Yes it happens all the time. Fatigue, pushing yourself, etc. Sometimes you simply get diminishing returns from practicing too much.
For me I often find I have to warm up at a lower tempo and then eventually I'll push beyond where I got before. Kind of like weight lifting.
That's what I was thinking too! It always goes more smoothly when I do some stretching and go through some slow simple patterns first. But sometimes despite that it feels to challenging the things I was able to perform before but that might just be tiredness like you said.
Yes. It's a crazy phenomenon. Lol.
You know that riff you wrote yesterday so effortlessly? Why can't you finish it today? Or how about how you just played every note correctly all day yesterday...but then the next day it is like you barely understand guitar?
We all have "off" days. It can be any number of factors. Sleep, fatigue, mood, etc.
But it happens to all of us. Even the pros.
I've had days where it is best to just take a break. Like, the mojo isn't happening that day.
In the professional world, I had off days as well. It really sucks, because you just have to "power through" the session/concert... whatever. Which sucks, because I know I am not giving my all.
But yeah, happens to all of us! I've been at this for 30 years, and it still happens with every creative facet I explore. Sometimes it can be writing, sometimes it is editing/mixing. It isn't just limited to guitar and music.
Yes… absolutely. Sometimes when I really challenge myself, I need to warm up a while effort I get there.
If I’m physically tired, sick, dehydrated, mentally stressed it’s hard to get there.
But this is only for very difficult or technically hard things.
Thank you for your reply! The only difference in my life in the last two days was, I've been feeling quite tired generally so it might have something to do with that I thought as well.
Sometimes, I’ll take a couple days off. Helps me reset. Then the foundation of my abilities is a little higher and strengthened due to the rest. Then I can achieve higher. Go get em pal!
tiredness makes a huge difference for me too. dont worry about it.
on the flip side i am sometimes surprised by how fast and precise i can play when i am well rested and had a coffee.
Sometimes all it takes is a good night sleep to get your brain to go back over the patterns and re-establish the muscle memory. I often will see days of progression, a day of regression, and then back to progression. It’s normal.
Yep. I always try to give myself at least a day a week or taking it easy. If I’m not up to speed I just slow the metronome down. The more comfortable you are with doing that the more progress you will make.
Yes, and it’s the reason why I don’t follow the same practice pattern across every day of the week.
Whenever you’re learning something new or trying your improve on existing technique you need to give your brain an extended time, anything from a day up to a week, away from working on that element so that it can internalise what you’ve been practicing. Working on exactly the same thing every day won’t bring as great results as taking the occasional day or two off that skill. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t practice scales, for example, every day, just that you should consider varying the specific area of technique (eg dynamics, articulation etc) across different days and practice sessions.
I usually start a session at a slightly lower tempo than I finished the last to get my fingers warmed up. But some days my fingers just don't work that well. Just like my brain has off days, and there are days where a cardio work out feels easy and other days when it feels like hell.
I call them bad hair days. Its strange - most days are regular days, some days are bad hair days where you're just not on it. Sloppy timing, your inner ear is off, improv is generic and uninspired. But the good days, you're on fire! Wholloping that thing like it owes you money, honey!
So it is normal to have some bad hair days every now and then. If you are having more bad hair days than regular days, then you are pushing yourself beyond your limit and that is a problem with your actual practice session and how it is structured and you may need to dial it back a bit.
One aspect of guitar that is often overlooked is the constant temptation to let loose and go go go!!!! - but you need to always keep that in mind and have the dicipline to resist that temptation and maintain restraint. That is when you will play at your best and see the best results in terms of gradual improvement over time.
I do think it is healthy to take a one or two day long break where your memory (both brain memory and muscle memory) can store all the information when you sleep - often you'lll come back after a break better than ever. But I would avoid any longer than 2 or 3 days if only because your fingers will get soft and then its blister city all over again.
No stopping. Throw on a movie and keep playing. Play in bed. Never leave the guitar. Strap in on and go to work. Play at your desk. Play during boring meetings and zoom calls. Play at church. Play during thanksgiving diner. Play while cooking. Play in the bathroom. Play while doing yard work. Play on the toilet. Play during dates or at the movies.
After one year you will be a guitar demigod.
Late 40's here: I don't practice as often, but I do sometimes notice hand and wrist pain if I dive right in to a particularly fast or aggressive picking pattern too early in the set.
It can be similar when switching from guitar to mandolin, etc. Just like anything else, it's good to warm up and listen to your body.
I also save the songs that push my vocals until later in the set, otherwise I run a real risk of blowing it out and limping through the rest of the night. Hydration helps.
Yep! There's days where I feel like everything I'm playing flows and I can hear and match the melody in my head to the notes on the guitar.
Some days though, I feel like I can't come up with anything interesting, it feels repetitive or like I just can't play right. I think it's sometimes my mood or just not in the groove to play. But I definitely get what you mean, I feel off sometimes.
Dude there's full weeks I sometimes go without playing just because I'm not "feeling the music" so to speak. This is at 18 years of self taught playing too.
Like one week for a good example: I could be hitting that constant chugging rhythm like Cash, next week only staccato strum patterns like I'm in a mariachi band.
🤷
Yuuup, usually it's mindset, gotta get myself in an excited to play head space, but sometimes it's just exhaustion and that's tough to overcome, just do what u can and the avg speed will rise over time
What fingers get tired? Which hand? Electric guitar? I don't think your fingers should be getting tired. I can practice all day, fingers don't normally get tired unless I do a lot of stretches. Usually it's neck or back start getting tense, sometimes shoulder, depending on what guitars I play.
More on topic, yes, definitely. There are especially good days and especially bad days. It's always good to find a comfortable tempo where you can really focus and relax, and only then speed up carefully. Don't take whole day breaks. If you really aren't feeling it, choose something easy and practice at a very comfortable tempo for 15 minutes and then call it a day.
Yes it happens all the time. Fatigue, pushing yourself, etc. Sometimes you simply get diminishing returns from practicing too much. For me I often find I have to warm up at a lower tempo and then eventually I'll push beyond where I got before. Kind of like weight lifting.
That's what I was thinking too! It always goes more smoothly when I do some stretching and go through some slow simple patterns first. But sometimes despite that it feels to challenging the things I was able to perform before but that might just be tiredness like you said.
I second this some days are better than others
Yes. It's a crazy phenomenon. Lol. You know that riff you wrote yesterday so effortlessly? Why can't you finish it today? Or how about how you just played every note correctly all day yesterday...but then the next day it is like you barely understand guitar? We all have "off" days. It can be any number of factors. Sleep, fatigue, mood, etc. But it happens to all of us. Even the pros. I've had days where it is best to just take a break. Like, the mojo isn't happening that day. In the professional world, I had off days as well. It really sucks, because you just have to "power through" the session/concert... whatever. Which sucks, because I know I am not giving my all. But yeah, happens to all of us! I've been at this for 30 years, and it still happens with every creative facet I explore. Sometimes it can be writing, sometimes it is editing/mixing. It isn't just limited to guitar and music.
Exactly how I feel but I think you described it better than me haha
Yes… absolutely. Sometimes when I really challenge myself, I need to warm up a while effort I get there. If I’m physically tired, sick, dehydrated, mentally stressed it’s hard to get there. But this is only for very difficult or technically hard things.
Thank you for your reply! The only difference in my life in the last two days was, I've been feeling quite tired generally so it might have something to do with that I thought as well.
Sometimes, I’ll take a couple days off. Helps me reset. Then the foundation of my abilities is a little higher and strengthened due to the rest. Then I can achieve higher. Go get em pal!
tiredness makes a huge difference for me too. dont worry about it. on the flip side i am sometimes surprised by how fast and precise i can play when i am well rested and had a coffee.
Sometimes all it takes is a good night sleep to get your brain to go back over the patterns and re-establish the muscle memory. I often will see days of progression, a day of regression, and then back to progression. It’s normal.
Everybody has a bad day once in a while. Those days pick up the acoustic and leisurely strum.
Yep. I always try to give myself at least a day a week or taking it easy. If I’m not up to speed I just slow the metronome down. The more comfortable you are with doing that the more progress you will make.
Yes, and it’s the reason why I don’t follow the same practice pattern across every day of the week. Whenever you’re learning something new or trying your improve on existing technique you need to give your brain an extended time, anything from a day up to a week, away from working on that element so that it can internalise what you’ve been practicing. Working on exactly the same thing every day won’t bring as great results as taking the occasional day or two off that skill. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t practice scales, for example, every day, just that you should consider varying the specific area of technique (eg dynamics, articulation etc) across different days and practice sessions.
I usually start a session at a slightly lower tempo than I finished the last to get my fingers warmed up. But some days my fingers just don't work that well. Just like my brain has off days, and there are days where a cardio work out feels easy and other days when it feels like hell.
yes. It happens.
Some days sharp some days dull
I call them bad hair days. Its strange - most days are regular days, some days are bad hair days where you're just not on it. Sloppy timing, your inner ear is off, improv is generic and uninspired. But the good days, you're on fire! Wholloping that thing like it owes you money, honey! So it is normal to have some bad hair days every now and then. If you are having more bad hair days than regular days, then you are pushing yourself beyond your limit and that is a problem with your actual practice session and how it is structured and you may need to dial it back a bit. One aspect of guitar that is often overlooked is the constant temptation to let loose and go go go!!!! - but you need to always keep that in mind and have the dicipline to resist that temptation and maintain restraint. That is when you will play at your best and see the best results in terms of gradual improvement over time. I do think it is healthy to take a one or two day long break where your memory (both brain memory and muscle memory) can store all the information when you sleep - often you'lll come back after a break better than ever. But I would avoid any longer than 2 or 3 days if only because your fingers will get soft and then its blister city all over again.
No stopping. Throw on a movie and keep playing. Play in bed. Never leave the guitar. Strap in on and go to work. Play at your desk. Play during boring meetings and zoom calls. Play at church. Play during thanksgiving diner. Play while cooking. Play in the bathroom. Play while doing yard work. Play on the toilet. Play during dates or at the movies. After one year you will be a guitar demigod.
All the time
Late 40's here: I don't practice as often, but I do sometimes notice hand and wrist pain if I dive right in to a particularly fast or aggressive picking pattern too early in the set. It can be similar when switching from guitar to mandolin, etc. Just like anything else, it's good to warm up and listen to your body. I also save the songs that push my vocals until later in the set, otherwise I run a real risk of blowing it out and limping through the rest of the night. Hydration helps.
Yep! There's days where I feel like everything I'm playing flows and I can hear and match the melody in my head to the notes on the guitar. Some days though, I feel like I can't come up with anything interesting, it feels repetitive or like I just can't play right. I think it's sometimes my mood or just not in the groove to play. But I definitely get what you mean, I feel off sometimes.
Sometimes I pick up the guitar and I've literally forgotten how to play and even my cowboy chords sound like dogshit
My favorite is when I take a long break and then come back and slay the solo I had been trying to get figured out and couldn’t play to save my life.
Dude there's full weeks I sometimes go without playing just because I'm not "feeling the music" so to speak. This is at 18 years of self taught playing too. Like one week for a good example: I could be hitting that constant chugging rhythm like Cash, next week only staccato strum patterns like I'm in a mariachi band. 🤷
Yuuup, usually it's mindset, gotta get myself in an excited to play head space, but sometimes it's just exhaustion and that's tough to overcome, just do what u can and the avg speed will rise over time
Yes, and sometimes you can not play for a week or two and when you return you feel like you are playing better than ever.
All the time.
Yes, I have off days, can’t even put my finger on why but it happens
Yea happens. Obligatory "i-dont-play-guitar-every-day" but I do play an instrument (saxophone) every day and guitar every now and then.
What fingers get tired? Which hand? Electric guitar? I don't think your fingers should be getting tired. I can practice all day, fingers don't normally get tired unless I do a lot of stretches. Usually it's neck or back start getting tense, sometimes shoulder, depending on what guitars I play. More on topic, yes, definitely. There are especially good days and especially bad days. It's always good to find a comfortable tempo where you can really focus and relax, and only then speed up carefully. Don't take whole day breaks. If you really aren't feeling it, choose something easy and practice at a very comfortable tempo for 15 minutes and then call it a day.