I really, really don't think rhythm guitarist is an insult (although when being even less experienced you might've found me believing that). It's an amazing skill to create an atmosphere by yourself.
I can solo over nearly anything. It won't be good, and you'll find lots of other people doing it better, but I can make -something- out of it anyway. The same, unfortunately, doesn't go for my rhythm. I'm entirely lost, clueless, when it comes to creating a nice rhythm on command. I can create something for myself that sounds good, but if someone would ask me to play something jazzy/metal to go with his lead playing I'd be lost. It's a way of thinking for me. I can come up with lead guitar parts, but my imagination isn't trained for rhythm. I suppose the same goes for you Cnev, you could probably play whatever you want if you put your mind to it.
I do look down on anyone who treats a guitarist badly because of certain skill/ability/style. I'm new myself, I'm not good, but I'm happy and I don't need to bring even newer players down for that. The same goes for someone who plays blues, jazz, metal, pop, lead or rhythm. Everyone should be able to do what they love without being looked down upon, simply because of different taste. It's really petty to be treated like that, especially since it's mainly ignorance talking.
Well...look...you are right about your post. So go with it. Basically, as the years go by...and they certainly will...you'll get better and better. Simple...a "like duh!" sort of answer!
Have fun...
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
I'm entirely lost, clueless, when it comes to creating a nice rhythm on command. I can create something for myself that sounds good, but if someone would ask me to play something jazzy/metal to go with his lead playing I'd be lost. It's a way of thinking for me. I can come up with lead guitar parts, but my imagination isn't trained for rhythm.
This goes to my point about rhythm playing as a calling. Keith Richards is the Pope of Rhythm, as far as I'm concerned. He doesn't crank those riffs out on demand, but when he nails it down, it is well and truly nailed. That's his thing, his mission, his calling, and he does it better than anybody, God bless him.
Keith noted long ago that one doesn't go into a guitar shop and ask to see their rhythm guitars. One is a guitarist. The Stones/Muddy Waters concept of interlocking guitars is for me the ideal two-guitar setup -- no "lead" per se.
We're talking a lot about attitude, it seems. For myself, the only way to play music is with absolute confidence, to the point of arrogance. When I'm playing bass, I control the bottom end of the mix, and if you trespass on my territory you risk my wrath. I know I'm not the top bass player in the league, but if you give me the space, I will act like I am. It's critical for me to have enough self-esteem to claim & defend my turf, and it's not that hard, in spite of the fact that I am by nature a shy person with low self-esteem. Put an instrument in my hands, and you're going to have to deal with me on my terms.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
We're forgetting one very important thing. Hetfield/other rythm-players often sing too, while lead (except bluesplayers) seldom do.
My talent (if I have one...) is in leadplaying. But not in blazing fast solos, instead in playing melody lines and with emotion. Think John Frusciante or David Gilmour (not comparing myself to them talentwise, hehe). This doesn't mean I don't know how to play rythm. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to play lead. Before I start working on a solo I make sure I have the rythm down, otherwise it makes the whole thing very hard.
I'm often the only one in a band comfortable playing lead, so it's kind of automatic me that plays the solo. I try to make the other guitarist play some solos too, just to get som diversity, but they just don't want too.
The thing is, I can't sing... at all. And the other guitarists I've played with so far has always been ok with singing. This kind of evens it out in a band.
"Talent is luck. The important thing in life is courage."
Singing is pretty tough for me, too. I know where I "ain't"...and I leave vocals to others. BUT! I suggest you just take the time and sing what you can...then eyeball your fretboard to see where you know you are "on". Memorize those frets...and sing where you have your fingers on the notes ones you are sure that will work...and shut yer yap where they don't!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Some of the stuff Hendrix plays (and sings at the same time) is just blinding rhythm guitar........ take him doing this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_742k-ExYwA
Its just incredible and I have tried singing and playing it at jam nights........ I do it but I change the way its done and simplify it, he didn't simplify it he just it work amazingly.
There's a lot of other stuff like that with Hendrix, like little wing, he had a very lead style of playing Rhythm.
Anyway I had a friend when I was in Norway and I still talk to him once in a while he doesn't like lead guitar, he is a metal rhythm guitarist..... now some of that stuff he does as a metal rhythm player is actually in one sense more complicated that many of my lead parts, with his technique I wondered why he was never an amazing lead player too. He just doesn't like lead though in his eyes lead part takes the focus to only one person - so the band often plays in his mind a boring riff looped over while everybody quietens down and lets the lead guitarist be the focus. He likes that the metal he listens to focuses on everyone in the band doing something interesting.
together we stand, divided we fall..........
fleaaa I like your friends way of thinking although I don't dislike lead, but he's right it does put the focus on one person more than the "band".
There is a time and place for a good solo but alot of players take it over the top.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Oh yeah I mean I was in a classic rock covers band and we'd often stick two solos in the same song just so we both had chance to show off :D I just think its part and parcel of a lot of rock music though and if we heard a classical piece which had a long violin solo we'd accept it.
And some of the solos in songs are just genius, also I'm afraid I dont agree with my friend many times the solo is my favourite part and I could listen to Blackmore solo all day, I mean "No no no" is one of my favourite DP tracks and it is a lot of soloing but it's got such a cool groove and the solos that fit over the top are great.
together we stand, divided we fall..........
Rhythm players hold it down. You can have a power trio of guitar, bass, and drums if the guitarist is a decent enough rhythm player to be the glue. If the dude can only shred, then the song gets lost.
My answer to "lead or rhythm" is "Yep!"
if you don't learn both, then you have great difficulty learning the most essential guitar skill: When NOT to play.
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
i try to play both at once.
Choose rhythm. Choose four-four, triplets and swing time. Choose barres. Choose extended chords and six-fret stretches. Choose the neck pick-up. Choose smiling indulgently while the 'lead' guitarist waxes about modes. Choose capos. Choose pedal notes. Choose knowing the drummer's name. Choose alternate voicings and walking bass lines. Choose a chorus pedal and double-tracking. Choose moonlighting finger-style. Choose altered tunings and slide guitar. Choose counting in your sleep. Choose rhythm.
Well I think if you haven't got a grasp on Rhythm you'll never have a grasp on lead. Someone who can play lead in a rhythmic manner makes a better player then someone who is just shredding away IMO. Except for maybe someone like Yngwie who I believe knows how to shred rhytmically.
Pat
Head meet nail! Dead on!
Without a good background or foundation in rhythm, a solo artist will sound like a screaming child in the toy section at Walmart lol
I appreciate the technical skills required to be a crazy shredder but it's really not my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of Vai but really appreciate his skill (I could never, in a million years even reach .05% of his skill) I prefer guitarists like Roy Buchanan, Page, Keith, Jeff Healey, SRV and even George Harrison. Simply because it's not a bunch of noise rendered by perfectly matched notes and speed. To me music isn't about how many notes you can stuff down someone's neck, it's about fun, excitement, sadness, whatever the song wants to make you feel.
Download a bunch of cheat sheets and posters: http://stevesmusiclist.com/
Just to make this more interesting... let's separate "rhythm" from "time." Just because you can keep 16th notes going at a consistent pace doesn't make your a rhythm champion. Rhythm is more than timekeeping. Timekeeping makes you a competent musician. A sense of rhythm... man, it's hard to talk about. It's hard to explain how "the beat" is not a single moment in time positioned in a specific arrangement but a malleable, flexible thing. "The beat" has many parts, if you are a rhythm player. If you're coming down on the front part of the beat, and the cat on drums is laying on the BACK part of the beat, you'll get through the set, but nobody will be happy, and nobody but the rhythm section will know why.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
