Notes on holidays and breaks away from playing

[Darkman]

So I got back last week from a 2 week holiday. I ummed and errred over whether to take a guitar, and eventually opted not to. And here's the result...

Interestingly, my two areas of playing have suffered very differently. I've found my nylon classical playing hasn't suffered noticeably at all. It's almost identical to where I left off.

My lead guitar playing is a different story! On first attempt I've had to drop everything by 10bpm to be able to play it. A big difference. Now, I'm confident that ability will return with some work, but just 2 weeks out has had a dramatic effect. I can feel my muscles tiring especially on the faster legato stuff.

I think this just highlights how speed playing differs from other styles. It does seem to require a lot more maintenance.

Any comments?

[ChainsawGuitar]

Yes, how did you survive 2 weeks without a guitar?! I couldn't do 2 days...

I wouldn't call missing two whole weeks of practise and losing some ability "high maintenance".

[bluesking]

I find no problems with taking a break. But I'm not as into technique as you guys I expect.

Sure, after a break, my fingers may have lost some agility. But for me, the limit is not on how fast your fingers move, but on how quick your brain can go. I find that my brain usually improvesafter a good rest period. My musicallity increases, I savour each note all the more, I am more creative.

I've taken breaks up to 3 months before (of almost complete guitar deprivation) and any muscle/agility I have lost I have regained within a week or two of "a-couple-hours-a-night-practice".

The only time I can admit to actually having forgotten something is when I have practiced it too much or incorrectly. Sometimes over-repetition of something can almost invalidate it from your memory, I have found. Likewise, speeding through new concepts or biting off too much at once is a sure fire way to forget it within days.

Because I improvise almost everything I play, I find the best way of making sure I play well is to look after my general health & mood. If I am in the zone, I will play well for sure, if not, I can be a bit mindless...

[AndyPollow]

I got the nickname "guitar hero" in jail cuz I spent alot of time every day running my fingers up and down a drawing of a guitar fretboard I drew on an envelope and held up with a really big bible. So I could remember scales...and go over yngwie music. And I did alot of hand exersizes like open and close both hands alot - just that gives you alot of good guitar muscles. And right hand wrist exersizes. It can be good cuz its so fresh and fun after a break from it.

[ChrisJ]

I think that playing guitar, for the most part not as much a physical thing as a mental thing (at least later in the game). That probably goes for most tasks I assume. What I mean is that practicing with the guitar in your hands is not so much for your muscles as it is for your brain. I've been playing for almost 35 years now and since my brain knows the pitches of the notes on the fretboard even without the guitar in my hands, I can practice without physically having the guitar. You can't imagine what a joy this is because I can practice for a gig while sitting on the airplane reading the charts. The person next to me might think I'm strange because sometimes I will hold my hands up and move them like I'm playing if I am having a problem seeing in my mind's eye what my hands should be doing. It also means I can go on vacation and leave my guitar at home (something I wouldn't have imagined doing ten years ago) and just bring charts or notated licks and remember the songs or phrases that way.

I think it was Jeff Berlin who told me once that he had a photographic memory as well as perfect pitch so he can just visually scan the charts once to remember them, and wouldn't even need them to practice.

Granted it is better to practice with the guitar in your hands but after enough years on the instrument, you can get a lot done without it as well..

[JazzMick]

This is no different to any physical activity.

I'm sure if you told a track runner to stop exercising for 2 weeks they would suffer for it. After a week of the usual exercises though, they would be back at 100%. Don't sweat it. Take advantage of the loss and use it to improve yourself.

[fingerpikingood]

I'm with bluesking on this one, a break of two weeks i find sometimes the best thing ever, i recently went on a piano break of a few months and then when i got a real piano in my hands for the first time, i played the best piano in my life so far.

with guitar for me it's the same. i think physically getting a break somehow helps me. as though on that break i healed and came back stronger and faster.

I took a break of guitar for about 5 years though once and duyring that time i played mostly piano. and then i decided to go out and buy an acoustic. before that my only guitar was a fender strat with soft buttery action. i felt like i had regressed so much, but even then my creativity was up a little. i find around guitar too long you get into kind of grooves of styles and stuff, and then time away will bring you a fresh perspective.

but it wasn't until a few good months of playing again where i felt i had caught up back to where i was. with bass too i lost alot of slap technique, but i still sort of have it.

i think you only really lose the super speed kind of mode. everything else is like riding a bike.

but your more conditionned muscles is more like easy come easy go. getting them the first time can be a little hard but once you got that it's easy to lose your quickness but then easy enough to gain it back again.

but for me i think i need to be away for months or a month at least to notice much of a difference, but hten again, i have not yet achieved the full superspeed.

[Ludwig]

I find myself in need of those long breaks. Sure the physical suffers but the mental has time to reboot and refresh. If your solos start to get stale and and cliched and you just don't have the heart into what your playing, it might be time for a holiday.

I heard an NPR radio interview of a piano player at a famous hotel that is shutting down for remodeling and the piano player was about to lose his gig there. The interviewer had him play his most requested song - "As Time Goes By". The performance sounded like the guy had played that song 1,000,000 times already and it just was not in his heart anymore. Funny how you can hear that lack of excitement through the radio. Anyway I think the guy needs a holiday to get his groove back.