Ever practice/play one instrument a lot, and get better at another?

This question is for the multi-instrumentalists out there. Have you ever gone through a period where you were ignoring one instrument for a while because you were working at other(s), and then gone back to the ignored instrument and found that you were playing it better than you had before?

This has happened to me a couple of times. A few years ago, when we first got a piano, I took lessons for a few months to get my bearings, and spent a lot of time at the piano. After a few months, during which I had basically not picked up a guitar, I got out a guitar and found that, technically-speaking, I was playing better than before - better finger independence, dexterity, that kind of thing.

Similarly, for the last couple of years I have been playing in basically a classic rock cover band, so I have been spending most of my time on electric guitar, keyboards and harmonica, the instruments that I play with the band, and ignoring fiddle. Well, I was invited to a bluegrass jam the day after Thanksgiving, and got into a session where I was playing fiddle the whole time, for about an hour and a half. I was surprised at how well I was playing, again technically speaking - intonation was good, etc. Then a couple of nights ago I got out my fiddle and was just messing around with some bluegrass licks, lots of double stops where I was fingering both strings, which is always tough on intonation, and I think that I was playing that stuff better than I ever had before.

Anyone else had this experience? What gives? Do you build neural pathways playing/practicing one instrument that transfer over to others? Or am I just having a selective memory kind of thing, and I'm really not playing better after ignoring an instrument for a while?

I don't know...but I like your signature statement.:grin:

I'm not what I would call a "multi instrumentalist" but since I arrange and write for other instruments I whack at piano frequently. After spending a few days sitting at the piano writing out a chart, I'm instantly better at guitar "chordal voice leading" thinking and execution. I believe you don't even need to physically play the instrument - just "think" about it (visualize and hear) music and you'll get better.

I am a Guitarist who plays a little of everything...I teach performance classes in my studio and I am always finding myself covering for a student who has not shown up....for me playing drumset a couple of hours a week has helped my rhythm skills improve quite a bit over the last couple of years...it's almost like cross training at the gym...

When I use to play bass and drums my timing improved. Keyboards helped me improve on a bit of theory. I don't play any other instrument anymore.

Now when I play the narrower neck of my Squier Affinity or the cheapo Archtop, I play better on my other guitars. Which is kinda strange, I thought it would be the other way around. I like it that way though 'cause the Squier is my practice guitar.

I believe you don't even need to physically play the instrument - just "think" about it (visualize and hear) music and you'll get better.

Interesting thought. I tell this story a lot, but that won't stop me from telling it again. I gave up guitar 25 years ago and devoted myself to composition. I compose every day and teach composition. This means I see music on the page all day long and try to invent new things (or suggest new things with students) all the time. While paralyzed in the hospital last year (I'm 100% OK now), I would visualize blues guitar solos. After I regained some motion, I bought a Tele and started playing with backing tracks. Even though I had some weakness issues, my coordination was pretty good and I was much more inventive than I had been 25 years ago. So, yeah, I think you can definitely improve away from the instrument. In particular, my rhythm is much better than it used to be, probably because I internally hear rhythms when I look at my students' scores. Make sense?

Also, I've started playing snare drum again. I took drum lessons in the early 60s, but only had a practice pad to play on. I just bought a snare and am working on stick control. It is fun as hell, although my wife is ready to strangle me. It has helped a lot with guitar.

Larry, your snare drum story reminded me that when I was in high school, in order to play in the jazz band I was also required to play in marching and concert band. I was a drummer and Glock player in MB and aux perc/celeste/bells in CB. That's where I got my reading together, not actually on guitar.
Glad you're 100% OK now!

When our drummer left I took over behind the kit and played drums almost exclusively for 5 years. When my blues project started and went back on guitar and all of a sudden a lot of things made sense.

I don't know if neural pathways playing/practicing one instrument that transfer over to others is what happened. I suspect just taking a break from guitar is a good idea in general, especially if you're in a rut. When I went back to it I had a new perspective on music in general.

I also dabbled a bit on keyboards. That was extremely useful since the notes are linear, not geometric patterns like on a fret board. Understanding what was going on with a keyboard helped me on guitar too.

I have a tremendous amount of overlap between the guitar and trumpet, I try to play the guitar as much like the horn as possible and have a unique style based on that. Everything from my choice of strings and picks to get the horn like picking articulation I want, and especially how I use the right hand to sound the strings. My pick is basically like my tongue in the mouthpiece of the horn and I use my fingers like working valves.

So I use the pick to mostly play slower stuff to get a nice clean attack and then use the fingers to play fast, on the horn to really motor you go legato with almost all valve work (there is a limit to how fast you can go and still strike every note with the tongue), and so for the blur speed picking on guitar I pull the pick back and work the fingers like playing trill speed valve work with the horn. It’s the exact same motion my fingers make while doing it. I can also play fast with a pick but just don't find it as expressive and the nuance isn't there in available quantities like with the fingers. Using the fast fluttering finger picking I can sustain passages like blowing air through the horn and get louder and softer while changing articulations and keep it all going that way.

Also the graphical interface of the guitar fingerboard has been invaluable for me to see the relationships of notes and chords and develop more complex formula improv ideas. On the horn everything is more linear, and instead of going to the next string, you jump into another overtone sequence but still it's more of a bunch of abstract overlays in linear form that you have to see translated onto a printed page to get into a more graphical format vs having that built right into the instrument.

So in fact I have a theory that Charlie Christian worked out most of the complex stuff on the guitar that Charlie Parker ended up developing on the horn. I think Bird took Charlie Christian's groundbreaking ideas and translated them to the horn, that's what I basically do too with my own playing at my own humble level.

Besides guitar I play mandolin and bass. Playing bass has helped my rhythm and playing mandolin has helped my phrasing and melodic sense. Mandolin requires you to be accurate time-wise and I find my time is much better on guitar now. You can't slur note on a mando like you can on a guitar, so your mistakes stand out more.

Playing with a metronome has improved my playing on all of them.

So in fact I have a theory that Charlie Christian worked out most of the complex stuff on the guitar that Charlie Parker ended up developing on the horn. I think Bird took Charlie Christian's groundbreaking ideas and translated them to the horn, that's what I basically do too with my own playing at my own humble level.

Interesting. I heard someone say that Charlie's philosophy for lead guitar was to have it sound like a hot tenor. I'm working on Till Tom Special right now.

At the same time I am learning jazz, I'm working on bluegrass banjo. Swing players call the rhythmic feel "swing". Bluegrass cats call it "bounce". It's the same thing. So, yeah, even though I'm learning two different styles on two different instruments, they work together to make me better at each. Plus, theory is theory no matter what you apply it to.

Larry's snare drum example is interesting. It was Sam Bush's first instrument too, and that experience had the same effect on him while he was learning mandolin. (My banjo teacher told me that.) I used to play snare and other percussion in the school band, and I still think about those time keeping lessons today, especially when I'm playing banjo and you don't have a drummer to keep time for you. If you're timing off playing acoustically, it's a mess. Plus, obviously acoustic flatpicking and Tele picking are so closely related.

Great thread!

Guitar is definetly my number one instrument, but I play bass, piano, and a bit of drums. I've tinkered with Sax, Flute, and Trumpet. I've also played upright bass for awhile is a college jazz band.

Every once in a while I will get into a Piano kick where I will play lots of piano for a few weeks or months. I haven't found that it makes me a better guitar player in a physical sense, but I do believe that it helps me to be a better musician overall.

I think that I have actually stymied my growth as a guitar player by concentrating too much on other instruments. If I had stuck with guitar I would definitely be a more technically sound and proficient guitar player. But, I don't regret learning the other instruments.

I love how the lack of sustain of a mandolin or banjo makes me work harder in the live environment. In particular, I've been pleasantly surprised by how much better my live mandolin playing has sounded/felt live over the past couple of months. I'd credit this mostly to writing/arranging more with this instrument in mind, secondly to general life on the bandstand, and lastly to woodshedding at home. Guitar is my primary instrument, but what I 'hear' is bass, as an arranger, and when somebody actually allows me to play bass at a show or a session, I feel like I've come home for the Holidays. I've been playing harmonica "parts" on a few tunes at jobs over the past year or so, and even did one session. I recently did my first "extended" harp solo at a job, and it wasn't great, but it allowed me to get hit in the batter's box by the proverbial baseball, so to speak, and to move forward beyond that. My duo partner recently gave me a Supro lap steel as a gift, so I suppose I'll be dinking live with that next. I love futzing around on the upright piano here at the shack, and will likely be tracking a bit in the near future with a Wurlitzer electric piano. I gave up the keyboard thing for live quite some time ago, largely due to the impracticality of multiple analog instruments, coupled with my disdain for digital workstations.

I really should work harder on my guitar playing. That said, there's only so many ways to sharp or flat a 5th or a 9th, and you can play a guitar with a slide or an Ebow, assimilate every musical genre under the sun, screw around with various tunings - and at the end of the day, it remains a guitar. Nothing wrong with that, I'm still as fascinated with the guitar as I was when I picked it up in 1967, and it's the primary tool with which I earn my living. It's been a long, strange trip, but I'm more intrigued by music than I am by guitar playing anymore, and I often find myself at odds with the guitar community that I'm in contact with, for this very reason. Honestly, I couldn't care less. If a tune needs a jaw harp or a tambourine, I'm into that. Lots of tunes beg for guitars, so I continue to afford consideration to guitars.

If there's anything I love most about having done thousands of live shows, it's that it's made me fearless as to tackling unfamiliar territority. The world won't end if I hit a clam, and the quality of my life has improved dramatically since I became hip to the fact that I'm clam-bound by nature, and will continue to be, as long as I actually get out of bed in the morning. I enjoy being paid to learn from my mistakes.