Music Banter - View Single Post - Any multi instrumentalists out there?

shpongled · 03-06-2014, 06:16 AM

Hey everyone.
I've been thinking lately about the effects that playing/learning one instrument has on the way I think about other instrument/s I play, and the way they affect how I think about music in general. I'm curious to know if others have had a similar experience with this, and if anyone feels that particular instruments go together more easily than others? To ask my question properly, I have to tell you a bit of my story... and it's going to be a long one so I apologise in advance

I learned classical piano from about age 6-22 or so. From around 15-19 I also played trumpet in my school concert bands. From around 17-18 I started dabbling in electric guitar, but never seriously got my head around it to the point where I started "thinking on guitar" - it was more that I would figure out how to play what I heard in my head or other songs of artists I liked. I found this quite easy to do, I picked it up very naturally without much effort, *BUT* I still mostly visualised music in terms of a piano keyboard (when not sitting with the guitar) and never memorised the notes on the guitar fretboard.

After this, I went through a period of about 5-7 years where I dabbled in electronic music and other audio production/sound design for film, so not much "traditional" music. During this time I stopped practising piano regularly and eventually guitar as well, although still played both intermittently. I took up the drums for a few years, before going through some financial trouble and having to sell my drum kit. Throughout this whole time, I have never stopped THINKING about music - I have always had music running through my head. A lot of original melodies etc. Always thought about in terms of linear pitch structures similar to a piano keyboard, but not exactly a piano keyboard. Something like what I imagine a singer might visualise if they have never learnt an instrument but have still been formally trained to know their scales and intervals etc?

Fast forward to now, I'm 31. I started diligently practising guitar again about a year ago, this time making a real effort to start thinking in terms of guitar, learning the notes on the fretboard, etc. I have found this very very difficult to do. It clashes with the way my brain has been trained to comprehend music. When I'm in the moment playing music on the guitar I don't really have any issues visualising it on the guitar - I know all the common intervals on guitar without really having to think about it too much, but it still feels like it goes through a layer of translation - it's like my brain thinks in terms of piano and then does the conversion before passing the answer to me. Also, whenever I'm away from the guitar and thinking about melodies or chords, it always comes to me in terms of the piano. Well, not strictly a piano keyboard, but a linear arrangement of notes in my mind like on a keyboard, even if i'm thinking of a guitar melody. Guitar strumming chords are visualised as chords on the guitar, but everything else seems to be thought of linearly like on a piano, unless I have already ingrained it in my head in guitar terms by physically playing it on guitar.

This kind've bothers me in a way because it feels like my mind is constantly under stress when thinking about music, or rather when trying to think about music in a particular way at any given time. It also feels like I think in terms of one at the expense of the other, as I find it difficult to swap back and forth between the different modes of thinking, and the worst part is that when I'm in a regular practice routine for guitar, I find it difficult in general to return to my "primary" way of thinking - piano. This bothers me. I never felt this way when I played trumpet - even though I still visualised music linearly like on a piano keyboard, I found it quite easy to just map the trumpet fingerings to that same linear arrangement. Same thing when I played drums, no mental conflict there at all - it just worked.

I do REALLY enjoy playing guitar as I find I can be much more expressive in certain ways than on piano, but in some strange way I also feel that by continuing to mould my brain to be able to "think on guitar" I am actually degrading my ability to think fluidly on the piano keyboard, and that is something that really does bother me. If that makes any sense at all. Once again, this never happened to me when playing other instruments.

So my question is... has anyone had this sort of experience when changing between two instruments? Does anyone else find that a certain combination of instruments does/doesn't work for them? Does this mean that I should accept that I'm just not meant to be a "guitarist" and that I should throw myself wholeheartedly into piano/electronic music/drums? (which I also really enjoyed).

Any words of wisdom or insight into my mental state of anguish?

03-06-2014, 06:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
shpongled Groupie Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 5	Any multi instrumentalists out there? - I need your input :) Hey everyone. I've been thinking lately about the effects that playing/learning one instrument has on the way I think about other instrument/s I play, and the way they affect how I think about music in general. I'm curious to know if others have had a similar experience with this, and if anyone feels that particular instruments go together more easily than others? To ask my question properly, I have to tell you a bit of my story... and it's going to be a long one so I apologise in advance I learned classical piano from about age 6-22 or so. From around 15-19 I also played trumpet in my school concert bands. From around 17-18 I started dabbling in electric guitar, but never seriously got my head around it to the point where I started "thinking on guitar" - it was more that I would figure out how to play what I heard in my head or other songs of artists I liked. I found this quite easy to do, I picked it up very naturally without much effort, BUT I still mostly visualised music in terms of a piano keyboard (when not sitting with the guitar) and never memorised the notes on the guitar fretboard. After this, I went through a period of about 5-7 years where I dabbled in electronic music and other audio production/sound design for film, so not much "traditional" music. During this time I stopped practising piano regularly and eventually guitar as well, although still played both intermittently. I took up the drums for a few years, before going through some financial trouble and having to sell my drum kit. Throughout this whole time, I have never stopped THINKING about music - I have always had music running through my head. A lot of original melodies etc. Always thought about in terms of linear pitch structures similar to a piano keyboard, but not exactly a piano keyboard. Something like what I imagine a singer might visualise if they have never learnt an instrument but have still been formally trained to know their scales and intervals etc? Fast forward to now, I'm 31. I started diligently practising guitar again about a year ago, this time making a real effort to start thinking in terms of guitar, learning the notes on the fretboard, etc. I have found this very very difficult to do. It clashes with the way my brain has been trained to comprehend music. When I'm in the moment playing music on the guitar I don't really have any issues visualising it on the guitar - I know all the common intervals on guitar without really having to think about it too much, but it still feels like it goes through a layer of translation - it's like my brain thinks in terms of piano and then does the conversion before passing the answer to me. Also, whenever I'm away from the guitar and thinking about melodies or chords, it always comes to me in terms of the piano. Well, not strictly a piano keyboard, but a linear arrangement of notes in my mind like on a keyboard, even if i'm thinking of a guitar melody. Guitar strumming chords are visualised as chords on the guitar, but everything else seems to be thought of linearly like on a piano, unless I have already ingrained it in my head in guitar terms by physically playing it on guitar. This kind've bothers me in a way because it feels like my mind is constantly under stress when thinking about music, or rather when trying to think about music in a particular way at any given time. It also feels like I think in terms of one at the expense of the other, as I find it difficult to swap back and forth between the different modes of thinking, and the worst part is that when I'm in a regular practice routine for guitar, I find it difficult in general to return to my "primary" way of thinking - piano. This bothers me. I never felt this way when I played trumpet - even though I still visualised music linearly like on a piano keyboard, I found it quite easy to just map the trumpet fingerings to that same linear arrangement. Same thing when I played drums, no mental conflict there at all - it just worked. I do REALLY enjoy playing guitar as I find I can be much more expressive in certain ways than on piano, but in some strange way I also feel that by continuing to mould my brain to be able to "think on guitar" I am actually degrading my ability to think fluidly on the piano keyboard, and that is something that really does bother me. If that makes any sense at all. Once again, this never happened to me when playing other instruments. So my question is... has anyone had this sort of experience when changing between two instruments? Does anyone else find that a certain combination of instruments does/doesn't work for them? Does this mean that I should accept that I'm just not meant to be a "guitarist" and that I should throw myself wholeheartedly into piano/electronic music/drums? (which I also really enjoyed). Any words of wisdom or insight into my mental state of anguish? Last edited by shpongled; 03-06-2014 at 06:27 AM.