
I know all these are 60s and 70s references, and there's a lot of newer stuff out, but some of the "old timers" were great inspiration.
 
Rod Norman said:
You kill me. First of all, good for you for being honest. Most of us wish all guitarists would notice this. Here's a suggestion. Get a keyboard and practice. Take lessons if you have to. Otherwise, put the guitar away and start listening to all kinds of music. ALL kinds. tune your car radio to NPR. Listen to music at night as you drive back from gigs and hear jazz, Romanian, Caribbean, Indian, Spanish, everything. Get with other musicians and scout your record stores for unusual ethnic music. Stay off the guitar until you soak up some of that music and style. After a few months, your ears will guide you. Start by playing slowly, searching for different approaches. Now, here's tip two. You might need to study more on your own instrument. Do you know modal scales and all the blues scales? What about all the minor scales? If not, get with a guitar teacher and tell them what you told us. Let them test you and see where you are missing some of this. Good Luck,
Rod Norman
Click to expand...

I never actually took any lessons and have been playing off an on for 23 years. Although I had some homeless, broke or poor years here and there with no money to buy a guitar. I spent more than half of that time playing Death Metal Gore Grind type stuff. Most people who don't like extreme metal don't see the value in it. I'll just say it makes most other things easy as hell to play :D

Right now and for most of last year I've gradually moved toward only playing Acoustic guitar. The thought of picking up any other guitar does not cross my mind. Some of the things you've mentioned doesn't really work out for me. Can't really find many people to jam with. I have a few friends who play, but seems like most people down here have too many hang ups. If I can find some folks who are on the same page and can hang musically I might just be able to do that. For now I'm pretty happy just playing for myself. I put on some amazing concerts in my back room that no one ever gets to hear or see! Well no one other than my children lol. :guitar:

BroKen_H said:
You, my friend, are in a unique and wonderful situation. When I get bored playing all the stuff I already know (which is difficult, because I play piano, bass, guitar, drums, sax, violin, etc, etc.); that's when the songs come out. It's songwriting time. Put your heart into playing something that no one else has ever played before! You will be surprised. You may end up with something marketable. ;)

Have you heard rory gallagher...assuming you like blues.

or maybe try this link from an old Odd Couple. This should keep you busy for a while...
Roy Clark Guitar Wizard - YouTube

Google Charo if you want to lean spanish style. She was actually amazing.
I know all these are 60s and 70s references, and there's a lot of newer stuff out, but some of the "old timers" were great inspiration.
Click to expand...

I only listen to old music lol. I'm not caught up with the times and I hate the new music on the radio. I can't really relate to the popular music of today. Charo says it's very difficult to play... I dun sold my classical guitar, but all that shit she's playing is easy. She didn't even go in to the hard part of Romance lol...



I like to learn songs I can easily sing along to. I learned how to play Angie by the Rolling Stones and not just strumming chords. I learned it note for note, but my voice just isn't naturally suited for that song. Then I'm screwing around and learned Against the wind and it's easier to play, but also I'm able to naturally sing it without it being weird. I don't like forcing things no matter how much I like a song. I picked up some carter style blue grass last week and can play Wildwood Flower. Even got my old lady learning to sing it for me LOL. I think it's very important to go with the flow and find new ways to keep it interesting and I appreciate all the advice everyone is giving because some of the things mentioned I'm going to definitely try!
 
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