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Does having long hair make you a better musician?


Tezza

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Most would probably say that having long hair has nothing to do with whether you are a good musician or not. I have had my hair crew cut for some years but decided to grow it longer. As it gets longer, I am feeling a renewed confidence in my musicianship skills. Maybe it's because when I was playing out in bands all the time, I had long hair and I am drawing on some psychologically ingrained view of self that calls on that history to make me feel more comfortable.

I just find that it feels more comfortable to play guitar and piano with long hair as opposed to a crew cut. It's not really long, I'm at the annoying middle stage where the back is about shoulder length and the sides will need some time to catch up. I only need to grow it all to shoulder length.

There's definitely a change in how I am approaching music but I worry I may not be able to edit video anymore since video editors seem to have short hair.

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2 hours ago, Rico Belled said:

It's actually the opposite: having long hair is a LOT more work than having it short, in addition to the almost unavoidable vanity that comes along with it. Less time devoted to learning about music = worse musician!

 

R

I beg to differ.  I wore my hair short at various times in my life. I used to shave the sides of my head for a while - talk about high maintenance! Right now my hair is long because I grew tired of cutting/trimming.  I actually shaved my head in 2020 and decided after that that I was done messing with scissors and trimmers. 

I don't like poneytails but that's the most efficient way to solve the hair question for me. 

Musically, I suck just as much either way.

Edited by Rain
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I'm sure that the main reason I never succeeded as a rock star is due to the fact that I was never able to grow "that" kind of hair.  Every time I tried it wouldn't grow long, just thick and unruly.  Unfortunately, rocking the "homeless bed hair" look neither improved my abilities or my attraction to groupies. ? 

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I started shaving my head when I was 21, as it wasn't much left on top by then. I should have done it a year or two before...

Have done it for 30 years now, and it has not improved my musical status the least.

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                              Oh Man ! this is great news . Now I can grow my hair long and become famous .

                              With all the money I'm gonna make I can finally buy a real guitar and learn how to play it .

 

                                          young-man-playing-air-guitar-picture-id1

Kenny

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In truth what long hair does for a musician is either work for a favorable memorable image for an artist or in some cases work against the desired goals of the artists image .

Image wise this fella in the picture is nothing more that a misunderstood musical icon from a bygone era . He has been left behind by an onslaught of the images of today's current cookie cutter style musical artists . Now  he spends a good deal of his retirement hours sitting  on the bank of the lake with only one desire. He hopes the lovely princess who takes her daily walks will choose to give him a magical kiss on the lips instead of the frogs ...

When he gets tired of all that waiting around he goes to the supermarket and looks at all the pretty girls in yoga pants with the hope he may catch one of their eyes ....

                                      2030567587_JazzBox.png.aa21a815b7e4feb85733a2ac8eb33ca8.png

 

OH BTW , my hair is 7 inches longer than what shows in the pic .

My playing didn't get any better as a result of the hair growth . My playing got better because I decided to take the cotton out of my ears and learn how to listen .

Learning how to listen IMHO is the fastest way to improve your overall musicianship when you set the practice goals to coincide achieving the goals of learning how to play what you are listening too.

 

all the best,

Kenny 

Edited by kennywtelejazz
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Cropping the top seems to be an asset for aging dudes who get into techno/electronica. Underworld are an example; when they were Freur and going "Doot-Doot," they had long hair that they even took a crimper to.

BTW, if you watch this, the actual song doesn't start until :45.

 

 

Edited by Starship Krupa
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9 hours ago, craigb said:

I'm sure that the main reason I never succeeded as a rock star is due to the fact that I was never able to grow "that" kind of hair.  Every time I tried it wouldn't grow long, just thick and unruly.  Unfortunately, rocking the "homeless bed hair" look neither improved my abilities or my attraction to groupies. ? 

Thick and unruly, uh? That was 25 years ago. 

104410971_10157655820692582_1954164004360857378_n.jpg.84a3c9759757b7d96d232886c425b1fa.jpg

 

Not quite as thick nowadays, but the unruly part still is in effect, so I rarely let my hair loose.

280239897_10159104349677582_4439989522410354344_n.jpg.6c03ecdfd4dc848b7b897f49c4cccc1e.jpg

Edited by Rain
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Ha!  That hair is not even close!  I would have killed to have hair like that.  Mine never grew anything close to straight, just thick, wavy and unruly.

Oh well.

I'm STILL pissed that the movers lost a large box of mine that (naturally) was filled with personal stuff like photos, awards and all of my martial arts stuff...

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