I've been thinking alot about this lately.
I just think that anyone can pickup a tab sheet and figure out the tabs with enough patience and play a song, it's all spelled out for you even in chord shapes. That's even true for chord sheets that you can get on the internet.
So I've been struggling with this because I'm not real good at improvising and can't play by ear, even with ear training software I can't pick out the notes correctly, and while I know some scales and can play the major scales in the first position (albeit slow, still have to think WWHWWWHW while I'm doing it.) But when I have a tab sheet or chord sheet I can play whatever.
So when do you consider yourself a guitarist? Is it when you can pick through a tab or chord sheet? When you can play by ear? Or is it when you have a deeper understanding of music and how things correlate together on the guitar?
It seems to me that tab is just a "paint by number" for guitars so anyone "should" be able to figure it out if they wanted to, but I still rely on tab because my ear is terrible in picking out chords, bass notes, etc. So that's my dilemma.
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
when you enjoy your playing.
how you get there isn't that important to me.
It's when you can play something - anything - through from the start to the end without stopping. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a perfect starting point
It doesn't have to be played at full speed, just be reasonably recognisable.
A :-)
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+1 to both Jason and Alan's opinions above.
If you can play Twinkle Twinkle you're a guitar player. The rest is just improving your skills and expanding your range and repertoire. The curve may taper off a bit but it never ends.
You're beating yourself up unnecessarily Joe - your playing sounds very good to me. I also think you're a bit off track with the 'ear' thing. It's not just about being able to recognise intervals (which is what a lot of the so-called ear training programs seem to do) or chords - that's probably the least of it. In my opinion, the most important thing is to have an ear for rhythm and general musicality. I'm not a fan of Tab, but it seems to me that it doesn't matter so much how you get the information about what to play. What does matter is what you do with it once you've got it. Some people never really manage to get the life and musicality into their playing. From what I remember from listening to a clip of you playing, the singing was a bit....um... 'improvable'.... but the playing was great. 8)
I started trying to learn guitar at 58 - and nobody was worse than me ( in fact, few still are...) but after having similar doubts I realised that, despite the stiff fingers and many deficiencies, I did have one asset - 58 years of listening to music already ingrained. So when the modest skill did start to slowly crawl forward I knew what I was aiming at. My Little Stars did indeed begin to Twinkle. As my wife put it "You might think you're crap, but at least it sound like musical crap, not just disjointed noise......" :wink:
Cheers,
Chris
the first step is admitting you are a guitar player.
stand up. say your name. and then say, 'I am a guitar player'.
it helps to be able to play at least one song; knowing it by heart.
When it happens . . . I'll let you know . . . I will DEFINITELY post.
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Thanks for all the responses and opinions on this.
I think that the post may have portrayed doubt on my abilities...I wasn't going for that, so I'm not beating myself up over it, but it has crossed my mind. Yeah, I can play, but it's all tab, so can I "really" play. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
I just wanted to get peoples thoughts on it. Thanks again for all the replys.
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
I don't think it's nearly as important as this Q: "When do you consider yourself a musician?"
-=tension & release=-
I don't think it's nearly as important as this Q: "When do you consider yourself a musician?"
Tricky one... :o
What's your answer Greg??
When you start getting paid to perform? When it's your main source of income? When you reach a certain standard? Or just when music comes to dominates a certain percentage of your life?
To my way of thinking it doesn't really matter when or whether I call myself a musician, because my interest is in being on the bus doing the journey. I'm not all that fussed whether there's a name tag on my seat.
Perhaps it's not something that you should worry too much about calling yourself, but a description that others may gradually begin to apply to you?...
Cheers,
Chris
When you feel comfortable with the instrument, and picking it up and playing it brings a smile to your face.
Now how good of a guitarist is another question...
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well Joe I understand where you are coming from and gnease beat me to what I was going to say, but with that said I don't aspire necessarily to be a great musician but I do aspire to be a very good guitar player and I think the two are different.
Being a guitar player to me is more the physical aspects of playing like you mentioned if you can read a tab and then regurgitate it well then you are a guitar player. Now I have my own personal criteria about what that entails. Playing Twinkle Twinkle Little star does not make someone a guitar player by my personal criteria. Obviously in the strict sense of the word it does since one is playing a song with a guitar so that would in most ways make them a guitar player albeit a very limited one. I also would not really consider strumming a few 3-4 chord songs as being much of a guitar player. To me you need to be able to play fairly advanced rhythms and at least be able to regurgitate or improv some decent leads at can play leads at a fast tempo.
Being a musician is a whole other level, that involves to me at a minimum the ability to read standard notation (well), the ability to play by ear and improv solo's at will and many more skills that aren't necessarily related to the physical aspects of playing.
By my own criteria I am not a guitar player, yet I can play close to 100 songs all the way through and can play some leads and advanced rhythms but I don't meet all of my own criteria.
Joe - I forgot to mention your avatar is freaking me out! By the way I agree with Jason it doesn't matter how you learned the song it's how it comes out when you play. If you can play some Eddie Van Halen super fast tapping licks or whatever it doesn't matter how you learned them it's whether or not you can play them if you can then you are good to go.
"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 will consider myself a musician when I can get paid for composing and performing music.
I will consider myself a guitarist when I can get paid for playing guitar.
Until then I consider myself a student/hobbyist/dabbler.
Joe - I forgot to mention your avatar is freaking me out!
LOL, yeah I thought it was kinda freaky.
"When do you consider yourself a musician?"
In that since, I think it's when you start to get paid to play music to be a musician. I think there's a big difference in being a musician and playing music.
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
I considered myself a guitarist when I tried to sing. I probably should have considered myself a drummer, tbh. :roll:
It's interesting that we seem to have different ideas about the required standards for different terms.
Guitar seems to be associated with fun and recreation more than many other instruments. We also have the example of many people who have made good livings as guitarist in bands yet who couldn't do much more than bash out a few power chords. :o
I don't have much trouble calling myself a guitarist (or guitar player anyway) although my skills are very modest, yet I'd never say that I was a pianist just because I can play a bit on the keyboards - the term sounds much more serious altogether. Or a musician either.
