Is a day off between practice days useful?
 

Say you are learning something pretty physically demanding... say legato exercises on the guitar (ala joe satriani or allan holdsworth)... you're stretching your fingers more than you're used to.

Is it good to take a day off to let the muscles rest or grow? (do the muscles here need a day's rest like in weightlifting).... so no legato for that day... maybe work on other things.

what do you think?

Definitelly take breaks from hard work. Practice during the day, rest during the night. Works great for me.

There are other factors here like your age, and health. If you're healthy and your hands are in pain then I can't see any reason why you couldn't continue with daily practice. This isn't like weight lifting.

Just make sure that you're not overdoing it each day and taking one day off every now and then... perhaps once a week will actually do you good.

I don't think it does anything for me physically, but I do find that if I take a day away from playing, I come back a little fresher mentally and tend to be able to play tougher passages easier as well as coming up with new ideas about playing. Daily practice can be a grind where you don't just relax and let fly. Breaks sort of reinvigorate you.

Me too. And going further, a couple of times a year, due to company coming, I have a week off. It takes me a session to get back but then I suddenly have a little jump up that always catches me off guard. I don't know about muscles but my brain does something with time off. It's like some little learner part is running in the background.

Everyone assimilates things differently, but in general you need a certain amount of time to "absorb" what you've been working on.

There's this psychological phenomena called the "Eureka" effect... very common. You work hard on a given problem, sweating and straining (either mentally or physically) and you're not "getting it".

So, you go take a break, take a nice long bath as did Archimedes.... And "bingo", the answer just pops into your head.
Or... You pick up the guitar and what you were working on just works....

I always play better after a day or two off. Always.

I'd say really useful. For all that other life stuff, outside of guitar playing.

... oh, you mean, does it help your guitar-playing? :rolleyes:
dunno...

+1 any insights from folks like toby & ljguitar. They’ve got multiple students, experiences to draw on. I’ve just got my narrow, really not-typical approach to arranging/playing/singing music.

FWIW something I’ve learned from many physical injuries, stresses – not guitar-related – is that the “No pain, no gain” mantra that many of us have heard is often not accurate or helpful. Physical therapists and orthopaedic surgeons have consistently told me that pain is one way your body tells you you’re overdoing something, and that you should listen and “back off” from or moderate the activities producing the pain.

This is always the case with me.

Thanks everyone for the great info!

I'll sometimes miss a day or two for other commitments, but I usually feel more relaxed when I come back to it. I try to play at least some every day just to keep the calluses built up, if nothing else.

It's an individual choice. Personally, I never force myself to practice material.
Makes one think how pros cope with 'not having IT' for a day or two with concert dates coming up (?).

Ok
 

Sight read for 20 minutes three times a week then just play when you want to and have fun.