I've been playing for 22 years. There are times when I feel really happy with what I can do on a guitar. I've made it a personal policy never to compare myself as a guitarist to anyone else; this is not a competition, it's music. However, I have to admit that when I listen to Robert Fripp or Tosin Abasi or other players at that level, I find myself feeling both super motivated to play and also discouraged from ever picking up my axe again. I mean seriously, after watching players like that perform, I feel like I've just plain missed the boat as a musician. It's like I should have been practicing at least three times as hard for the past decade to be even a tenth as amazing as these guys are, so really, what's so great about what I'm doing?
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how do you identify what your own unique strengths are and build upon them, instead of feeling totally overwhelmed? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks.
Don't forget that these people play all day. Every day. And then they go on stage and play it at night. If you did the same....
I find the trick with virtuoso players is to see what it is they do that I need to build into my technique. Simply playing fast isn't an end in itself.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Wherever you go and whatever you do
there will always be somebody better than you
But if you think that fact is a curse,
look around there's always somebody worse.
(I just made that up)
I've been playing tenor sax since I was in Jr. High School. In high school I sat first chair in the all-state band every year that I was eligible. I took that honor away from the default, the best alto player. And I've been playing professionally all my life. I'm a very good sax player (and an adequate guitarist).
I look at people like Stan Getz, John Coltrane, or Stanley Turrentine and think that if I live to be 200 years old, I'll never be able to play like them. But that doesn't stop me from stealing some of their licks.
I was in a hired horn section for a rock band back in the late 1970s. The other saxophonist was a monster, he could play faster than me, more accurately than me, and could even sightread better than me.
We'd hang out together on breaks and the people would come up to me and tell me how much they liked my playing. It was a little embarrassing and I told Michel that I couldn't figure that out. He said he wished he could play like me, and that I was much more emotional and expressive, especially in the slow songs.
Moral of the story.
When we look at another player, we are awed by the things that player can do but we cannot do. We don't see the things we can do that that other player cannot do. So it isn't fair to yourself to judge yourself by those guidelines.
I'll never be a Stan Getz, John Coltrane or Stanley Turrentine on the sax. But even if they had lived to be 200 years old, they will never be a Notes Norton.
We all have a different soul. Once you are competent on your instrument, there is no better or worse. There are only different kinds of good. Be your kind of good, work on what you do well, and then steal what you can from other players.
I'll never be a Jeff Beck on the guitar either, and although I've only been playing a few years now, I'm better than a lot of others - and although I may not notice the progress while it's happening, if I look back I realize I get just a little better almost every day.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton
Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith
The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how do you identify what your own unique strengths are and build upon them, instead of feeling totally overwhelmed? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks.
Perhaps a little in the past but at the time l turned it around to mean the opposite. If I felt a little overwhelmed by someone else's playing, I'd find out where they are from out of curiosity. Often it's beyond a 1000 mile radius. That's kind of encouraging because it means that it's an exception.
If on the other hand all the virtuosos I came across all turned out to be within a 50-100 mile radius, or even worse in the same town, not likely, then I might wonder what I'm doing!
Hey it's the internet, everyone who is great at guitar can be playing on your screen.
Apparently the likes of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert were lucky enough (as guitarists) to not even have things like televisions when they where younger (that might not be totally accurate) but they certainly didn't have internet.
