Haha I agree! One always thinks one sucks, but alot of time its because we are so hard on ourselves :D.
I wanna be that guy that you wish you were ! ( i wish I were that guy)
You gotta set your sights high to get high!
Everyone is a teacher when you are looking to learn.
( wise stuff man! )
Its Kirby....
I don't think anyone answered it because there is no way to actually measure that. If you can strum some songs on an acoustic extremely well but that's all you know are you a good player?
It's kind of relative to the genre of music you play to some degree as each genre requires different skills.
In my example above you don't need to be a shredder to play that type of music but if you took that same strummer who people might think is a good player and had them play some metal they probably couldn't or couldn't do it well. So what does that make them a bad player?
Music is an art and it's hard to define it in very strict technical terms. But at the end of the day you are making music. If the music you make sounds good then I'd say you were a good player whether you are strumming chords or blazing up and down the neck doing death metal solos.
And you can't rely on what others think to much because as we all know there are alot of haters out there that seem to enjoy putting others down.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
I don't think anyone answered it because there is no way to actually measure that. If you can strum song songs on an acoustic extremely well but that's all you know are you a good player?
It's kind of relative to the genre of music you play to some degree as each genre requires different skills.
In my example above you don't need to be a shredder to play that type of music but if you took that same strummer who people might think is a good player and had them play some metal they probably couldn't or couldn't do it well. So what does that make them a bad player?
How true. None of the Beatles were "shredders" but I don't think anyone would say they were not good guitarists.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
I am the BEST guitarist.
(in my study. Where I play alone.)
And it is GREAT FUN.
Ande
I'm better than I used to be, but not as good as I'm going to be.
Tim Madsen
Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
"What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away you keep forever." -Axel Munthe
i think none of us will ever be as good as we want to be. i think studying the guitar takes time and dedication and people who are prepared to do what we do generally a determination to improve constantly, so i guess even the best still want to be better.
however, i have never been the best at anything... so what do i know :lol:
"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)
Well, considering that I could set the guitar down for nearly a year and remember where I left off, that's pretty darn good for me. Also in the past 4-5 years now I actually learned some songs. Overall I still and always, and if ever, a longs ways to go to consider myself "good".
"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis
Everything is 42..... again.
I can see a whole bunch of problems with trying to accurately say how "good" you are....
The difference between a "good" guitarist and a "bad" guitarist isn't really very big, when you look at things objectively. The "bad" guitarist misses a few notes - but not all the notes. In fact, they probably got most of them right. Their timing may be a little off - but again, most of it is probably dead on. It's the little mistakes make you judge them 'not as good'.
But you can't just judge ability just by how many mistakes you make - because context is important. Last week I was playing a duet with one of my students. He's been working very hard at it, and he made only one mistake. But the note he got wrong was the last note of the piece. That kind of error sticks out like a sore thumb - he could have made three or four mistakes in spots where it wouldn't have been very noticeable (e.g. missing an accidental in the middle of a sixteenth note run), but when you blow the big finish, it's a lot more memorable. Anybody not following along with the score would say he wasn't as good as another student who actually made more mistakes.
Then there's the problem of genre. The skills needed to be a good punk rock guitarist aren't on the same level as being a good classical or jazz guitarist. So what you choose to play determines what yardstick you use. It's like saying you're a good painter - that means something different if you're measuring your skills against the paint job on your neighbor's porch or the da Vinci on a museum wall. If you can honestly say you're good, are you Johnny Ramone good, or Joe Pass good?
If you don't make any mistakes in your chosen genre, let's say you're good. Now the problem gets even worse - because you've decided any good guitarist doesn't make a mistake playing song x, how do you decide who's very good? Or who's great? Now it's a difference of phrasing and interpretation. It's nothing you can put your finger on... but it makes all the difference. I heard Benjamin Verdery say in a master class that "learning a piece takes a lot of work. Once you have learned it, you have complete freedom in how to play it, and that's when the hard part begins."
Even if you can solve those problems, there's still one left in being able to say YOU are good: perspective. Let's say I decide to walk to Los Angeles (about 2500 miles away), and I'm covering 20 miles a day. After a month, LA is still a LONG way off; I haven't even covered a quarter of what's needed. But to the fellow traveler who's walking 5 miles a day, I'm doing great - I'm four times farther along than they are!
We see our progress towards our goals in terms of where we are at this moment; others see our progress starting from nothing. So most people will judge us a lot better than we do ourselves... that's why the grass is always greener. :)
It gets worse as you go along. In the beginning, everything you learn gives you some new ability that you can see. Learned a B7 chord? Great! You can play hundreds of songs you couldn't yesterday! But as you keep going, you get the fundamentals down. After a few years, you've got all (or most of) the basics. At that point, measuring your own progress becomes impossible - it's a matter of degree. And you're too close to the question to give an answer.
Anyway, to answer the question as best as I can... I'm better than I used to be. Hopefully, I'm not yet as good as I will be.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
How good am I??
In the words of Charles Barkley.....I'm turrble. :lol:
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
Great stuff guys-
It's always interesting to me, though- the difference between "good" and "great" isn't in the notes, it's not in how many mistakes you make...it's...something else.
I couldn't say what, but I tend to know what it is, for me, when I hear it.
A lot of early Clapton doesn't contain anything I can't play.
But it doesn't feel, or sound, the same when I play it.
Best,
Ande
PS- Clearly, being one of the greats isn't my motivation anyway. I'm good some days, bad others. Never great. Rarely terrible. But I'm having as much FUN as if I were great!
it's not in how many mistakes you make...it's...something else.
I think it's how you handle the mistakes. I really listened very critically to an Unplugged clapton video, and there were buzzes abound in the playing, but while I would have stopped Clapton just went on like it never happened and by the end of the song you didn't remember it, until a topic comes up like this LOL.
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
:note1: :note2:
I've got to admit it's getting better, better
A little better all the time, it can't get no worse
:note2: :note1:
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
How good am I? It's hard to be honest about myself, but I'll do my best.
By very good, I mean better than most others in my field
By adequate I mean able to play the instrument freely on stage, improvise, and relate to the audience
By decent, I mean able to learn songs and play them on stage but it requires concentration
I don't include great, because although many others (including musicians) have said my playing is great (especially my sax playing), I always think of people like Stan Getz or Jeff Beck who can do things I cannot do. But I don't let that bother me -- it is important to always realize this: No matter what you play, there will always be people who play it better than you, and there will always be people who play it worse than you do.
On the saxophone, I am very good. When I was in school I took first chair in the all-state band every year I was eligible. When on the road and when we almost had a contract with Motown (until our lawyers and Motown couldn't agree on money), they were talking about me releasing a solo album. Other musicians tell me I am very good, and I get to jam with plenty of them.
On the wind synth, I am very good - I've fooled guitar players into thinking my synth playing was a real guitar and I've done the same with trumpet players. And it it very difficult to fool someone on their own instrument.
On the guitar, I am adequate, but although I have had the guitar in my hands off-and-on for years, I have only been studying it seriously for a couple of years now
On the bass I used to be very good, but I haven't picked one up in so long, I don't know if I would hold up to modern standards so I would say with a little de-rusting, I could become decent
On the flute I think I'm adequate , but I picked it up easily as a doubling instrument and never really studied it. I've fooled other musicians into thinking I was very good on it though.
On the keyboard synth, decent at best.
On the drums I used to be adequate, but I'm sure I don't have the stamina to keep a steady time through an entire song.
On all the instruments I play, I'm not as good as I would like to be, and on the sax, synth, and guitar, not as good as I will be next month.
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 >^. .^< >^. .^<
it's not in how many mistakes you make...it's...something else.
I think it's how you handle the mistakes. I really listened very critically to an Unplugged clapton video, and there were buzzes abound in the playing, but while I would have stopped Clapton just went on like it never happened and by the end of the song you didn't remember it, until a topic comes up like this LOL.
Yeah, as critical as I can be of other people's playing (on any instrument), I find I forgive their 'mistakes' more easily than I do my own. :roll:
And I know most people would consider Hendrix and Buddy Guy to be good guitarists and I know both have played duff notes before (as in, playing in totally the wrong key by mistake).
I generally think I'm pretty crappy. But I thought that from the beginning, I'm just judging from a different criteria now.
I generally think I'm pretty crappy. But I thought that from the beginning, I'm just judging from a different criteria now.
See, that's where perspective comes in - 'cause I've seen and heard you play, and my impression was you're pretty good. Or from MY perspective - if I really, really, REALLY worked at it, I could be that good in a couple of years or so.
Others judge us differently than we judge ourselves, that's for sure.
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
