Do you think it helps/ is important for composers to carry on practising their instruments ?

[Adrian Allan]

I must admit that I don't really practise the guitar any more, even though it is my main instrument.

I used to practise about 3 hours a day, but I sort of hit a brick wall, where I couldn't reach the level I wanted for purely technical reasons.

I felt like I was Fred Perry and the other players out there were like Roger Federer, just hitting the balls back faster and more accurately than I could ever hope to do. Did anybody else go through the same thing as me ? It felt like a very technical game of tennis after a certain level, with only the very fittest making it up to the very top.

However, I still find it important for me to be learning an instrument.

I'm a pretty poor piano player, but I do try to keep up the playing. I think that the discipline of still learning an instrument is important one to have through life.

I also think that the very act of learning a second instrument and struggling through gives new patterns and musical ideas that aren't necessarily available on a first instrument. You also subconsciously pick up things while actually playing that you might not do in a life devoted to score analysis.

Basically, I'm saying that I still find it important to practise an instrument. Does anybody else agree ?

Or once you decided to compose, did you put your serious practising days behind you ?

[Ray Kemp]

yes

[Adrian Allan]

Do you still sit down and actively try to improve your playing and learn new skills/pieces, or do you mainly warm up for your gigs ? or both ?

[Ray Kemp]

OK I should have left this question to others.
Now I'm going to have to compose something to play guitar in...........

[David Molyneux]

Yes I think it is :)
I played the bassoon for 2 years and advanced quickly probably because I had played the the clarinet to Grade 8 distinction standard. It was a school instrument and was returned when I went to university. My teacher didn't think grades were necessary as I had played another instrument - he was fascinating and was an ex-principal bassoonist- he was a keen composer too! No playing since then and I'm now 36 yrs old.
A bassoon concerto will come out one day even it almost kills me in the process of writing it :) :( :)
Yes, it is helpful if you can play one or two instruments

[James Semple]

Adrian, funnily enough I am in a similar position to you. Similar but not exactly the same. Funnily enough I felt my technique was pretty good (not the world's fastest picker but my legato chops are definitely good enough). I took lessons with some of the most technical players in the UK so it's hardly surprising (Jamie Humphries, Dave Kilminster, Shaun Baxter, etc). I stopped practicing so heavily because I felt it was a complete dead end ... like there's no audience for it anyway.

I used to practice 3 hours a day and I'd just always be playing. Nowadays I can go a whole week without picking up the guitar.

So ... to answer your question I felt that focusing on composing/orchestration/production way more useful and I feel it's made me a far more tasteful player as a result because I'm always focusing on musicality and the finished product. Yes I have put my serious practicing days behind me. If I'm playing a real shred piece then I might start practicing for a couple of days but otherwise I usually play from time to time (and mostly acoustic).

I also agree that playing piano is useful for use fret-heads. It's just such a good instrument for composition.

[AndrewG]

For me playing piano is not only important but critical: this is my primary composition method (I am more an improviser than a composer). I play only this instrument. Luckily its electronic extensions contain the whole range of orchestra timbres.

I know, however, that Debussy, who was a brilliant pianist in his studentship time, later regarded himself (and was) a poor performer. He even confessed that, playing in a concert, he may forget where the necessary note is.

[Adrian Allan]

It would be interesting to know how many failed performers have become composers. Being a performer presents a disciplined life that not everybody wants.

Also, some days I really go off music, and want to do something else instead. It must be hard having to give a concert if you're really not in the mood to make music.

Another question that I'd like to put is this - can knowing an instrument too well be a burden ?

I ask this because when I play the guitar my fingers often fall into cliched patterns of other half-remembered songs.

On the other hand, the piano seems to present more challenges and opportunities and because I know less (but have some basic technique), there seems to be a greater freedom to explore novel ideas.

[James Semple]

I think Sibelius would be the textbook example of a composer who wished to be a performer but never achieved that.

For me, getting even better on guitar seemed like a complete dead-end street. Talk about a flooded marketplace without an audience. So for me moving to composition/production was a very conscious decision.

Having said that, I feel that composition requires discipline as well. I certainly make sure I am constantly writing every day.

[Adrian Allan]

Was it electric/ rock guitar you specialised in ?

[James Semple]

Yes it was ... that classic 80s Steve Vai / fusion thing.

[Jack Pickett]

I think it is highly important. Afterall why are you playing in the first place?

I long ago gave up on becoming the next Alfred Brendel but I can bash my way through the odd Beethoven Sonata - I feel playing an instrument gives an extra dimension to ones musicality. (and its also good for entertaining your gran)

[Ray Kemp]

Adrian,

It would be interesting to know how many failed performers have become composers.... WHY?

How would you define a failed performer?

Have you started this thread on an OFF DAY? you can't think of a thing to write.

can knowing an instrument too well be a burden ? cliched patterns?

Let me tell you why performing for me is a joy for life... Because, I never play the same riff or solo or even rhythm pattern exactly the same way two nights on the trot. I'm not following a score or a conductor but using my imagination and experience to keep things fresh for me during each and every performance. Some days it doesn't work and I f**k up but most times it is a breath of fresh air and a pleasure. When I was a teenager in the sixties, a sax player in a local dance band (he would have been in a top band in London but his wife wanted to stay in Scotland) told me when taking the lead NEVER use the same inversion twice. Repeats are totally frowned upon. Although I appreciate, there has to be some form and structure to any music, this should be a base for thinking out of the box and I think continuing to play a musical instrument outside of just composing is a necessity.