Any other guitarists not bothered about being great ?

[Kotowboy]

When I was learning guitar around the age of 18 or so - and even til now -

- I never had any aspirations to be a ph'nom'nal guitar player.

I just wanted to be able to play and try to be original if I could and just be able to play *enough* that I could get the sounds in my head out.

Being a shredder doesn't interest me in the slightest. I'm all about Rhythm.

Most of my favourite players are primarily all about rhythm and will occasionally do a solo -

Billie Joe - The Edge - James Dean Bradfield - James Hetfield - Noel Gallagher.


It's the same for me with drums. I'm pretty obsessed over playing for the song even when i'm just jamming.

I know i'll never be Thomas Lang but I can play enough to where Im happy with my ability and I can play for the song.


Anyone Else ?

[hefdaddy42]

My guitar playing is serviceable, but I am strictly rhythm, no lead playing here.  I am fine with that.  It's my niche.

[Lowdz]

Great question. I love shred guitar and it probably held back my progress because although I wanted to play like Vinnie Moore, Yngwie etc, I knew I never would. A mate who got me innto guitar playing in the 80s and showed me my first stuff was a huge fan of Status Quo. That's all he aspired to and he is really happy. I do envy that but it wouldn't have been enough for me.
And I was one of those "flashy" all tricks sort of player - all a flurry of notes and wammy abuse - rhythm is for the other guy!
I got ok at one point but in the last 10 years my chances to play have become almost non-existent, to the point where I'm pretty shit now. It annoys me that my playing is so bad.

I was just getting into recording, set up a studio in the house, when I met my other half, then kids came along and that was the end of that.

and I never had a good enough memory to learn stuff note for note. Improv all the way!

[Kotowboy]

I realised early on I had a really good ear so I worked on that.

I would have a guitar on me at all times whilst watching tv and try to instantly play any theme tune or jingle that came on tv etc...

Try to learn songs 100% by ear. Never use TAB etc.

Having a good ear is more important than being a shredder who has no relevant pitch or rhythm...

[Lowdz]

I realised early on I had a really good ear so I worked on that.

I would have a guitar on me at all times whilst watching tv and try to instantly play any theme tune or jingle that came on tv etc...

Try to learn songs 100% by ear. Never use TAB etc.

Having a good ear is more important than being a shredder who has no relevant pitch or rhythm...

I knew I was never going to be i a band. That just wasn't for me. I would spend most of my time finding the key on the cd and soloing away over the songs, lifting the odd riff by ear. It was only ever a hobby for me. When I started recording myself and listening back I was pleasantly surprised. Chops are pretty much gone now though   

[wolfking]

I have always strived to be the best guitarist I can.  Even though I don't play as much as I use to, I always continue to work on my chops and skills.  There's still quite a few styles I really want to learn.  To be honest, I wish I was a lot more versatile than what I am.

[Mosh]

I'm kinda in the middle, I suppose. I try to work a lot on my chops/technique but not so much so I can be "great" or anything, but more so I can have a wider range of ideas to work with when writing or improvising and I don't have to worry about physical limitations as much.

[Zantera]

You can be good in different ways though. Someone like John Petrucci is great on a technical level, another guitarist like Steven Wilson (for example) plays more on emotions. I think it's two different things being technically skilled on your instrument and being a great musician. Just because you master your instrument doesn't mean you know how to write good songs. Personally I would prefer being a great overall musician rather than just being good at my instrument.

[Outcrier]

Just because you master your instrument doesn't mean you know how to write good songs. Personally I would prefer being a great overall musician rather than just being good at my instrument.

Yeah, what i thought when i saw this thread. I rather be a guitarist playing simple (main focus being in writing the songs).

[Ultimetalhead]

I like shredding. I also like playing with emotion. I don't bother myself with trying to be the next Yngwie or the next Petrucci or the next whoever. I play what I play, and that's it. I get just as much satisfaction playing in my ska band as I do obsessively going over scales, but I don't follow the guitar archetype of "that guy's good. Gotta be better than that guy."

[?]

I've never had the patience or interest to practice scales. It might be cool to be skilled enough to shred, but it doesn't magically make you a better songwriter. I find it more interesting and rewarding to learn unusual chords, arpeggios, etc. I know how to play the rhythm guitar parts in most of my favorite songs and I can write by myself, and that's good enough for me.

[PuffyPat]

For guitar I'm less inclined to try to achieve greatness, but as a drummer, I'm never satisfied with myself. I know I'm good, but, no matter how much I play, I never feel like I'm good enough.

[Kotowboy]

I think too many people are like " i'll never be as good as X so I should not try " .

It's important to get to a stage where you're happy with your own playing.

[hefdaddy42]

It depends on priorities.

I am satisfied with my playing, although I sometimes wish I had developed more lead playing skills.  But I never put in the time to learn scales and modes or really much theory at all, and I'm certainly not going to put in the time now.

In fact, now I play drums more often than guitar.

[Phoenix87x]

For the majority of my guitar playing life, all I wanted to do was be Petrucci. So I just kept playing as fast as possible and pushed myself to be faster. At this point I'm a solid guitar player but nothing incredible, especially when compared to what's out there and I don't really care. I just like playing.

[bl5150]

. It annoys me that my playing is so bad.

Good topic -  I haven't played seriously since the 90's and being a perfectionist is what stops me starting again , aside from available time being insufficient.  I've tried a couple of times but being a perfectionist and starting again at something you were once pretty good at but now suck at don't mix well. 

[Kotowboy]

But then you get the other kind of people who practice 10 hours a day - but they only practice shredding.

I've been to jam night several times where i'd be in the lineup on Rhythm with this guy and he'd just turn away from everyone and shred all over everything

- with no focus on form or anything - just completely showing off .

[Lowdz]

It depends on priorities.

I am satisfied with my playing, although I sometimes wish I had developed more lead playing skills.  But I never put in the time to learn scales and modes or really much theory at all, and I'm certainly not going to put in the time now.

In fact, now I play drums more often than guitar.

I spent a bit of time back in the day learning the modes but I didn't have the knowledge to apply them to what I was playing over. I'd throw the odd extra note from them into the pentatonics for a bit of colour. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I just don't have any natural talent but I only played for fun so  its fine.

[MoraWintersoul]

Just because you master your instrument doesn't mean you know how to write good songs. Personally I would prefer being a great overall musician rather than just being good at my instrument.

Yeah, but you can be both, and you have more songwriting possibilities if you have no limitations in your playing.

I mean, I get why one wouldn't be bothered to learn complicated stuff, and the fact that you can shred doesn't mean you'd be able to write good shredding parts, but I hate the fact that on prog forums, prog fans rush to distance themselves from the technical parts of the music, saying that they "don't really like that stuff". Not talking about you, Zanty, I know you don't listen to much prog in general now, but let's not kid ourselves - if we weren't even a little into the diddly widdly parts, we'd be listening to anything else. I don't know when liking speedy solos became so uncool to admit to oneself and others?

[gazinwales]

Nope just want to be solid.
I never really bothered to learn anyone else's songs, I gave always liked to come up with my own ideas.

I recently bought an Avid Mbox with Pro Tools Express, so I have some ideas I want to record.
Now learning how to use PT is going to be harder than learning to play guitar

[?]

I was talking to my friend yesterday and mentioned that I've got some ideas for a song, including a chord I've never heard used in any other song (I'm sure someone has used it already, but I haven't intentionally stolen it ). I jokingly said "I suck technically so I have to impress people in other areas", but now I realize that it might be true that when you're technically limited, you have to find other ways to make your music interesting, and sometimes these little inventions may be more creative and fascinating than some tricky riffing or soloing.

I watched an interview with Steven Wilson where he was showing some of the guitar parts in Time Flies and The Blind House, and he said he often gets an idea for a new song while experimenting with different chords, although he doesn't even know their names. The latter song is a lot of fun to play, btw!

I mean, I get why one wouldn't be bothered to learn complicated stuff, and the fact that you can shred doesn't mean you'd be able to write good shredding parts, but I hate the fact that on prog forums, prog fans rush to distance themselves from the technical parts of the music, saying that they "don't really like that stuff". Not talking about you, Zanty, I know you don't listen to much prog in general now, but let's not kid ourselves - if we weren't even a little into the diddly widdly parts, we'd be listening to anything else. I don't know when liking speedy solos became so uncool to admit to oneself and others?

I don't know whether you're referring to this forum or prog forums in general, but I haven't seen anyone say "lol technical music" in this thread.

[Lowdz]

I was talking to my friend yesterday and mentioned that I've got some ideas for a song, including a chord I've never heard used in any other song (I'm sure someone has used it already, but I haven't intentionally stolen it ). I jokingly said "I suck technically so I have to impress people in other areas", but now I realize that it might be true that when you're technically limited, you have to find other ways to make your music interesting, and sometimes these little inventions may be more creative and fascinating than some tricky riffing or soloing.

I watched an interview with Steven Wilson where he was showing some of the guitar parts in Time Flies and The Blind House, and he said he often gets an idea for a new song while experimenting with different chords, although he doesn't even know their names. The latter song is a lot of fun to play, btw!

I mean, I get why one wouldn't be bothered to learn complicated stuff, and the fact that you can shred doesn't mean you'd be able to write good shredding parts, but I hate the fact that on prog forums, prog fans rush to distance themselves from the technical parts of the music, saying that they "don't really like that stuff". Not talking about you, Zanty, I know you don't listen to much prog in general now, but let's not kid ourselves - if we weren't even a little into the diddly widdly parts, we'd be listening to anything else. I don't know when liking speedy solos became so uncool to admit to oneself and others?

I don't know whether you're referring to this forum or prog forums in general, but I haven't seen anyone say "lol technical music" in this thread.

Quite the contrary for me. I love widdly widdly. And I love it when DT put the long widdly sections in songs. Shred guitar still impresses the shit out of me, even though  every 8 year old can do it these days 

[gazinwales]

Yeah I love playing my acoustic and playing anything and everything, chords that I didn't even know and lots of open stuff mixed in.
I end up with some interesting sounds, lots of fun too.

[MoraWintersoul]

I don't know whether you're referring to this forum or prog forums in general, but I haven't seen anyone say "lol technical music" in this thread.

in general, yeah

[Dream Team]

Just because you master your instrument doesn't mean you know how to write good songs. Personally I would prefer being a great overall musician rather than just being good at my instrument.

Yeah, but you can be both, and you have more songwriting possibilities if you have no limitations in your playing.

I mean, I get why one wouldn't be bothered to learn complicated stuff, and the fact that you can shred doesn't mean you'd be able to write good shredding parts, but I hate the fact that on prog forums, prog fans rush to distance themselves from the technical parts of the music, saying that they "don't really like that stuff". Not talking about you, Zanty, I know you don't listen to much prog in general now, but let's not kid ourselves - if we weren't even a little into the diddly widdly parts, we'd be listening to anything else. I don't know when liking speedy solos became so uncool to admit to oneself and others?

There's always been a backlash against musicians who achieve a high level of ability, and mostly due to jealousy less proficient musicians say things like "well, emotion and songwriting is the only thing that's important" as if you can't have all (like JP does).

[Elite]

I have always strived to be the best guitarist I can.  Even though I don't play as much as I use to, I always continue to work on my chops and skills.  There's still quite a few styles I really want to learn.  To be honest, I wish I was a lot more versatile than what I am.

This applies to me as well.

[Xenon]

I practice my skills, but i'm not interested in being fast. I prefer playing clean. And my music never needed fast playing since I do a lot of Post-rockish/shoegazing music. But I'll love to have more resources to play

[Cruithne]

I was bothered when I was in my late teens to mid-twenties, not so much now.

I feel that if you don't really hammer away at your technique as a kid, when you've got no responsibilities in life and can get away with spending 6 hours a night practising, then you're likely to get hamstrung in later life if you aren't a professional musician and can't afford to spend the amount of time it takes to reach the kind of technical facility that a JP has.

I reached a point in my late 20s/early 30s when I made peace with the fact that I just don't have enough hours in the day to reach the level of the real technical monsters - I have enough technical ability to play some of the songs from my youth just about well enough to keep me happy, even though it may take me weeks to learn something they wrote in an hour (e.g. Joe Satriani's Crushing Day solo), and I can play to a level that allows me to represent my own material to a satisfactory degree.

These days I'm way more interested in singing.

[rude boy]

I am pretty much satisfied with the way i play.
I am not satisfied with my knowledge of the technical aspect of the guitar itself and guitar equipment (amps, effects, etc.), but that's another story.

And when it comes to discussing playing in terms of technique and all that stuff- i feel that the word technique is too often understood as a synonym for speed. Technique IMO simply represents the way someone plays their instrument. It's much more important to play clean than to play fast. The ideal would be both clean and fast- JP for example (or Guthrie Govan), whose technique is almost flawless. A different example would be David Gilmour- he can't shred, but every note he plays is as clean as it can be, his solos flow, his vibrato and phrasing is nearly perfect. Although he is not a fast guitar player, i could not describe his technique as anything less than brilliant.
The word technique covers much, much more than just being able to play fast.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I play in two bands, one that does a lot of classic rock and one that does a lot of 80's and modern hard rock and metal.  As a teenager, I practiced a lot, but I never had the focus to do what my heroes did.  Sit down with a metronome and work out all the licks from THEIR favorites until they got them right.

What I DID learn over time though (and I didn't really notice it so much), was that I managed to create a style of playing that suited me, such that if I had to try to teach someone to play, I'd have to deconstruct everything I've learned and doen, to try to get into the mind of a beginner and it would be hard.  From the way I anchor my hand to the guitar to the way I play certain things (switching in inverted 5th-root style power chords (5th-root-5th), in order to keep from jumping around the neck as much, or being able to recover quickly form a catastrophic string breakage, or understanding the importance of dynamics in a whole band situation, to create dramatic effect, or whatever.  Intangible things like that, that the average listener or attendee would never "get".  Those types of things have helped me immensely.

I've always said "Eh, I'm not as good as I would like to be" and it's true.  I've found myself able to play things now that 15-20 years ago, I'd have never thought possible.  I never imagined I'd get roaring cheers for pulling off the solos in Bark at the Moon, for eaxmple.  When other people come up to me and tell me I nailed a solo or say they think I'm a great guitar player, I take pride in that.  If someone else can look at what I do and say "He's really good at that", then I'm (mostly) content.

[RoeDent]

Agree with the comment above re. "I'll never be as good as *musician*, so I should give up". Why deny yourself the immense pleasure of playing music just because you've set your own standards far too high? Just learn to be as good as yourself, and be satisfied with that.

[Kotowboy]

MEGA BUMP


Was browsing through my old topics trying to find my and prog snob's coffee thread.

Thought of something whilst reading this thread.

When you see articles like " OMFG Jimi Hendrix could no read or write music notation !!!กกกกก!!!!! "

And i'm like ... . yeah that's REALLY nothing amazing at all. MOST famous musicians cannot read or write proper notation.. It's absolutely no big deal at all.

Stop trying to make out Hendrix was some kind of musical GOD.

[Stadler]

First time in this thread.

I know my philosophy has changed over the years.   I remember writing songs and being so disappointed and frustrated because it wasn't "Stairway..." or "Smoke on the Water".   And I even got a chance to ask several famous people (Paul Stanley, Fish, Michael Moorcock) this question:  "When you first wrote something did you really think it was better than the stuff you worshipped as a kid?  If you didn't, how did you get past not just filing it in the drawer because it wasn't?"   And every one had a similar answer:   It's not about "Better".  It's about YOU and what you have to say. 

Then I got to play in a band (a string band; google "Mummers") with about 60 guys, most of whom were WAY better musicians than me - I mean WAY better.   I remember sitting in rehearsal, and the band leader said to us (there were three guitar players) "Play this chord" and one of the guys didn't know it, so one of the older sax guys says - off the top of his head - "play this note, this note, this note, and this note on the top four strings".   And I realized that I didn't have to be Petrucci; I needed to be able to play with others in a way that inspired their confidence, and I needed to be able to play in a way that got my point across.

Now, I'm more interested in being able to replicate what I do play.  So what if I can play Deuce or Rock Candy all the way through, if I can only do it once out of ten times, and only sitting down on my couch?   So I'm working on repetition, and making sure whatever it is I do play, is as clean and listener-friendly as I can.   I just don't have the will or time to learn Yngwie's Black Star all the way through, so I don't.   But I made my stepson smile from ear to ear playing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and I impressed my stepdaughter by playing the intro to "Simple Man" by Skynyrd, so I figure I'm on the right track. 

[Kotowboy]

Playing with other musicians is a great way to learn new stuff.

I used to go to Jam Night and before I went I didn't know any "classics" and after a few months I knew tons of new songs.

[Mladen]

I probably fall into this category of guitarists. I've never really worked hard on technique and virtuoso playing, the focus has always been on songwriting, melody craft and feel.