Does playing guitar alone develop bad habits

[West R Lee]

Shelby, a couple of things, and like so many others, I can't read music, don't know the neck, and don't know the names of most of the chords I play, nor have I ever had a lesson, but I've enjoyed it for almost 60 years. I'm with Dreadnut.........sing! Singing helps in so many ways, it helps with time in songs. Not only that, your guitar will tell you where to take your voice, and if you know the song by heart, the lyrics will tell you where to take the guitar. The two have always gone hand in hand with me.

Another tip is to watch some of the incredibly amazing YouTube videos out these days. In retirement and with time on my hands, I've picked up so very much just from YouTube videos. Be patient and don't get discouraged, but if you do get discouraged, just put it down for the day and come back tomorrow and try again.

I actually learned to play in the old days when we had to go to the music store and buy paper guitar tabs. I knew all the Eagles songs it seemed in the mid 70's by heart, the lyrics anyway. The tabs taught me where to put my fingers, and my voice, knowing the lyrics and melody, told me where to take the guitar. It was along about that time, in high school, when a friend and gifted player taught me some pretty basic fingerstyle, and once you get the thumb work down, it too is a piece of cake.

Someone earlier mentioned a metronome........ I've got one, but rarely use it. Tommy Emmanuel says he practices with a metronome every single day, so though I rarely use it, there are some pretty good players that do. That would help you to keep time.

West

 

[fronobulax]

I always sing softly or in my mind. I hit the high and low notes better iny mind than I do when I sing out.

Opsimath: I am sure Johnny G. would agree to being my teacher but getting him on a predictable schedule (say, once per week at a certain time) would be a challenge. He has lots of health issues that prevent him from following a schedule. But I just might talk with him and see if we can work something out.

Learning to accompany yourself while singing will, at the worst, introduce new habits.

Instead of Johnny G. as a teacher, think of him as a musical collaborator. Pick out a few songs and try and figure out how the two of you can perform them. You can trade off who sings and when, who is doing lead and who is doing rhythm and when, when to use the same strum patterns and when to use different ones, and so on. You will still learn but it takes a lot of the pressure off of both of you that comes from "student", "teacher" and "lesson".

 

[crank]

IMO playing alone is fine. Playing with others is a , somewhat, different skill set. Perhaps skill is not the right word. It requires, again IMO, a different approach. And that different approach varies depending on who and what you are playing with.

 

[Canard]

Playing alone is OK, but there are down sides, particularly if you, like me, lack self-discipline and focus..

I become less disciplined and don't work as hard as when I have to have something ready for rehearsal. I can go for long periods of time without practising at all.

I find my sense of time becomes much less fixed, drifting way beyond elastic. I then need to spend some time with a metronome, which I absolutely hate.

One of the other hazards is that I never seem to learn anything completely. I tend to cherry pick the bright and shiny interesting bits out of a tune and ignore all the boring slog stuff in between. ADHD-ish.

I also tend to drift off into my penchant for friend-and-spouse-alienating weird stuff - Bert Jansch makes friends with Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor.

It all makes it hard to play with other people again.

And music is and should be social. If someone is sitting alone in a forest and playing a guitar and there is no one there to hear, is there actually music?

And I have noticed what I might call the skyrocket effect among my friends who worked as professional musicians. When they first started playing all the time, night after night, they suddenly became exponentially better.

 

[zulu]

I was going to say everything Canard said.

I give myself too much slack. Maybe the tempo slowed down during a difficult part, but I'll give myself a break and play on to the fun parts.

 

[crank]

I used to be lazy about practicing. That's a big reason I was always in a band or 2 - to force myself to practice and learn . Now as I age I have somehow become more self motivated and I practice a lot.

When the pandemic first shut everything down and we went into quarantine I set myself a goal to learn Help On the Way/ Slipknot by the Grateful Dead. It's a weird and complex song with minor arpeggios and diminished scales and all sorts of stuff going on. It took me a good month to get it down. I can't find a bass player willing to learn it though so I never get to play it with others. To Canard's point, nor do I play it for others. I just play it for me and there are takeaways I can incorporate into my guitaring.

Lately I've been working on some Reverend Gary Davis tunes first heard through Hot Tuna: Hesitation Blues and Death Don't Have No Mercy. So I guess what I'm saying is about my process which is about learning new and challenging songs which further my skills. Do I worry about copying Jourma's or Gary Davis' technique. No. I incorporate what they are doing and come out with my own bastardized version that I enjoy experimenting with. Hmm what happens if I move the C7 up to the D shape at 12t fret... things like that.

Your guitar journey is your own. Let others help steer you while continuing on your own way.

 

[Boneman]

When playing a song I feel the most important thing is to find the melody and groove on that, doesn’t matter how you your fingers get there, if what you think is a bad habit happens but you are still maintaining the melody, is it really a bad habit or just how your fingers take you?

 

[Balderdash]

Agree with beecee; “What a great thread”!
I’m glad you started it.
A lot of folks here are off the charts with talent and skill level… they have some great answers.
What’s your goal ?
If you want to stand in front of hundreds (or thousands) and do a perfect Mark Knopfler, Leo Kottke or Gordon Lightfoot, that’s a very worthy goal, but out of reach for maybe a few of us. But, the journey that may not got us to that level can be well worthwhile.
If music is played in the forest and there’s nobody else there to hear it; is it music ? Yup. Because you’re there.
I’ve worked pretty hard at getting my “bad habits” down pat. Writing my own stuff to sing to it takes away some of that nagging worry that someone might notice or decide; “aw, he blew it”...

 

[Roland]

The only players that develop bad habits are those of us who play classical guitar music.

Good one. One of my friends is a classical guitar players and that is so true.

Is there such a thing as bad habits? My guitar teacher is after me all the time to keep the neck of the guitar up while I play. He is probably right and I work all the time at not letting it drop. But it doesn't help that at the same time I see Keith Richards on TV playing acoustic guitar and the neck of his guitar hanging down like the cigarette dangling from his lips, and I'm certainly not going to criticize Keith Richards for how he holds his guitar.

Same with keeping the thumb of the fretting hand on the back of the neck. Who really does that? For every one that does it I'll show you two dozen guitar players who are making millions making music with their thumbs sticking up like they're hitch hiking to Barstow. I was in a bluegrass workshop a few weekends ago and the instructor had a name for playing without the thumb planted on the back of the neck and it wasn't a derogatory name either. In fact it was in reference to a question and he said it was how he preferred to hold it.

 

[fronobulax]

Playing guitar alone develops more habits than not playing guitar develops.

Whether a habit is bad, or not, depends upon goals and context.

Playing with specific goals is practicing. Playing without goals is basically (self) entertainment.

What makes a habit bad is whether it impedes goals (or enjoyment).

Classical guitar technique, in particular, has right ways to do things that are rooted in decades of experience. If you are doing something wrong and trying to progress as a classical guitarist you will eventually have to learn how to do it "right" or stop progressing.

 

[Westerly Wood]

My parents bought me a classical guitar for 13th birthday and basically left me in my room to learn it. I had a couple lessons over the years, but not one instructor was concerned about technique. It was mostly, what songs are you interested in and here are chords and notes etc. Of course my guitars changed over all these years...that classical is still in a closet or attic at my folks house. I should get it back and fix it, one of tuners is busted. I am sure it's an easy fix. I bet it sounds awesome.

 

[fronobulax]

My parents bought me a classical guitar for 13th birthday and basically left me in my room to learn it. I had a couple lessons over the years, but not one instructor was concerned about technique. It was mostly, what songs are you interested in and here are chords and notes etc. Of course my guitars changed over all these years...that classical is still in a closet or attic at my folks house. I should get it back and fix it, one of tuners is busted. I am sure it's an easy fix. I bet it sounds awesome.

I'd be willing to bet that your instructors were trying to teach you guitar in spite of the fact that your instrument was a classical guitar

 

[JohnW63]

"like they're hitch hiking to Barstow."

And why would anyone do that, unless they were then hitching a ride to somewhere else from there?

 

[OneHourHotDog]

My experience is perhaps a bit different. I learnt piano from when I was 6. I played everyday, once a week Grade lessons and once a month recitals. I learnt the theory and "classical" training of music.

I started playing guitar when I was 16 on the guitar my Dad built for me. He showed me finger placements for chords and that was that. Everything else was self taught. I picked the songs, the practice times etc myself.

I never really played piano with another person (band etc). It wasn't "cool" during the 90s. Instead I played guitar with people. The difference is that on the piano I can improvise well, show weird chords if tested and generally look ok.

On the guitar, I am sloppy with technique. I don't know all the scales, their fingering, couldn't show you a dim or sus2 chord unless I sit and work it. But, I believe that I have my own certain style on the guitar. It's not as clinical and precise. Perhaps more expressive.

Long story short. I believe that you develop your style by making mistakes. Your own mistakes. That can be alone or with others. Trying to replicate some other artist and failing is the way a new sound can begin. Guidance is importance for progression (teacher/YouTube and other band members) as well as a reliable frame to work within (a metronome).

Playing alone is fine but like others have said it's got to have targets otherwise you may drift, become frustrated and stop playing. I would have stopped piano if I didn't have the strict rehearsal stuff.

There's nothing sadder than it being the last time you pick your instrument up and not knowing it.

 

[Canard]

There's nothing sadder than it being the last time you pick your instrument up and not knowing it.

 

[RBSinTo]

".....There's nothing sadder than it being the last time you pick your instrument up and not knowing it."

OneHourHotDog,
There is nothing sadder than doing anything that you love, or that is important to you, for the last time, and not knowing it.
RBSinTo