Does anyone else play guitar not to be a musician

[noody56]

I know lots of people are gonna tell me that I'm playing guitar for the wrong reasons, and that I'm missing the point of playing an instrument. I just enjoy physical aspect of playing the guitar more than the actual music I'm playing. There's something about not being to play something difficult at all to finally being able to play it cleanly. It's what keeps me going. It reminds of back when I played World of Warcraft. You grind for ages even when it's kind of boring, but then the feeling of finally leveling up brings me joy. I like it when my fingers feel so loose and flexible on the fretboard. The fact that it sounds nice while playing is just a bonus.

I know there's also joy in creating new music. But I never really felt interested in that aspect.

[Peter_IK]

There’s no shame in that. Personally, I am more interested in creating something new or putting my spin on existing songs. That’s probably why one of my majors in college was Commercial Arranging & Composition (as well as audio engineering). But I respect those that work hard to learn something precisely as it was played by another guitarist. I’ve been in enough cover bands to have gone through that and was kind of how I started when I was 13. Learning some crazy time signatures of Rush songs or some difficult solos in the “hair band” heyday etc.

It is all good if it makes you happy.

[aronevans2020]

You are very persistent person and I don't think there could exist wrong reasons for learning playing the guitar. I am a little surprised there are people who enjoy the boring process of mastering your skills. Constant repeating and sound cleaning is the hardest part for me.

<< Mod Edit: Suspicious link redacted >>

[cybermaster]

I'd wager 95% of guitarists (and musicians generally) are just hobbyists who do it for the fun of it. Same goes for just about any activity in the arts. Few people realize that this obsession with "professional = serious and skillful, amateur = unskillful or unserious" is a complete misunderstanding of what those words mean. Professional just means you get paid to do it and it is your livelihood. Amateur means you do it simply for the JOY of it and it's not your profession.

100+ years ago, people were PROUD to be amateur musicians, photographers, painters, etc... because it meant they could do a thing simply for the love of it and didn't have to rely on it for their living, like some common tradesman. Yes, being a proud amateur is an embrace of a certain level of bourgeois privilege in society! The industrial revolution has certainly leveled off that privilege in today's world, but it's still a certain privilege to be able to do a thing for fun.

Amateurs are often extremely skillful at what they do and they're certainly the ones responsible for the constant development of wonderful new instruments and toys for us to play with. The gigantic market of excellent music gear we have today wouldn't exist if not for millions of amateurs out there buying all the new goodies that get released.

[Peter_IK]

Can't throw stones there, even though I went to music school I am not a rock star nor have I recorded any platinum records for anybody or arranged a huge song for some blockbuster soundtrack... but I am happy to still work in the field here and if I wasn't playing/creating music I'd feel empty inside. Labels are still irrelevant, I think the instant gratification culture with constant access to EVERYTHING is making people feel less proud of being creative. I guess it is some of that FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that is a terrible side effect of social media and the things I mentioned plus seeing more displays of incredible prowess by others doing what we wish we were able to do musically.

It took a while for me to be comfortable being good at what I'm good at musically (luckily a few things so I can mix it up, even ) and to accept I'm not going to - nor do I want to - play exactly like whoever is "the best" or whatever.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on that tangent. I meant to say that this thread is reminding me of a classic comic: