Should You Play More Than One Instrument?

Musicians tend to fall into one of two main categories; some people gravitate towards one instrument although they have rudimentary skill with other disciplines, and others seem to be equally at home with anything that you put in their hands. I find myself firmly in the former category, but I have met many people who align with the latter statement (I may or may not be a bit jealous!).

In this blog post, I want to discuss how having some experience with other instruments aside from the guitar can be hugely beneficial to your playing. Your experience may differ from mine and everyone else’s, but you should always be willing to give it a go.

Singing

This is the most obvious and, in my opinion at least, the most important other discipline to apply yourself to as a guitar player. There are many ways that singing can help you in your guitar playing journey, let us discuss a few of them below:

• Developing your ear – If you are unable to sing an idea that is in your head, demonstrate a part for another musician if you can’t explain otherwise or craft appropriate vocal parts, then singing helps develop your ear and allow you to do this,

• Employability – if you can sing at a minimum some backing vocals you are instantly more employable as a musician. You are not relegated to just a guitar play which is what will happen regardless of how good your chops are. If you can sing lead vocals that is even better!

• Natural sound – Whilst I will cover phrasing in more detail in another section of this blog post, there are other aspects to your voice. The voice is such an inherently natural instrument because our body is making the sound itself. Being able to sing well can help you improve your phrasing because humans need to breathe, vibrato becomes more vocal like and dynamics have a more obvious outcome. Phrasing can come directly from your brain which adds a spontaneous edge to your phrases.

Everyone should be able to sing a little bit, and whilst I am far from a great singer, anyone can reach an acceptable level. You never know, you might find a hidden talent you were afraid of before!

To get an insight to how bringing the voice into this equation, I suggest you check out this great interview that Rick Beato recently released with Richie Kotzen.

Phrasing

There are so many things that I love about the guitar, and one of them is how accessible it can be once you learn a few basic shapes. However, as with many things in life, there are downsides to this too. One of the downsides is that this easy road can quickly become restrictive as many players stay sat within predetermined shapes. If you play another instrument, or try to learn passages written for other instruments, you will quickly see how melodies and patterns do not automatically fit on the guitar as you would expect. 

For example, Allan Holdsworth always wanted to play the saxophone although he found himself with the guitar instead. He did not forget that original desire, and many of his phrases and ideas were designed to try and replicate the sound of the saxophone. 

Personally, I like to try and copy the way a piano player approaches a linear melody, but I think that I am quite a long way away from replicating some Oscar Peterson tunes on my guitar. I have also had great success with trying to replicate articulations in my playing in the same way that some of my favourite singers might. 

Tones

Tone is very specific to each instrument, but there are times when you might yourself be lacking in the tonal department on the guitar, or chasing the sound of a specific instrument. Whilst many instruments do not have the diversity of tone that the guitar does, they might still produce a desirable sound that you might aim for.

One such case is with Guthrie Govan, who when playing with Steven Wilson, using a specific guitar on the neck pickup, and moved his picking hand further up the neck to generate more of a clarinet type sound – without being at least somewhat familiar with this instrument you would not think that it would be an option. 

This idea does not necessitate playing the instrument to take inspiration from it. In that sense, this section might be considered a recommendation for listening and cause for expanding your horizons.

Songwriting

As I mentioned when discussing phrasing above, the way many of us learn the guitar can be somewhat restrictive. This can be evident when it comes to songwriting too, by falling into patterns that you are comfortable with. This can make your tunes somewhat predictable.

Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone, playing in such a way that you can’t really determine if it is right or wrong allows you so much more freedom because there is no way you can judge the technique or the patterns, only the music that follows. Nick Jonhston, a well-known solo artist who now plays guitar with metal icons Mastodon, famously writes many of his songs on the piano for this very reason (you can watch our interview together on the TAGA YouTube channel here).

Sometimes just the simple fact that another instrument, even a dobro or a classical with a different sound to what you usually use, can inspire something entirely new and different!

If you are interested, you can read my songwriting blog post here.

Final Thoughts

I think it is quite clear that playing any other instrument can only be a benefit to you, as long as you keep the majority of your attention on the main instrument of choice; spreading yourself too thin means that you can’t progress effectively in any one area. 

In the event that you do not have the ability to purchase, borrow or expose yourself to new instruments then you can still listen and become inspired by them. You could try an entirely new technique, like slide guitar, which I count as a different instrument entirely; for a relatively low cost you can explore an entirely new path. 

Nothing will ever replace the guitar for me; I can connect with this instrument on a level that I could not imagine with anything else. Though I will remain a guitar player, I am happy that I also have the ability to find my way around a song with the bass, my voice, a piano or the ukulele. However, there are still opportunities to explore! 

Have you ever tried another instrument? Or maybe you played the piano as a child but not for many years? Maybe it is time to give it a shot!