I guess I should sell or give my guitars

I only can conclude I don't play guitar. Let us say I am able to get some sounds from them. I think I will be not able to play guitar in all my life. Today all the music seems flat to me...

Nuno, I have friends that play at that level. When we jam together there's times that I'll get so awestruck by what they're doing that I'll forget to play and just sit there with with my mouth hanging open. They grumble at me for being a "fanboi" and remind me that they're using what I'm doing as their inspiration, and if I'm not playing, they CAN'T DO the "gee-whiz" stuff. it's really humbling and really affirming at the same time.

. . . and they ask me to show them little things I do that they never learned, and comment on what they see as unique to my playing that leaves them awestruck. (I think it's shameless flattery, but it's nice to hear)

So you're not Paco de Lucia. Duh. That doesn't mean you don't have something to offer the world musically. If you give up now, nobody gets to hear it - not even you.

Now stop being such a putz and go play guitar

Watching clips of Tommy Emmanuel,Phil Keaggy,Chet Atkins only inpires me to play more.Will my playing status ever reach the peak of greatness like those I mentioned? Most likely and 100% no.But I can enjoy hearing them and I can even steal a lick or two.I've felt like the guitar is a way to express yourself through music. For years I've wanted to be a "shredder",and I can play some good and fast runs.But recently I started playing my nylon string guitar and it just gives me more inspiration to play something else.Now I'm playing gospel hymns,fingerstyle on a nlyon.Thirty years ago,I started to learn to strum on a acoustic.I just hear it a lot differently now and find it incredible relaxing to be able to play like this.

I go through phases like this all the time. I think "what's the use?" I'll never play with a band, even a garage band. I still have trouble changing chords with any degree of accuracy or speed. I can't sing and play at the same time, and a lot of recordings are too fast to play with. Then I think that I do have fun in learning some new things, even little things. And making little breakthroughs. Then I get absorbed in it and forget that I don't want to do it anymore. :roll: Like the Nike ads said... "Just do it".

Now stop being such a putz and go play guitar
:D
Like the Nike ads said... "Just do it".
:D

Yeah, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, are great players. I enjoy a lot when I see a good player. I watch many music dvd with many great guitar and bass players and usually I always say: "Wow! That was awesome!" And, yes, usually it inspires me to play or to try something new.

I was watching a couple of dvd last week. A dvd is an old Oscar Peterson concert with Joe Pass on guitar, Martin Drew on drums and the great Pedersen on bass. I enjoy each sound of each player. Pass is awesome with those harmonies and chord melodies (he plays two solos) and Pedersen is one of my favorite bass players (sadly both are not with us).

The other is a compilation of Wes Montgomery in TV programs. I had listened many things by Montgomery but I never saw him. That's awesome! But not the way he played with his thumb (or not only that), he was constantly smiling and laughing while playing! He is enjoying a lot!

Yesterday it was different. It was something like: it can not be truth, it is not possible, there must be a kind of trick or something, it is not possible a guitar can sound in that way. I never saw something similar. It was about Paco de Lucía but also about his music, it is "multidimensional". And you listen his words and he is absolutely humble (and really funny, too).

I think I have to rearrange some criteria on guitar players and also on music. Perhaps it is time to start to listen some of his music, here it is very easy to perform.

de lucia's the one guitar player that blows me away every single time i listen. don't feel bad that you can't do what he does. no one can.

If everyone could play like De Lucia, no-one would be special.

lol. I knew there was a reason I played. It's to make the greats look even greater. :D

You can always give me your guitars, Nuno; they'll be well looked after and played lots.

Alan the eternal optimist

I saw a concert given by the great Los Romeros -- it was sublime.

Four of them, everyone a master, playing De Falla, Grenados, Rodrigo, Albeniz and more.

With fingers like that, who needs a pickup and an amp ;-)

Notes ♫

lol. I knew there was a reason I played. It's to make the greats look even greater. :D
LOL!

Alan, and could I see them every other weekend?

BTW, I didn't tell you but it is a double-dvd. The second disk is the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo. I am waiting for recovering from the first one. Alan, be ready.

Another of my favorite recordings when I was a child was the Yepes' version of that concert. The conductor was Ataulfo Argenta, one of the best Spanish conductors (probably the best one).

When you grew up listening that kind of music...

BTW, I didn't tell you but it is a double-dvd. The second disk is the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo. I am waiting for recovering from the first one. Alan, be ready.

I heard a guitarist in Barcelona butcher the Aranjuez in a back street church. I forget his name, but I paid EUR 10 for tix.

I heard Rolando Saad butcher it at the Barbican in London to the extent I came out thinking "Why do I bother practising?" And that cost me GBP 35 a ticket

And I attended a masterful performance of it by Craig Ogden with the BBC Concert Orchestra which brought a lump to my throat - that's probably my favourite; I have the Angel Romero version on CD which is good, but .......

Yes, we can agree visitation rights every other weekend, but you don't go stressing them out y'hear?

A :-)

Well with that Logic, I can't play like Stevie Ray or Eric Clapton, but I use them as inspiration in my playing and I am getting closer all the time.... (long way to go but still, making progress!)

I've been playing for a long time now - got my first guitar in 1974. I still don't think I'm much good - but then, I listen to stuff I recorded about 5 years ago and think, "hmm - I'm a lot better than I was!" And that's the thing about guitar - every time you think you're getting nowhere, you can just concentrate on playing a few rhythm chords and singing a simple song. Every time you've learned something, someone'll show you something way over your head. And every time you're feeling self-doubtful, someone'll ask you to play that riff again - only slowly, so they can tell what you're doing.

There's always someone better than you - and there's always someone worse. There's always someone who can pick up any guitar and wail away on it, and.....there's always someone worse. I've been playing for, hmmm, 36 years now - another 36 years, I'll be 89 and probably still be working on songs from the 60's and 70's....but as long as I'm still compos mentis, I'll still be playing guitar and still trying to get better. Still be frustrated and fulfilled from song to song; and still probably writing my own songs, too.

Of all the pleasures I have, playing guitar will be the last one I give up - but make sure you bury my Tele with me so's I can rock in the afterlife......!!!!!

(Oh and don't forget the Cube - and a slide - and a capo - and a couple of sets of strings - maybe a couple of bottles of beer...if you're feeling generous....!)

:D :D :D

Vic

The thing is, I LOVE to listen to the greats. In any genre; flamenco, classical, jazz- I think it was Duke Ellington who said there are two kinds of music; good and bad.

If it's good, it's good no matter what sort of music it is.

When I play, though, it's often bad. I'm pretty busy with another profession, and practice time is limited. And of course, I didn't choose music as a profession due to a certain lack of talent anyway. But there are time that, even better than listening to a CD of great music, is sitting down and making mediocre music.

I don't have to play as well as them to get great joy from playing. And I don't play to be great; it's not an option. I play for the joy it gives me.

I think you all know what I mean.

Best,
Ande