Random Thoughts on Playing Guitar...

The great thing about guitar is you can play it for whatever reason you like. :D

I am a little anti-technical. I do not think of guitar as the instrument of a virtuoso, I have always thought of the guitar (especially the electric guitar) as the instrument of the common man.

If you want to be a virtuoso, take up violin and join an orchestra.

I have always thought the electric guitar belonged to the blue-collar man. It is the instrument that a bunch of regular kids from regular middle-class or lower-class neighborhoods got together in a garage and tried to make music.

So I just don't go for these virtuosos like Steve Vai, or Malmsteen and all these guys who can play arpeggios at blinding speed up and down the neck. I really don't care for the classical guitar influence you hear from players like this.

I know this is just my personal opinion. But give me gutsy Blues players who probably couldn't read a note of music, but can make that guitar talk. Not in a technical way, but in a very simple expression from simple regular folk.

I would rather hear a great Rock player like Angus Young, or a great Blues player like Albert King any day of the week.

None of those virtuoso guys can do it for me. But go to a live gig and listen to a really good Blues player. Man, that is electric guitar.

I don't want to play in an orchestra. I want to bend some strings baby. :twisted:

I like rough gutsy playing with honest mistakes. I don't drink fancy drinks with umbrellas in them.

Just my 2 cents.

Amen wes
imagine sitting in a smoke filled club and howlin wolf is up the playing one note 56 times and it makes your eyes shut while you feel that note set off the tuning fork in your soul....
some may need a 16 note run to get this across and some can do it with one...
either way its the person behind the strings...and their communication
look from a poetic standpoint.. it is not in the large words one may use but what it means...

playing and hearing are vastly different experiences, so record yourself from time to time.
play a lot. it opens up gates in your brain. your fingers and subconsious may be better players than you consious ego, so let go when you can.

The great thing about guitar is you can play it for whatever reason you like. :D

I am a little anti-technical. I do not think of guitar as the instrument of a virtuoso, I have always thought of the guitar (especially the electric guitar) as the instrument of the common man.

If you want to be a virtuoso, take up violin and join an orchestra.

I have always thought the electric guitar belonged to the blue-collar man. It is the instrument that a bunch of regular kids from regular middle-class or lower-class neighborhoods got together in a garage and tried to make music.

So I just don't go for these virtuosos like Steve Vai, or Malmsteen and all these guys who can play arpeggios at blinding speed up and down the neck. I really don't care for the classical guitar influence you hear from players like this.

I know this is just my personal opinion. But give me gutsy Blues players who probably couldn't read a note of music, but can make that guitar talk. Not in a technical way, but in a very simple expression from simple regular folk.

I would rather hear a great Rock player like Angus Young, or a great Blues player like Albert King any day of the week.

None of those virtuoso guys can do it for me. But go to a live gig and listen to a really good Blues player. Man, that is electric guitar.

I don't want to play in an orchestra. I want to bend some strings baby. :twisted:

I like rough gutsy playing with honest mistakes. I don't drink fancy drinks with umbrellas in them.

Just my 2 cents.

Well put! I totally agree!

I would rather hear a great Rock player like Angus Young, or a great Blues player like Albert King any day of the week.

Two excellent examples of guys who have spent countless hours perfecting their ear, and their ability to take their ideas and play them on the guitar exactly as they imagine them.

It's all about having an ear and the ability to take your musical ideas and play them.

And that takes long hard hours of practice. It's not about "playing with emotion." It's about spending the time to perfect the craft.

C'mon now, you can't make blanket statements like that. It's a bit of both don't you think? It's not just perfecting your craft.

You can be a technical wiz, but if you don't have anything to say....

On the other had you can be the most sensitive soul on the planet, but without the chops.....

Unless you are living by my motto: "Once you can fake sincerity, you've got it made."

I do agree that the people who make it look effortless have expended untold amounts of effort to make it look that way.

Its 99% persperation IMO. Everybody has emotions and ideas but not everybody has skill and a good ear for music. That, you have to work for...for a long time.

Ya know, I have to say I blend both these ideas. I spend 2 hours a day practicing scales and riffs. My scales and riffs, my licks, my chord changes, in my own tuning that my friends cant even make sense of, and people tell me I play pretty damn well, in my own style. I dont know anything about theory or note harmonic theory or classical influence stuff, but I study sound. Ya hear? *pun intentional* Like guys like angus, you have to put the hours in, in your own time, thats "expressing yourself." You have to have something to say, but, hehe, like the toddler, if your screaming it in my face and crying and hitting me its a lot less moving to me than listening to Empire, or One. Most of the bands I know of that are EXCELLENT, A List players with classical backgrounds who breath theory, all kind of sound the same. So Ive intentionally cut myself off from "real" music study. Our styles define us, and, Thats my thoughts on Guitar I guess. I dont want to sound the same. The utter irony of this is, that by endeavoring to be different, im clasifying myself as different, like everyone else. But that rant will have its own thread I think.

It's funny, contrary to what mostly everyone else has said so far, I don't play music to try to convey emotions or anything, I play music because I love to play music. That being said I'm always looking to get better.

I dunno, whenever I hear someone talk about how they need to "express themselves" on guitar, it always seems too artsy for me. I play music that I enjoy playing, and after many, many years of playing I practice stuff that I know that I need to practice.

Yeah, despite what I said about emotion, im exactly like you. I was just talking bout it cos everyone else was. But really I just love to play n dont feel any need to express my emotions through it...
From what I've read it seems most people find learning technical stuff the boring part that just needs to be done and then you can enjoy yourself. For me, I love that part, Its great seeing how much I improve n how well I can put this really technical stuff into the kinda music I want to. For most people the guitar is just the tool they've chosen to create music, for me the guitar is the music - hence my interest in intrumentalists n virtuoso players
I've never had a single "practice session" - I've never needed to, as I always wanna pick up the guitar n do loads of things, I dont need to motivate myself n say "yeah should really practice those 7th chord n arpeggio progressions" I just do everything cos I love playing...Bassically :P

So I just don't go for these virtuosos like Steve Vai, or Malmsteen and all these guys who can play arpeggios at blinding speed up and down the neck. I really don't care for the classical guitar influence you hear from players like this.

As for the classical influence - man I love that! I think neo classical is so cool, wether it be shred or melodic! For me bluesy-rock n neo-classical are the best :twisted:
My phylosophy for guitar is: guitar playing is fun. Shredding is fun, so ill do it. I play for me, not for others! But in contradiction, I also get great satifaction from writing a great peice of music...lol how confused!

C'mon now, you can't make blanket statements like that. It's a bit of both don't you think? It's not just perfecting your craft.

The one thing that isn't required is some "emotional" connection to what you're doing. You don't have to be sad to play a sad song or happy to play a happy song. I don't get people who seem to make that claim. I have no idea what they're saying. I really don't.

I'd disagree with you on one small point there - there has to be some form of emotional involvement in the music you're playing, or writing, otherwise it's just going to come across as cold and flat. You think BB King plays the blues with no feeling? No, he pours his heart and soul into it, and that's the difference between music and muzak. You have to take a mood, a feeling, an emotion if you like and build on it.....if the artist/singer/guitarist isn't feeling anything, neither, ultimately, will the audience....music has to come from your guts, from your heart, from your soul.....otherwise, it's just the aural equivalent of wallpaper - nice to look at, but in the end it's just filling up a blank space, it's meaningless without feeling...

That's the way I feel about it anyway.....

:D :D :D

Vic

Fair enough, but why does he play with a smile on his face? Because he's enjoying what he's doing, he's feeling emotion - it may sound contrary, but listening to the blues always makes me feel better (possibly because I finally found that elusive someone who's worse of than me?)

By getting your emotional hang-ups out of the way by playing them, you're feeling better....that's my theory anyway....

Music has to convey a feeling, otherwise you may as well just buy sheet music and read it, rather than actually listen to anything....

:D :D :D

Vic

No emotion? Are you serious?

In all my years of experience as a professional actor, singer, musical theater performer, once upon a time dancer, soloist, and guitarist I can tell you the best are always emotionally involved with what they do.

If you don't have the emotional connection the audience knows right away.

It's a balance folks. The better you can play, the easier it is to express yourself on any instrument.

If all you know how to do is play in pentatonic and mixolydian scales, then every thing you play will sound like running up and down pentatonic and mixolydian scales.

Yeah but if you play them with real emotion they will sound good 8) .

I personally believe that a good/great guitarist has a combination of both technical skills and emotion mixed into their playing. One is no good without the other and as far as I am concerned you can't fake emotion you just feel it and convey it.

For what it is worth, I am not here to argue this I am just relaying my opinion.

Don't know about playing, but folks seem emotional about this issue! :wink:

I think that the words we use to describe music (romantic, angry, whimsical and the 8,753,462,818 other words) indicate we attach a lot of emotion to it. But a lot of that comes from the listener.

The musician needs to be able to tap into his or her emotions in order to understand what he/she wants to communicate. But how effective that communication is does depend on skill and technique (sometimes even lack of skill and technique helps!).

Heaven help me, but I remember writing an article about this ages ago and I still think that you need a combination of things that most of us associate with the Wizard of Oz:

A Brain (already been discussed throughout this thread and others)

A Heart (ditto)

The Nerve (the willingness to try out new ideas and to fall flat on ones face)

A Home (a sense of security that allows you to use all the other three ideals)

People can argue until doomsday as to which aspect is the most important, but I can't help but think it's the combination that counts. And it's the combination that allows us to be unique players (and people), because some of us are better at some aspects than others (more brains than heart, for example), and because we often strive to make up for our deficiencies in areas that are lacking.

Ultimately I think that one is never "all" one or the other. And I'm not sure why it even becomes a matter of debate. One can shrug and say "that's who I am," but we're always changing and evolving. The more aware of all the different aspects of your playing you have, the better you'll get.

Peace

ah, Kingpatzer, you do enjoy playing devil's advocate, don't you? Conveying musical ideas is about expression. Expression involves using music to reflect moods, create ambience and atmosphere and using the technical skills one has learned to do that. Otherwise we could all just plug in the computer, give it the notes and let her rip. But it is more than that, isn't it? No one has suggested that there isn't a blending of skill and technique. But if music isn't expressive, what's the point? And what is it expressing? Aye, there's the rub. Apparently you would argue that it's merely expressing skill -- soulless, heartless skill. Then I'll sell my guitar. No, I'm with Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on this one -- music comes closest to being an unmediated expression of passion, of drive, of will. You'll never convince me otherwise. And skill is necessary, of course. No one suggested otherwise -- that's a false dichotomy you created that is an unfair characterization of the discussion.