Separating Work and Play

I had recently had a request from a student to abstain from the usual lesson material we had been working on, and instead to try out a song that he could use to relieve some stress. The scenario is that he had a hard day, and just was not in the right mindset to absorb more information. I am nothing if not flexible, so taking into account that student’s preference for the heavier kinds of music, we looked at ‘Ace of Spades’ by Motorhead (you can see my YouTube short on the main riff here!).

This whole situation got me thinking, when the guitar becomes a big part of your life, either as a hobby or as a career, how do you separate the hard work from the enjoyment? As fantastic as it is when the two things coincide, that is not always the case.

In this blog post, I will briefly discuss separating the work from the play, and it will be an offshoot of my blog post on taking a break, which you can read here. In that blog post, I discussed a few different ways you can step away from playing the guitar entirely. Instead, here I will give my personal recommendations for separating work and play, whilst still playing the instrument we know and love.

Just Do It

To quote the infamous Shia LeBouf, “Just do it!”. This seems really obvious, but you should always aim to be mentally prepared for hard graft, be it writing lesson plans, learning a set list or practicing a particular technique. On the other hand, having something that allows you to crank up the volume and let rip is like ambrosia after a long day’s work. 

In a recent interview that The American Guitar Academy’s Michael and myself did with guitar legend Charlie Hunter (keep an eye out for that on our social media soon!), he explained that he loved to sit and figure out how to play the music of Blind Blake, an acoustic blues guitarist that passed away back in 1934. Sometimes Charlie Hunter would spend two or three hours a day just listening to it and figuring out how to play it. The lesson I personally take from this, is that it is good to find something that is unlikely you will be asked to play to forcefully give you that separation - regardless of what you end up playing, it will always have a benefit on your playing. 

Music Theory

When I went to university, for a long time my playing got significantly worse. This was because I learned too much, too quickly. In retrospect, I should have worked harder on applying what I had learned, at the risk of forgetting some of it. Regardless, I have come to realize that you should work on music theory, but you should also work on not thinking about it - that is my approach, and you can read more about it here.

One of my favorite things to do is put on a backing track and just see what comes out. I get a lot of joy from hearing the results of seeing my studies appear naturally. I think this is also a great way to develop your own voice, and technically still practice in an enjoyable way… at least for me!

It is important to understand that this is different for everyone. See below!

What Do Other People Think?

A while ago I did an interview with UK based guitarist, Charles Roper (read the interview here). More recently, Charles held a masterclass at The American Guitar Academy’s Roppongi location - stand by for a cool highlights video of the event!

During the time he was writing his first solo album, ‘Desiderium’ (you can listen here!) I was privy to the songwriting process. Sometimes he was really enjoying himself, and could talk your ears off about each little section - other times it would be extremely stressful. I guess this means that sometimes it felt like work, and other times it was a more fun experience. In this scenario, and more similar to how it is for myself, the lines are blurred.

Another UK based guitarist I spoke to recently, Joe Boult (read the blog post here) has a much more clean cut approach. If he is keeping certain scales fresh in his mind, keeping specific techniques up to scratch or learning tunes for a gig of sorts, then he is working. The rest of the time he just has fun and it does not matter what he is doing!

Japanese guitar powerhouse Hide Takemoto (yet another blog post here!) just seems to enjoy everything and has endless enthusiasm for even the hard stuff, which is a very fortunate position to be in!

Some Things to Consider

I mentioned before about finding a style of music that it is unlikely you would be asked to play for most gigs and sessions, unless you started a band with that in mind. What else can be done to help give you that separation? 

Something I discovered a few years ago, thanks in part to the inimitable Guthrie Govan (oh no! Another blog post link!) and also in part to a jazz workshop I attended whilst at university. I noticed that there were many guitarists quoting different theme songs from various TV shows such as The Flintstones, Power Rangers and more. There are countless times when I have improvised a solo when jamming with friends, at a jam night or even playing a professional gig. It helps to have a big library of those melodies, and I find tremendous fun in learning surprising new ones to catch my friends out!

Here is a list of melodies that are great fun to learn, and if you can change the key easily, you will almost always find a situation in which to play them. It works out even better if you can play them in a minor key:

• ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ - Rick Astley,

• ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ (this works especially well in a minor key),

• ‘Peppa Pig Theme’

• ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger’ (the high melody, not the tapping!),

• Any popular meme song or classic Vines!

Guthrie is still the king with this, as he is with most things. Check out this video to see what I mean!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDbopO3WIpE

I have also found it helpful in recent years to have a separate space where you can go to work and focus, and a different environment to retreat to. This can help you  in other areas of your life also!

Final Thoughts

Try to think of this situation like an insurance salesman. You spend eight hours selling insurance and when you get home, would you continue selling insurance? Probably not, right? Although you might spend some time on the computer, your work brain switched off when you left the building. Granted, that is a much simpler example than being a guitar player, but the principles remain the same. You wouldn’t spend all day working on a particular song, to then relax and enjoy yourself by playing the same song. 

I often struggle with turning off, forgetting the work and just relaxing, though it is something I have got better at over the years. If you are struggling with this, or feeling a burnout coming on, then I can empathize with you. The most important thing is that you can still return to the guitar and have fun, it should bring you joy and it is perfectly normal to feel a little disenfranchised when you can no longer turn to the thing you used to love in order to relax. 

I would advise you to have a chat with your guitar teacher, so talk to a trusted friend, for some more personal advice when it comes to managing your workload or making sure your homework tasks are not too cumbersome. The team of teachers at The American Guitar Academy are all experts at doing what is right for their students, so get in touch if you could do with some help!

Smash that heavy riff, pour your heart out into the best solo ever played, or even write a happy little song!