Its too funny when....

[TBman]

You're learning a new tune, playing along with the cd, thinking, "Hey, this sounds pretty good." and then you try playing it without the cd and ...... It sounds like total garbage, LOL.:D

[Brent Hutto]

I don't much play along with recordings but my guitar teacher will often join in and and play chords or a few fills behind whatever piece I'm working on in a lesson. Kind of like bicycling downwind. When he stops it's like turning around to ride in the other direction, I'm sweating in no time.

But my guitars tend to sound pretty good (tone wise) most of the time even if my rhythm is choppy or I hit a few clinkers. When I used to take Viola lessons, having my teacher play along was like flying instead of crawling. With a pitch reference (even if it was a harmony part) I could actually stay in tune and with a little vibrato in the teacher's part you could barely hear the scratchiness in mine. Solo guitar is child's play by comparison to solo playing on a bowed-string instrument.

[mmmaak]

I've actually experienced the opposite phenomenon. Well, sort of....

Sometimes I practise the same tune over and over but still feel dissatisfied with the tone I'm getting. Then I go back and listen to the original recording and realize "Hey, it really isn't that different!". Now, I'm not trying to imply that I can play as well as the musicians I look up to (far from that, most of the time), but play/listening to a piece repeatedly can have detrimental effects to our enjoyment of it :)

[wcap]

....but play/listening to a piece repeatedly can have detrimental effects to our enjoyment of it :)

Yes, very irritating when you chose a piece to work on because you love it, and then you get sort of sick of hearing it after playing it over and over again so many times. My wife has commented on having this same experience when learning Bach on piano.

Once I have a piece down, I eventually do revel in being able to play it and I do enjoy it again, which was the goal from the start of course.

[TBman]

.... but play/listening to a piece repeatedly can have detrimental effects to our enjoyment of it :)

Yes, very irritating when you chose a piece to work on because you love it, and then you get sort of sick of hearing it after playing it over and over again so many times.

Yep, by the time I get half way through something I'm sicking of hearing it. That's probably why I almost never finish a song.:D

[Billy Memphis]

I must be the opposite. When I am learning a song I can play it thousands of times and still love every minute of it. I guess it depends on how much you love the song. I play it in different keys, different tempos and experiment looking for the best expression of the music for me.