Benefits of My Break from Playing Guitar

Nicole Neal4 Comments

So, as I outlined in my previous post, I’ve recently had a rather generous slab of time out recently. A lengthy holiday (the longest I’ve ever had I think, and longest likely for some time) and time out from my job, playing guitar, the general day-to-day of everyday life. Five weeks (preceeded by a week or two’s preparation prior which led to no playing) of rest, relaxation and general unguided mulling.

From the point of view of guitar playing, a younger version of myself from a number of years ago would have been horrified at the thought of not playing the guitar for five or six weeks in a row. The concept would have been unfathomable.

However, in my increasing wisdom of middle(ish) age it doesn’t and hasn’t worried me in the slightest. In fact, I found the break quite refreshing and reinvigorating.

How so?

Well, the time away from the minutiae of grappling with knotty technical issues in pieces has allowed perspective, and removed the temptation to over-think and over-practice those elements (and possibly undoing good work done). The time away has actually better enabled me to tackle some of those technical issues, and some have even felt to become much easier. Don’t know what I was making all the fuss about.

The break has enabled me to refocus on what I want to do with my playing next in terms of what I’m currently learning and want to learn, projects such as my duo project with the wonderful Rick Alexander and recording, and within the latter what I want to record.

It’s also given me a new boost of energy and enthusiasm for relearning older parts of my repertoire, finishing off learning pieces or suites that are part learnt and for beginning to grapple new work. Alongside the mental refreshment, I find that I’m physically more in tune again with what my body is doing, what I’m actively doing with it and knowing when to ease back or take a rest.

I’m not advocating that that size of break from playing should be done on a frequent basis (after all you’re not really playing then are you?!). Nor that it has to be as long a break as a month or more. But once a year a complete and total physical and mental break for a period of time, say a week or two, I find does wonders for my playing.

She’s Back!

Nicole Neal7 Comments

Hi Folks!

It has been a long time between posts, but I’m back. I probably won’t get back to the regularity of twice weekly posts of the initial years (due to the rigours of a day job with a demanding, but excitingly challenging global focus!), but will be back posting on a somewhat regular basis again nonetheless. Perhaps when I’ve got something interesting (well, things that I think could be interesting, and you can tell me otherwise, dear readers), potentially insightful, helpful (etc etc, you get the picture) to say.

What might be most interesting to share with you over coming weeks is:

  • my forays back into the guitar after a 6 week hiatus (galavanting around Europe and doing the whole getting married thing) and my techniques and tips for getting the fingers (and brain) moving again
  • my thoughts and musings on musical cross-fertilisation
  • my plans to get my repertoire pumping (with neatly ordered piles of sheet music sitting in the music room entitled “record this”, “accessible repertoire for solo performance”, “relearn/ revist”, “finish learning the rest of this suite” and “start learning”. There’s probably about 3 or 4 years worth of musical material to learn, have fun with and share learnings, thoughts and ideas on with all of that

You may also be interested to know (or you may not!) that I’ve set myself a completely arbitrary target of recording at least one piece per calendar month for the next 12 months. Perhaps just starting with some more simple little pieces to get into the swing of things (and used to the gadgetry surrounding the recording process too).

We’ll see how we go with it (see above comment re day job!), but I think it’s something that will give me a new focus in my playing and ongoing development. The experience of recording, in some ways, is a little like live performance in a way for me. The microphone  is “listening”, but also the end result will actively be listened to by all and sundry with even less control over the reception, thoughts, feelings and emotions than in a live situation. Especially if I put it on the internet, like this: