Not really an opinion or a poll - merely an obsevation for discussion :D
I once taught science to a student who was an excellent guitar player, he was only 15, but when i started to learn he taught me loads, and i thought he was excellent.
He recently auditioned for our band and has had to withdraw (see my thread in the news section). He is now early 20's (doesnt that make me feel old!!!) - anyway, he was still excellent - and played loads of classical fingerstyle pieces wonderfully.
However, when it came to learning our set list, and putting fills/solo's into songs, he really struggled. I gave him the key of the songs and said "use this scale, that scale etc", but he just couldnt follow and didnt really know even the pentatonic scales.
This made me think - although he is 10 times the guitarist I am (he really was), the style you follow makes a huge difference, almost to the point that it seems like a different instrument he and i played.
I could not dream of doing what he does - but he couldnt seem to do things that i see as trivial.
It just made me realise what a diverse instrument the guitar is. Anybody else had a similar experience/feeling?
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
Sounds about right. I learned a lot from my music school students over the last two years; not just how to play Everlong/ Sweet Child Of Mine/ Crazy Train/ all that sort of stuff, but I re-learned that there's a lot more stuff out there than what I do in my solo show and I ought to pay it more attention.
"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
You certainly can learn from others. It certainly is good to be picked out of a crowd because you "sound like you". I think I can pick Clapton out of just one nice A note...
Hard to define "style", though. Brain's really squirming...nope...I give up.
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Al, I agree 100% seen it myself many times. One of the guys I know who plays very well but sticks to blues only and mostly his own arrangements. If you play some blues with him it's fine but if you try and play a rock song forget it.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
It's one of my biggest weaknesses to be completely honest. I often feel like a one-trick pony when playing. Whenever I get together with my music teacher I currently try to play things entirely different from the last piece, trying to force some new techniques or styles in between my normal playing. :wink:
Whenever I see guitarists like Eric Johnson or Van Halen I feel immensely cheap (in a good way) :lol: . The way they can create music from seemingly absurd note combinations, to me at least, is something I'd love to learn. I can run up and down my pentatonics, but coming up with things like that seems so completely out of my way of thinking that I'd like to broaden myself. It has sparked my interest in music theory, something you could've threatened me with at the start.
How do you guys switch up your style? Trying to get yourself completely out of your "normal" frame? Might be nice to see how some of our great guitarists here do it in the same, or even better, a different way! :D
I can't play country or jazz to save my life .... but then again I don't want to. :P
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
I could not dream of doing what he does - but he couldnt seem to do things that i see as trivial.
I think that's the crux of it right there... it's not so much 'styles' that differ, but our perceptions of what's difficult.
What we can do seems easy, because we can do it. What we can't do seems hard (because if was easy, we should be able to do it).
It's like that with every style of music, and it's not limited to guitar. I had a couple of things happen today that really pointed that out to me...
First thing was while I was studying a score for Beethoven's 4th symphony. There's these big lush orchestral hits I was interested in - they're rich and full, and since I'm working on symphonic writing myself (and not coming close to what he did), I wanted to know why. I turned eagerly to the measure, figured out what the notes were from the different clefs and transposing instruments, and saw what he was doing: an F major chord.
Yep, one of the simplest triads. All through the section I'm seeing the most basic stuff. He breaks a few 'rules' of counterpoint, but it's not at all fancy. Now that I understand it, it seems easy. Yesterday it wasn't.
The second thing that made me think about this was a conversation with a friend this evening. He heard his first guitar teacher's name on the radio this morning. He'd taken lessons with the guy 15 years ago, but quit after 3 weeks. Why? Because the teacher insisted he play classical music melodies, and he wanted to rock out.
So here's this classical stickler whose name is on the radio... because he's now the lead guitarist in an internationally known rock band. And I'm hearing this from his former student, who rejected classical music because it just wasn't up his alley. That former student is now a professional musician too - with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra :)
I think the grass really is always greener on the other side of things. And once you cross the fence, you see that really green grass is somehow still in the other guy's yard.
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