Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Full Version)

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rombsix -> Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 19:17:33)

First of all, does any of you guys take a break from playing every now and then? For example, do you take a week off every year and not even look at the guitar?

Being a medical student, I have not been having as much time as I used to have on my hands, so I have been forced to take breaks every month (when I have a heavy load of exams like anatomy and biochemistry) for about three days or so without even touching the guitar (plus my practice time has diminished).

The thing is, when I am done with the set of exams, and go back to "normal studying hours," I grab my guitar and play. And when I do, I feel like my playing has improved A LOT after this three-day break. The question is:

a- Does taking such breaks actually have a scientifically-proven positive effect on one's playing (like studying for an exam, and sleeping well, then waking up the next day with the information being "digested" and more understood)?

b- Or do I feel that my playing improves simply because I missed the guitar due to the three days of not playing, and thus going back to playing makes anything I play feel great and uplifting?

Let me know what you think.

Ramzi



Doitsujin -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 19:23:24)

I´m sitting here right now and write my lab-journal about how I isolated micro-RNA from HeLa cancer-celles yesterday evening. Still have to write and calculate a bit. And I have to think about how to do the PAA-Gel tomorrow and the P32-labeling of the oligos which have so fit on my requested miRNAs after the blot. Damn.. much to do. No time for playing. I share your destiny amigo! How sad... [:@]

Just play during danceclasses and during gigs at the moment. No time for more.. :.(((

But to come to your questions. I get better every time I take out my guitar. Its cool. I dont have to practice at home. So maybe my forced timeouts are perfect fit to get better.. maybe..[8|]



duende -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 20:04:32)

. I get my weeks here and there often in the summer if im going away for 3-6 days i don´t bring my guitar.
i simply play when i feel like it, witch is almost always[:D]



Ron.M -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 20:30:05)

quote:

For example, do you take a week off every year and not even look at the guitar?


Romb,
Sometimes I go for months without even taking the guitar out of the case.
I like to wait until the muse takes me and can enjoy playing around and hearing things afresh.
I hate practising as some sort of duty or pennance...that just makes me stale and puts me off the guitar.
Sometimes I've taken the guitar out of the case, tuned up and played for a minute and put it straight back again....no enthusiasm, no inspiration.
So why bother?
Do something else I say.
I'd rather just listen to other people doing it well and thinking about it until I feel like it again.
Mind you..I'm just a hobby player, so I can afford to do that.

cheers

Ron



Miguel de Maria -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 20:33:55)

That's a great question, rombsix, but I'm not aware of any sort of studies on it. The only studies I've read about skill development, by Ericsson and Charness, don't mention that (at least what I've read).

Of course, I have noticed this phenomenon too. I think it's very likely that there is a beneficial aspect of taking breaks for most people. One, it gives the hands a break. I tend to get a little tense and work them too hard, and it's good to let them heal and get strong from resting. Two, much of the learning occurs during sleep or "off-time", not while you're grinding at it, so if you spread out your sessions you will notice the improvement more. Three, if you're not playing, you might be thinking about playing and listening to music, things that are going to help you put it all together.

Recently, I was watching this thing called a "K-drama", basically a Korean historical soap opera, and it is really addictive. Probably for 3 weeks I was hardly practicing at all as between gigs and watching this thing for hours a day, there was no time. It helped heal up some niggling injuries and I feel the better for it!



koella -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 22:06:38)

Rombsix, you should know this as a medical student.[:D]
When your practising, you're stimulating your brain to make the right connections ( don't know the english terms on nerves, transmitters etc. )

But the actual connections are made when you rest. So when you're sleeping or just doing something else.

This phenomenan gives you the experience you mentioned. It could be that you practise a lot. Then you go on vacation and give your brain all the opportunity to digest the whole. And afterwards you notice that practising has been going on all the time.



koella -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 22:20:58)

This is also the reason why it's important to have intervals between practising.
Not only to let you muscles recover. But to let your brains make the changes when they are in rest and have nothing else to do.
So it's best to spread your practising during the whole day.



Ricardo -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 22:32:59)

Playing when inspired is the best. Forcing yourself to play when you are not I call "burn out". But I notice that if I dont' play for a couple days, it takes me a bit of warm up to get back my chops. But if I have been playing a lot (not just accompaniment) then I can pick up the guitar and go at it anytime. (like when I am studying in spain, or have marathon of guitar students). Teaching keeps my chops up I think, but sometimes I have only beginner students. Accompanying lots of dance does not really warm me up, but it depends what I am doing when accompanying.

Ricardo



musicalgrant -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 2 2006 23:07:20)

Hi Rombsix

That is a very interesting question, I have not heard of this theory of practice being scientifically proven. But I did have a friend who was telling me about a teacher who believed that most learning is done in a state of rest between study times....and these rest times are more important than the study times...

That studying and studying doest always bear fruit faster, whereas taking breaks between study time, like you said sleeping does.

A bit like not being able to see the wood for the trees.

And I can say by my own personal experience as a guitarist, I've been playing for 26 years now, that yes I believe it does work like that too. Buy hey tell that to a performer who has a tricky piece to play at his next live performance and I think he would disagree and pratice like mad before hand, and yes experience burn out, like I have done :(

When I was doing my performance degree with flamenco guitar, they expected me to have a different repertoire at each assesment. And hey if I didnt study I would have failed big time, as for rest I didnt get any lol I would practice a minimum of 2 hours a day, and usually 6 hours a day. As I often practiced all night too..It was the only way I could memorize new pieces and meet the performance deadlines.

And yes I had burnout, my hands would sieze up in performances to the point where i coudn't even hold down a Emajor chord :( I later found out that i suffer from Cerviacal spondylosis in 1st and 4th vertabrea and this effects my hands and eyes too.

Recently:
I spent a long time trying to get faster picados, and practiced picado every day for 20 mins a day, and they did get faster, but not fluid as my muscles were tired.

But when i took a break and when back to picado I found that I could play them so much faster, with feeling and a sense of security in the technique that I didnt have when I was learning.

Ricardo said it "Burnout" and he is quite right too, there is only so much our muscles can take and not to mention our brains too...

Well thats my 2 pence worth,

:)



Guest -> [Deleted] (Nov. 2 2006 23:18:49)

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mkhn -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 3 2006 0:20:12)

I really agree with koella as an explanation to what rombsix has observed. I, too, have observed this with myself. There are plateaus I'll reach in a given song or time and I will try to grind it out. Sometimes this grinding will yield a bit of improvement, but mostly it just gets me frustrated as the proportion of my effort/intent has gone above and beyond the progress that I'm used to. So instead of throwing the guitar out the window, I gently set it down and sometimes walk away for an afternoon, a day or depending on the situation, having to be away from playing for a few days.

When I come back, I've noticed my playing has improved across the board. For those that are relative noobies, this might be the case that koella explained. For those seasoned veterans like Ricardo, it might actually tend the other way.



Miguel de Maria -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 3 2006 3:28:56)

Romerito,
no studies. Anecdotally, though, have you ever heard of a virtuoso who started late?

On the other hand, have you ever heard of a 28 year old who didn't have to work, didn't have kids, didn't have no worries, didn't have a wife, and could practice 10 hours a day?



Guest -> [Deleted] (Nov. 3 2006 3:36:54)

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Ricardo -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 3 2006 6:28:37)

About young learning, yeah it is true. If young kids don't learn how to speak properly at a certain age, they can't really be fluent later. I am sure it applies to a lot of other things too, as of yet not understood. For guitar and music, I dont' know, I think you CAN learn later. You can develop rhythm and stuff if you dont' pick up when young. But speed? I have not met anyone that is really fast that did not get that speed when they were around 12-16 or so. I developed speed at that age, though not controlled, and with a pick. I switched to fingers in college, and sorry, it aint gonna happen. I will never catch the picking speed I had at 14 and still have today, with this new picado technique I started working on in the mid 20's. Frustrating, but I am sure it is related to the same principles as the language thing.

Good news is, I did not have good timing at all as a teenager, and started to develop that in mid 20's, and it still showing improvement in that area. Other aspects of music improve with age as well.

Ricardo



Florian -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 3 2006 6:39:53)

yeah, sometimes i take a day or 2 just to do something else,

mostly is after a gig that i have had alot of stress and rehersals preparing for.

but sometimes it works the oposite cause i am so fired up that il come home that night and practice till the morning.


but , i have atlist 2 days every month where i dont touch the guitar all day, and sometimes lazy uninspired days like today, where the guitar is sitting on my lap , but i am just typing and chatting etc lol.



sonikete -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 4 2006 14:03:59)

I have been playing flamenco since i was 18 and took a break for more than one year when my son was born and when i started again i got a new guitar, and i had to almost re-learn everything again, so dont recommend really long breaks, because you lose so many things.



Miguel de Maria -> RE: Taking Breaks from Guitar Playing (Nov. 4 2006 15:50:15)

A YEAR! Is that what happens when you have a kid. Dude...



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