A lazy guitarist’s advice for when you just don’t feel like picking up your guitar.
You'll be glad you did, especially if you didn't feel like it.
Photo by Ken Cheung on Unsplash
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield coins a term we’ve all felt as guitar players:
Resistance.
It’s the feeling of procrastination, lack of motivation, lack of desire to learn new things, not taking the craft seriously, and many other manifestations that give us an excuse not to play our guitar today. Pressfield says Resistance comes to play during, “[...] any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.”
Unless you make a living as a professional musician, playing guitar isn’t life or death. There’s no gun to your head - you don’t have to learn it and continue to play for your whole life.
But with that said, here are 3 benefits that help me, a lazy guitarist, pick it up everyday and play.
The more you play, the better you play, the more often you’ll want to play
This is the best kind of positive feedback loop.
When I’m playing everyday (even just a little bit), my fingers are more comfortable. The guitar feels good in my hands and I can get the tones and expression out of the instrument I want with more ease. My fingers feel like they’re dancing around the fretboard rather than stumbling. This puts me in a creative mood that makes me more enjoy playing guitar.
This is not the case if I haven’t played in a week. When I pick up the guitar having not played for a week, everything sounds shittier. That little bend is going to come up flat, there will be less smoothness between notes, and I won’t be in a creative mood because I’m struggling physically with the instrument.
I don’t always feel like playing. I’m not always inspired to play. But playing everyday keeps me physically sharp, which makes me naturally enjoy playing more, which makes it more likely I will pick up the guitar tomorrow.
Treating guitar like your work gives you a sense of accomplishment
This is a controversial statement - either you’re appalled by thinking as guitar playing as work or you get it.
Even though guitar playing is commonly seen as a leisure activity, hobby, or just a way to have some fun, there’s something about making it an essential part of your life. After trying to apply some of the lessons from The War of Art and treating my guitar playing like my work, I’ve noticed an improvement in my quality of life. It’s grounding. It feels good knowing I’ve overcome resistance and did my work that day, even if I didn’t feel like it.
Treating guitar like work doesn’t have to be a bad thing because despite your intentions, it is work.
Beating resistance everyday establishes your identity as a guitar player
If I play guitar everyday, especially when I don’t want to, that’s when I most feel like a guitar player.
If I miss a day, it’s easier for me to miss the next day. Missing those two days makes it exponentially easier to miss the next day. Next thing I know, I haven’t played for three months. Missing those three months makes it easy to miss the next three months and guess what? I’m no longer a guitar player.
It’s easiest to call yourself a guitar player and, therefore, be a guitar player when you pick it up everyday.
No one on planet earth cares if I play my guitar everyday
There are no external forces involved. The more I see guitar playing as independent from any other aspect of my life (to make money or friends, for example), the more benefit I get out of it.
Playing guitar is important in its own right, on its own merits, and for no other reason than the inherent goodness of music making and the value of the practice.