MJB
Wholenote
Who's we sucka? Smith, Wesson and me.
Posts: 634
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Post by MJB on Oct 30, 2020 4:57:35 GMT -5
Not sure if this is the right forum for this, please move if need be.
I decide to play some slide guitar. Then I think I should be playing "regular" guitar. Or maybe bass. Or maybe the baritone uke. No, the soprano uke.
I fear becoming a jack of all trades and master of none. I need practice on all of them and I enjoy playing all of them. Bass probably gets the back burner most because I get lazy and everything else is acoustic. I don't play out so I have no need to concentrate on one particular instrument.
Do you obsess over which instrument to pick up? I imagine it's particularly difficult for those of you that have dozens of choices.
I'm probably over thinking this and should just enjoy my hobby as I see fit at the moment.
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Post by ninworks on Oct 30, 2020 6:14:47 GMT -5
My thoughts are that if you enjoy doing all of them then you should do all of them.
I am in the same boat. I practice my guitar daily for at least an hour and usually more. I would also like to get my keyboard chops back after not playing for decades. I really need to spend time honing my songwriting skills as well as getting my voice back in shape. I like to play bass as well.
The truth is that I don't do it for money anymore so it really doesn't matter which one I do the most. Of the lot, I enjoy playing my guitar the most and songwriting and recording are second. After that the others take a back seat. If I'm recording a track that requires keyboards I can play it well enough to get the MIDI data into the sequencer. After that I can correct mistakes and fine tune the performance. Same goes for my voice.
I had some sinus surgery a few years ago and ever since my voice has become a foreign entity. It doesn't work the same as it used to. Add age to that and it gets real complicated vocally. After decades of singing on stage I used to be able to sing with no issues. I can still sing but it requires a lot of effort for me to keep it in tune. If I were to practice singing I'm sure I could get it back, or close, to its former state. I just need to acclimate to the changes. That requires a lot of practice. If I were smart I would practice my voice and guitar at the same time but I'm a little dense so that's not happening. I have enough trouble with just the guitar without adding anything else to it.
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Post by Riff Twang on Oct 30, 2020 9:50:05 GMT -5
I'm probably over thinking this and should just enjoy my hobby as I see fit at the moment. I think that is the best idea. You have no burning obligation to be improving any one thing, so play whatever takes your fancy at any particular time. Make the most of pleasing yourself. You have no-one to answer to musically but yourself, and doing whatever gives you most enjoyment will still improve your skills and deepen your understanding musically.
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MoJoe
Wholenote
Posts: 855
Formerly Known As: quiksilver
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Post by MoJoe on Oct 30, 2020 13:45:26 GMT -5
Same here, fun is king, grabbing whatever whenever I feel playing along with on the stereo. Maintaining chops and training the hands most every day. On bass, it's often a specific lick or groove I want to adapt that will be played over a rhythm track or metronome to check. With guitars I'm usually set playing over any track I like. Guitar, bass and amps are always within reach and ready to prevent folding when lazy..
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Oct 30, 2020 18:34:20 GMT -5
I'm probably over thinking this and should just enjoy my hobby as I see fit at the moment. It's hard not to overthink this kind of thing because as players, we would all like to improve as fast and as efficiently as we can. The really good news is this: any advances you make on one instrument carry over to playing other instruments. This is true because creating music is a whole lot more than just technique (operating a specific instrument). Things like timing, rhythm, harmony, listening, composition...it's a long list. One of the really cool things about practicing multiple instruments is it opens a player's ears to novel note sequences based on simply which notes happen to be under the fingers. Carry this to another instrument and it can get you out of a rut really fast because we all get accustomed to playing a specific way on a given instrument. Another example of this is the music you listen to: if you're a guitar player and you listen strictly to guitar music, you can find yourself repeating stuff in your own soloing because thats how you're used to hearing a guitar. But if you listen to music played on a single-note instrument such as sax, trumpet, clarinet, etc., it opens up a different world of possibilities you can apply to your single-note soloing. And if you listen to piano music, you'll hear new chord sequences you can apply to your guitar playing. There's always so much more to learn. I can remember not that many years ago when I thought, "man...if only I could play [fill in the blank], I will be a happy guitar player." And here I am now, able to play a lot of that stuff...and still there are even more musical carrots just out of reach and I want those now! 'Getting there' as a player is a fantasy, really. It's totally relative to where you happen to be right now. Because in a year or three, you will be somewhere different as a player. Like ninworks, Riff Twang, and MoeJoe wrote--keeping it fun is the most important thing.
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Grizbear-NJ
Wholenote
"I'll do the BEATING around here"
Posts: 217
Age: 71
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Post by Grizbear-NJ on Oct 31, 2020 0:04:07 GMT -5
I agree with my friends; "keeping it fun is the most important thing". I'm a drummer who is taking bass guitar lessons. WHY? Several reasons; first of all, I wanted to improve my reading. Second, by doing so, I learned how a bass player thinks, so I can interact better. Best of all, I learned how to adjust to new rhythms or musical styles.
When I play with a group that has keyboards and/or horns I often look at their charts to get ideas for a feel on where the song is going. That's a big help if you never played the song before or played that particular style of music. I fully agree with Peegoo; "There's always so much more to learn".
I find myself constantly changing and adjusting my style of playing, utilizing all of the above. It's challenging, but I have a great time doing it.
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Post by k9bigdog on Oct 31, 2020 7:04:33 GMT -5
I fear becoming a jack of all trades and master of none. For me, I see chances to do something different as being growth opportunities. I'm mainly a keyboard guy, primarily an organist. I also love to play blues/rock harmonica and I dedicated a lot of time and money to harp playing and becoming a desirable harmonica player. But that all started with one song. I had to learn it for a gig and play it for the first time in front of a particularly tough crowd at an event. Everything worked out and now our audiences look forward to the "harmonica guy" stepping out from behind the B3 and playing for them. But it took time away from my main thing and took some cojones to step way out of my comfort zone and do this at a "real" gig. And I became a far better player for it. Same with guitar for me. I've always dabbled with it and for a while I went a little nuts with gear, lessons, and trying to play but it didn't really work out like I wanted. But I kept fooling with it and not all that long ago the guys in a newer project looked at me and asked me to play the second guitar part on a couple songs that we needed it on. So again, out of my comfort zone and on to something new for a while. I doubt I'll have the success as a guitarist that I've had with the harp but I know it's helped me grow as a musician and it hasn't taken away a thing from my primary instruments. If anything it's inspired me to work a little harder on my own to play my keyboard parts better so I can spend some time working on the guitar stuff that is more difficult for me. Meaning I can't afford to play guitar as a sideline at the expense of my main "job" in the band. So go ahead and stretch yourself out, you'll wind up better all around for it.
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Post by tiller2 on Nov 1, 2020 12:42:37 GMT -5
Like many above, I find all aspects of music can feed back into the others. Embrace it all, I recommend.
ninworks, sorry your sinus surgery has created issues with your singing. Hopefully practice and a good ear will restore control. I had endoscopic sinus surgery to remove polyps a year ago. No ill effect on my singing, fortunately, and I have less stuffiness, though still occasional sinus infections and some tiny polyps have returned.
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Post by ninworks on Nov 1, 2020 20:38:45 GMT -5
ninworks, sorry your sinus surgery has created issues with your singing. Hopefully practice and a good ear will restore control. I had endoscopic sinus surgery to remove polyps a year ago. No ill effect on my singing, fortunately, and I have less stuffiness, though still occasional sinus infections and some tiny polyps have returned. I had polyps as well but they had to enlarge my nasal cavities in order to be able to remove them. That messed with me. I still have a good ear and I'm pretty sure I could get it back if I really need to. I can still sing but it takes a lot more effort. All those years of experience singing on stage every night made it to where I have enough of an understanding of what it takes to be able to change it around and make it work. It's just that I got used to doing it a certain way and now it's different. It's not second nature anymore. I have to work at it. Ever since I had the sinus surgeries I haven't even had a sniffle. That's very strange for me because all my life I had upper respiratory problems with my sinuses. Sinus infections at least once a year and often more than that. Nada since the surgery and it's been 3 years ago now. I see my ENT once a year and he checks me out. So far nothing visible has returned.
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Post by rickyguitar on Nov 7, 2020 2:35:14 GMT -5
If one draws me it is easy to run with it. If not then I end up thinking things like I need more work on this, or maybe if I played that one more it would become more fun or some other mental exercise. At the end I guess just play one. Anytime playing is good time.
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