Do you get bored after playing electric guitar by yourself for 10 or 15 minutes?

[Califiddler]

I do. It's funny, I can play acoustic, or any of my other instruments, by myself for quite a while and I'm fine. But if I plug in at home, by myself, after 10 or 15 minutes I'm thinking, "OK, now what?"

It just seems that electric guitar is for ensemble playing (Joe Pass notwithstanding), and it just doesn't cut it by itself. I really look forward to band practices and gigs for the opportunity to play electric guitar in the ensemble context.

Maybe I need to start playing along to records again. I did a lot of that 30 years ago when I first started playing guitar, putting on a Grateful Dead record or something and just jamming along. I think my DA5 has a jack to plug in a CD or mp3 player and play along. Or maybe something like a G-DEC.

[superhand]

Something else that can be fun is to record yourself. You can record a rhythm track, then record lead over it, or just layer several rhythm tracks and stuff like that. Playing with a drum machine can be good too. Or how about writing a song? That can keep me occupied for hours.

But I agree playing guitar is best in a band setting.

[Strat God]

No way. In fact, I plug in -and in a blink wife is yelling at me that I've been going for hours.

Perhaps you need to learn a few new chords?

[LeroyBlues]

My computer and peddleboard are wired together, so I log onto one of the online radio stations like Live365 or Pandora, select a blues station and play along. You never know whats playing next, or what key it's in. Oh, I'll mention that I use headphones, so it all blends together and sounds good.

[jc93230]

Never bored, but i switch up what I am working on (read frustrated with) and what guitar I am playing, then move back to it after relaxing a bit with something known and familiar. I can do that for hours if I am given the opportunity.

[woodman]

audio loops are a quick way to cobble up bass/drum tracks, then record as many guitar takes over them as you like. playing electric alone is a great way to explore your ideas and learn the fretboard, but i agree that after a certain point, it doesn't feel very productive.

[jhundt]

yes, I do! but I've been doing it since 1967, so I'm getting used to it.

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by Strat God

No way. In fact, I plug in -and in a blink wife is yelling at me that I've been going for hours.

Me too. Except for the wife part.

[rangercaster]

five, ten or fifteen minutes is a perfect little practice session for me ... it reassures me i can still play ... i might do this four or five times a day so it adds up ... i think i have a short attention span ...

[Martinussen]

I wouldn't say I get bored, but it seems an electric guitar isn't that suitable as a solo instrument in comparison to an acoustic. Just think of all the "acoustic" guys like Tommy Emmanuel, Laurence Juber or Pat Donohue. Of course they can play electrics, but I suspect I wouldn't buy their albums if they weren't back up by a band.

[jazzbender]

Impossible! I have to summon up the discipline to take a break every hour or so, or I'll work my fingers to the bone. And you know what you get when you do that....

[Groovey Records]

If the muse strikes I can play for hours but if I'm not feeling it after a while I may switch Guitars or amps.

I can usually hear where I want to go in my head.

I usually don't give up till I can get close.

Sometimes I walk away and come back

[getbent]

I like to sit down with something to do and accomplish... it is the puzzle that keeps me interested.... I gotta have a little goal in mind... once I'm focused on the goal, I wander off and find the thing I was looking for.

I've spent the morning working up a 'willin, all that you dream, rollum easy' three song segue thingy that I'm gonna get ready for the new band... I can't wait.. I'm on fire right now to play these songs.... just wish I never had to go to work again.

[neocaster]

Nope. I'm still new enough that I'm always finding something I couldn't do last week. I Hope I'm always at least that new. Once I get my head and fingers around it, I just lay into it until I can get it from unbearable to just plain awful. My son is three, and I've grown used to hearing him say "No daddy, I don't wanna hear that song."
Thanks to a compliment of options (headphones, computer interfaces like an M-Audio Fast Track and Line 6 Toneport) I can play well into the night without drawing the ire of the housemistress. I can throw up any backing tracks or loops I recorded myself and just try things out.

[warmingtone]

The electric guitar tends to be an ensemble thing, and I love acoustic guitar...but really, the electric is a different but equally valid instrument on it's own, you just don't hear it in this context that often and there are not a lot of examples to draw upon. Someone like 'Johnny A' perhaps points in a direction it could be used effectively.

A long while back i did an accompaniment thing with a vocalist, kind of 'tuck and patti' vaguely, and used my Les Paul exclusively. It required using a clean tone and developing a style that utilized the natural sustain and depth of tone over the permissiveness of an acoustic...and developing my own ways of making effective arrangements...but it was just as versatile and made a welcome change to the pick and strum accompaniment of an acoustic in that setting.

Play to the electric guitar's strengths and there is a lot you can do, use it only for solo's when there's no one to play with and it will get tiring.

[Larry F]

I like to play with backing tracks and YouTube blues videos. By mixing it up, I get a chance to focus on my stuff without competing with B.B., then when I get tired of just hearing me, I jam with B.B. and the guys. I have a collection of these in my YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/FiniteBlues

[Breezecookie]

Get a looper (find a Boss RC-2 on Ebay)- record patterns and play over. Check out Gregor Hilden's videos on YouTube; in some he plays over backing tracks, but in a lot he lays down something on an RC-2 and plays over it.

[jazztele]

never.

try playing some solo arrangeents...it doesn't have to sound like joe pass.

[wangdangdoodle]

I always have something I am working on. If I need a break I'll play an arrangement of a song I already know and even this can sound different everytime I play it.

[Shepherd]

I never get bored but after half an hour I start to fall asleep . I have no idea why but it drives me nuts.

[jrich99]

Never bored, more like entranced.

[Ed P]

This I know: my wife enjoys listening to acoustic more than electric - so guess which gets more playing time.

[RiverDog]

Originally Posted by Shepherd

I never get bored but after half an hour I start to fall asleep . I have no idea why but it drives me nuts.

Shepherd I struggle with the same problem. I thought I was alone. It's been going on so long that I don't want to play because I know I'll get tired, which really stinks because my playing is nowhere where it used to be.

I keep thinking it has to be psychological. What else can it be? I love guitar!!

Anyone else feel similarly?

[emu!]

Not only do I get bored after 10 or 15 minutes, but another weird phenomenon happens almost every day.

As I'm driving home from work, I just can't wait to get through the door and pick up my guitar and play stuff that I have been thinking about all day while away. But then, after 10 or 15 minutes of playing, I get bored.

[Jeff_K]

Yep, me, too, and that's with TWO bands worth of music sitting there. Notice that lots of answers are "I play along with..." which I take to be a somewhat tacit agreement with your original thought. I could play along with stuff for hours, too, but just the EG...not long. Of course, there are always scales and things to practice but I assume you're talking about non-fundamentals playing time. I wonder if that's why most guitarists I know can play bits and pieces of many songs but not the whole thing. I've always done that and I hear my kids doing that too.

[Telarkaster]

Write down a study guide: a list of things to work on such as specific songs, a technique you want to improve on, a scale, exercise, etc...

[flyingbanana]

I tend to practice in 15 or 30 minute increments in the morning, and then when I'm home and kids are in bed. What keeps me motivated, is when the kids want to sit and watch and listen to me play.

[Tim Bowen]

Wouldn't say I get bored, but I'm definitely a different type of musician than I was, say, 20 years ago, when the electric guitar was always first call instrument. I actually rarely pick up an electric guitar these days unless I'm prepping for a session. I use an electric for "TV practicing", so that I can enjoy the film and get something accomplished at the same time. Acoustic guitar, mandolin, or banjo is too loud for such.

I keep an acoustic and an electric at the teaching studio, but the electric sits, unless the lesson specifically calls for tonal considerations of an electric. I even muddle through on acoustic when electric-friendly string bends are called for. I guess the other factor here is that this definitely contributes to hand strength when it matters.

I'm mostly an acoustic-electric musician anymore - which is course somewhat different than a purely acoustic musician - but the sound of an acoustic guitar enthralls me like I never would've expected it to years ago. If I'm sitting around just playing, or working on arrangements, I vastly prefer the acoustic guitar.

[oramac7891]

I tend to go off in my own little world. I will play for an hour or two and not think about it... I also seem to like playing my Tele Unplugged, I know it's quiet, but I can hear it!

[Ormond]

If I am working on a tabbed out thing like "Hot Wired" or a Gurthrie Govan thing I can be at it 6 to 10 hours with just a couple breaks. With dozens of passages and thousands of notes to learn, and then the time needed to get up to speed, day can turn to night and I do not notice.

[weelie]

Sure, If I just noodle with no backing track or purpose.

Looping station can be a big help. Don't have though. So my playing with electric guitar is usually putting a CD on (or now a shuffle of 120 JJ Cale MP3s), and playing along (and tabbing them when I feel like it).

[neocaster]

One thing I do for ear training is to put on a TV show or movie and try to keep up with the score or soundtrack. Don't try this with "No Country For Old Men"

[DaveG]

Since I play lead guitar in a band, I find it useful to play just my parts in "and the Pips" style, as we say. Sort of "Music Minus All." That means play your part exactly as it's supposed to be in the band setting, with no extraneous notes, but alone. Of course with a metronome.
This can be very challenging, since you have to "fill in" the other parts in your head. It really makes you listen to what you are doing and be very accurate and self-critical. Also, if you have a part to sing at the same time, you really get to practice the interaction of the guitar and vocal parts and make sure your singing is in tune and your playing is accurate.

BTW, in the recent issue of Guitar Player with the Les Paul interview compilation, he says this: "...play with the amplifier facing you. You can really fool yourself into thinking you're playing clean when you're not listening to a speaker pointed directly at you."

[Telesavalis]

For electric guitar, I try to stick to a practice method that was taught to me many years ago by my guitar instructor: practice for 45 min at a time...breaking it into 15 min intervals. The first 15 min is spent on chording; connecting chords, working out different chord phrasing, newly used chords, etc. The next 15 min is spent on scale technique. And the final 15 min is spent on song parts; concetrating on chord progressions, riffs & solos.

[Tele Fan]

At one time, yes, but now I'm trying to learn Scotty Moore and Chet Atkins style finger picking and I tend to go until my fingers start to cramp. It's taking a while to get the fingers on my right hand to strengthen up.

[stevieboy]

Not often. Sometimes I get a little bored UNTIL I play for 10 or 15 minutes, then I loosen up physically and mentally and usually get involved with it.

[Thin69]

My main thing is electric and I only play an electric so long solo. I can go on solo for hours with an acoustic.

I have loads of guitar only CD's that I play along with that keeps me fresh. I usually start with easier stuff and progress to some really challenging stuff.

I have one rule that helps my playing a lot. I only play things that really get my juices flowing when I am playing at home.

[ryokan]

Hours, maybe. Minutes, no.

[Saxguitar]

I rarely play the electric at my house plugged in, most of the time I just play the electric with no amp because my brothers and sister hate how much I play. I remember when I got my wisdom teeth pulled out years ago I was home alone so I took my cheap guitar and 5w amp turned it all the way up and played until the drugs kicked in and I fell asleep, the next thing I knew it was 6:00 pm and everyone was home and I was laying half asleep on the floor. In other words I never get sick of playing EG at all, if I didn't have college I would stay home and play my sax and electric guitar nonstop.

[HooDoo]

Well, I ran into the same problem, after a few warm ups, and chords, what next?

I got a IPod, recorded all the music I like, downloaded some tabs, picked a handful of songs to learn, then started playing along with the likes of Waylon and Tom Petty on my IPod. I bought a stereo for my music room that has a IPod docking station, so I can run the IPod through my stereo. Great fun. I will learn the basic rythym tracks till I know them like the back of my hand. Then after I have memorized and have the that part of the songs down, then I go back and try to figure out certain licks and start filling the song in with them. Can spend a hour just working on a lick, even days. Then go back and start filling in the songs i have chosen on the IPod. Great fun. Then after I have those 4 or 5 songs down perfectly, I chose 4 - 5 more and repeat.

Prepares me for when I jam with folks. Builds my chops and my confidence. If I can play with Waylon or Tom, then I figure I am not so intimidated by joining in with other musicians.

I understand about the acoustic. I just pull it out sometimes and watch bluegrass shows on tv or radio and can sit and figure out and pick for hours with them.

You Tube is pretty handy and something new I have discovered. Plenty of guitar stuff there, and you can play along.