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Guitar playing is not a contest....

ShredAstaire

By ShredAstaire
in The Gibson Lounge

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zippy

zippy

Posted
Posted
I too am a believer in competition.....

 

Probably why bands like the Beatles' date=' Eagles and Styx were so damn good IMO..... I'm sure internally those band mates fought to see who's songs would make vinyl[/quote']

 

 

Yup....you're right....it was all about competition.....no questions about it.

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zigzag

zigzag

Posted
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Apparently, playing stringed instruments has been a competition since before Charlie Daniels and Ralph Macchio competed with the devil. Maybe our biggest competition comes from the demons within. Pretty deep, huh?

 

Edit: Ooops, looks like charlie brown got there first!

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milod

milod

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I think Jax really hit on the crux of it all...

 

I've never felt I've ever come close to my own potential at anything I've done, so how could I not have a desire to reach at least part of that? If that be competition, I'm competing.

 

Then again, as with Jax, I've listened a bit to BB and Segovia and noticed that both also are interested in improving the technique and "art" of younger musicians. That obviously hasn't been to give themselves the opportunity to look big - which some tend to do - but rather to contribute a bit more to the art than even in performance.

 

Especially today with Youtube, and as far back as the late '50s, I've noticed an increasing tendency for guitarists especially to seek to copy note-for-note what they hear on records. Youtube makes it even easier because you can see the hands doing their thing.

 

But... I wonder... The musicians, not just guitar players, I tend to wish to emulate are those who seek their own voice with their own technique. Some will try to push the limits of their technique and others will reach a point at which they feel the technique is sufficient for their voice, and then seek to polish it and watch it glow.

 

I dunno. I think that seeking of one's own voice is what isn't a contest.

 

Once the voice is achieved, I think there's a need to figure how to entertain an audience. But then, I question that we have at that point a "contest" as much as an ability at marketing. You've gotta have certain abilities, but you've also got to entertain an audience and to book where an audience might appreciate your material. How that is done isn't so much a contest in musical skill as in marketing.

 

m

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Yeah, being self-taught it was tempting to want to "play like the record" on solos, until every concert I went to, of my "hero's," I noticed they NEVER played the recorded solo, note for note...in fact, quite a lot of the time, if not most, their solos were very different...as good, or better than the recorded one, but different, all the same. So...I stopped trying to play "note for note" copies, of solos...years ago, and started trying to give them my own "voice," as long as they fit the

song's chord pattern, and would fit within the structure, of the melody. Didn't have to BE the melody, obviously, but still needed to fit! More of a "Jazz" approach, than "Classical"...where it's a lot more rigid, in inturpretation.

 

CB

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dbreslauer

dbreslauer

Posted
Posted
I too am a believer in competition.....

 

Probably why bands like the Beatles' date=' Eagles and Styx were so damn good IMO..... I'm sure internally those band mates fought to see who's songs would make vinyl[/quote']

 

true!

 

this is also why George Harrison's first post-Beatles album was 3 Discs... :-)

 

Don

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FirstMeasure

FirstMeasure

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When Egos Compete it gets destructive. If the band knows how to focus their Competitiveness into constructive channels you start turning Goat Piss into Gasoline.

 

When I hear my Drummer really nail a part, it makes me want to nail it too. That's healthy competition as it polishes the song nicely. However if someone in the band is trying to get all the spotlight by doing lame stuff and stepping on everyone's parts it gets unhealthy.

 

Also when I see another local band cover a song we cover I want to make sure we play it better. Take La Grange for example, Everyone does that tune. So we do it the way Live ZZ does it, turns the Bored Looking faces around every time. That stemmed from a healthy competition with other bands.

 

And suppose a Venue tells you "Well, we were going to use Band-X in tonight's slot, but I haven't heard back from them yet." Do you take the morale High Road and say, "Give them a chance, I'm sure they'll call in a few minutes," or "We're here, they're not. We set up now and your worry lines can take a rest." That's necessary Competition, you need to be competitive enough to Snare the opportunity when it presents itself.

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