A question for musicians.

[Vajra]

I occasionally play the keyboard and guitar, but I would never consider myself a musician, so I wanted to hear from you guys. When I first started learning how to play, the act of playing an instrument itself was more of a pain than it was a joy. I didn't get any joy out of playing, because when I did play, all I could do was merely think about playing the write chords, moving my finger correctly, etc. It didn't feel like an art form like drawing, or singing, it seemed like some annoying hand game. I couldn't take the time to feel the music, because I was too busy worrying about actually making it sound correct.

Now, for you musicians, does this feeling go away? Once you have played for years, can you just play naturally without even thinking or worrying about how to play? Do you know the instrument so perfectly that it doesn't really require any effort any more. Does say, playing a guitar become as easy as singing, and your free to just play what ever you want?

With singing, it doesn't require any thought, everyone can naturally sing melodies, does an instrument become as natural as this once youre skilled at it? Watching professional musicians play, they seem to have so much fun doing it, yet I can't imagine how they can get so much joy out of something that requires so much concentration and effort.

On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate the level of joy you get out of playing these days?

So yeah, I'm dying to hear some thoughts. How much do you enjoy playing now?

[Volk9]

Yes and no.

I play bass, piano, drums, and sing, and in a sense you do grow a sense of familiarity so that you can begin to play naturally just by feelings alone. I definately dont play perfectly to the point where it requires no thought whatsoever, but you definately feel natural and there is less thinking "where am I gonna go next/am I playing the right thing?"

When I first started playing piano (I've never had a music class, just self taught), I just played what sounded good at first, no matter how simple. Then after that I learned Moonlight Sonata (took a long time since I was just watching and copying the keys with no experience), but it helped me to understand chords, hand independance, and tempo. From there I learned different scales so that I could just make up my own stuff, and here I am, lol.

Hope that helped somewhat

[bss4life15]

I ocasionally play the keyboard and guitar, but I would never consider myself a musician, so I wanted to hear from you guys. When I first started learning how to play, the act of playing an instrument itself was more of a pain than it was a joy. I didn't get any joy out of playing, because when I did play, all I could do was merely think about playing the write chords, moving my finger correctly, etc. It didn't feel like an art form like drawing, or singing, it seemed like some annoying hand game. I couldn't take the time to feel the music, because I was too busy worrying about actually making it sound correct.

Now, for you musicians, does this feeling go away? Once you have played for years, can you just play naturally without even thinking or worrying about how to play? Do you know the instrument so perfectly that it doesn't really require any effort any more. Does say, playing a guitar become as easy as singing, and your free to just play what ever you want?

With singing, it doesn't require any thought, everyone can naturally sing melodies, does an instrument become as natural as this once youre skilled at it? Watching profesional musicians play, they seem to have so much fun doing it, yet I can't imagine how they can get so much joy out of something that requires so much concretation and effort.


So yeah, I'm dying to hear some thoughts.

Well for me as a drummer, i have only played for a few years now, but as i have played more most of the things that i do i don't think about, it just comes naturally for me.  I usually don't have to count time signatures and it always feels natural whenevr i make a movement.  When i started playing, it was  a bitch to learn how to play, the way i usually dealt with it was when i was bored out of my mind i would do something that i already knew was fun to do or play so it doesn't bore me to tears.  Eventually i would go back to it though.  Eventually it does start to feel natural, from my expierience.  Of course, many times people quit becaue they never start to get that feeling or they feel that it just wont happen.  My other piece of advice would be to keep at it, because if you don't try it will never happen

[wolfking]

After years of practice, it mostly comes as second nature, just like riding a bike or driving a car.  Various techniques and styles you are not familiar with require some training and effort.  But the natural technique of playing the instrument comes without thinking after a long long time.

Also mate, you probably should have posted this in the musicians section.

[Volk9]

Also mate, you probably should have posted this in the musicians section.

Not if he wanted people to see it

[Vajra]

Also mate, you probably should have posted this in the musicians section.

Not if he wanted people to see it

Haha, exactly.

And besides, I'm not really a musician, so I don't belong there 

[skydivingninja]

I found it a lot of fun when I was learning bass for the first time.  I wasn't going through rigorous scale exercises or anything (I do that for about ten minutes when I practice now), but I was having fun learning some simple songs that I loved.  Nowadays, I'm kind of like Volk.  Not good enough to play whatever I want instantaneously with little concentrated thought of "where should this go from here," but I can play with whatever feeling I want, and I have a lot of fun either writing stuff for t3h ch1ptun35 or just improving something.  So yeah, you get more comfortable with that stuff as you continue to practice and improve, just like almost anything.

[rumborak]

I definitely remember that there was a moment where I noticed I was no longer working against the instrument, but instead with the instrument. After that it slowly becomes second nature to play it.

rumborak

[Jamesman42]

I am somewhat different...I had never played music until I was 17, and playing guitar came naturally to me. I taught myself some songs by ear and learned tablature pretty quickly as well. That also helped when I started playing bass, because they're similar instruments in a sense, and like SDN, I learned to play the songs I loved. It was a speedy process.

Went out and bought a keyboard and dabbled with it, making cool riffs and such, and now after years of messing around and with some practice (and a new keyboard with sensitive keys and a pedal), I can finally play piano with a great deal of ease. I could always practice more and get better, but for me, playing music is half practice and half jamming/having fun/playing around.

There is no point to playing music if you're not enjoying it at some point.

[skydivingninja]

There is no point to playing music if you're not enjoying it at some point.

Of course there's a point even if you don't enjoy it!  The point is babes!  Women.

[Jamesman42]

There is no point to playing music if you're not enjoying it at some point.

Of course there's a point even if you don't enjoy it!  The point is babes!  Women.

I remember telling this girl (good friend) I played bass. Convo went like:

Her: "Oh, do you play an instrument?"
Me: "Yeah, I play bass."
Her: "Do you use a pick or fingers?"
Me: "Fingers, definitely."
Her: "You'll make a girl very happy then. If I wasn't single I'd snatch you right up."

[ScioPath]

Once you become versed in different scales and progressions and whatnot, it becomes easy to improv along them, but there comes a point when the motions become second nature. You're not just running around the blues scale over a chord progression anymore. Shit starts to happen. Muscle memory sets in, and the aspects of the instrument that used to be demanding begin to require less effort, both physically and mentally. This gives you the space you need to create music and really get into the groove.

[ReaperKK]

When I started playing guitar at 15 there were numerous times in the first 6 months where I just said "FUCK THIS ARGGGHHGHHH!" Although the few times when I played a lick or chord progression that I was just working hard as hell on finally click and sound great, it was pure joy. As time went on those moments became more frequent but I was still hooked. To me I see it as a challenge, the goal being to express myself completely through the instrument but I have to through infinite hurdles to reach this goal.