Where do you rate your guitar skills???

[Artie Owl]

My guitar teacher tells me to do one paid gig so I can write off all my lessons as a tax expense. I guess that means he has faith in me? Dunno, I ranked myself as the majority did, because I feel like I have a decent understanding of the neck and ear for it, but I don't practice enough to take it to the next level.

[ShredAstaire]

I did play many gigs....but that band broke up and I don't wanna be in another one....we had some great chemistry...anyway, i put myself somewhere around Intermediate Hack...focus on the word hack!

 

I'm a rhythm guy....you guys know this by now...i am a pure rookie when it comes to soloing!!!!

[DAS44]

People tell me I'm really good.... I think I suck.... yup thats where I'm at.

[Big Bill]

isnt the definition of professional' date=' being paid for your services?

 

 

This guy used to get paid a lot of cash to play:

 

 

 

This dude gets paid to sing:

 

 

Are they professionals?

[cookieman15061]

If they're makin a living than yes.

[Shnate McDuanus]

I suppose that I'm somewhere between Novice and Intermediate hack, so I placed myself in Intermediate to make myself seem better.

 

My honest assessment of myself is that, while I do really and truly suck at least a little, I've been playing for a very short amount of time and pushing myself very hard, and my effort really does seem to show through.

 

My teacher tells me that I show great potential and that I'm doing very well--but I am paying him, so I wonder if that's where the praise comes from. Then I think "shoot, this guy has integrity--if I really sucked he'd tell me." So...I don't know. I guess I'm doing pretty well for someone who's been playing for...well, I wouldn't want to date myself and give away my true amateurism.

[duane v]

My honest assessment of myself is that' date=' while I do really and truly suck at least a little, .[/quote']

 

that's where you are wrong[angry] ...... You are able to arrange and put together an original recording of your playing with multiple tracks. Most people that "suck" wont even attempt to arrange a piece.

 

Set the bar high...... In other words shoot for the moon, and if you land somewhere in the ionosphere you will still be that much better from where you started.

 

Confidence is the key[cool]

[Shnate McDuanus]

Thanks much for the encouragement, Duane.

 

I suppose that, even though I feel like my playing is limited and my sense of rhythm isn't perfect (it's definitely improving, though, I think,) that to my credit I'm at least creative and willing to take risks. Maybe some day I'll be an Advanced or even Professional Hack. I'm not letting myself get discouraged anymore--nobody should allow themselves to get discouraged. There's a danger in missing out on experiences because of feeling inadequate, but there's never any harm in simply trying something. I love playing and creating music and I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.

[duane v]

Thanks much for the encouragement' date=' Duane.

 

I suppose that, even though I feel like my playing is limited and my sense of rhythm isn't perfect (it's definitely improving, though, I think,) that to my credit I'm at least creative and willing to take risks. Maybe some day I'll be an Advanced or even Professional Hack. I'm not letting myself get discouraged anymore--nobody should allow themselves to get discouraged. There's a danger in missing out on experiences because of feeling inadequate, but there's never any harm in simply trying something. I love playing and creating music and I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.[/quote']

 

Now that's the spirit[cool]

[GIANTRobOT420]

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[Silenced Fred]

I want to get some recordings up soon, but I don't have any stuff to make a good recording with. I'll prob do something this weekend with just the mic on my macbook. I have always kind of had a good sense of rhythm. As my guitar teacher put it "When you can't tell intervals, you better be able to keep rhythm!"

 

It's a hard battle for me, I want everything to be perfect. I was told I play with a lot of enthuthiasm, and get into it, and sound good. I was unhappy with myself that day, but I guess it sounded alright.

[deepblue]

Happy hack.

[Silverbursted]

So your mother is a professional? :- :P

 

Ooooooh, he had to go there.

[Silverbursted]

I'd have to say Intermediate Hack. Some things I can do pretty well, others not so much. I have never been paid to play, although I am sure there are those who will gladly pay for me NOT to play. But I have fun. I play for the pure enjoyment of making music, not looking to make a living at it.

[El_Jeffe_Solid]

Southern side of Advanced Hack for me. I set the bar high..... I won't consider myself anywhere near being professional til I am as good as Joe Bonamassa. I've practiced three hours today and it still isn't enough.

[milod]

Well...

 

I see it two ways. I have had more "technique" knowledge and skill than some folks I've trained who sounded better than I did because they had found a comfortable playing level and were doing their shows as "entertainers" rather than as "guitar players." They didn't have a passion to pick up that extra nuance of technique - just a passion to perform and the talent to perform quite well as a "show" rather than a guitar wizard. That, of course, made them sound like guitar wizzards because it was comfortable playing without the stiffness of stretching technical ability.

 

Now me, I've a weakness for always wanting to pick up better technique and figure out more appropriate arrangements that are "me" than in ... playing to a crowd.

 

I think that almost puts things into a different set of questions than how it's posed in this poll.

 

Segovia never had the crowd appeal of literally thousands of guitar players who probably made more money at it with less than 5 percent of the playing ability.

 

Me? I dunno, probably class me as a relatively competent generalist who has played for money when things "fit" and who taught a few folks to know enough about the instrument to themselves perform for money full or part time.

 

I really don't know "novice" from intermediate from advanced... Once a novice has learned six chords and how to strum without breaking the instrument, is that intermediate? I've known some guys who played years for money with basic root chords, a basic strum and that's it. How much theory d'you figure Lightning Hopkins had? Or for that matter, Django?

 

Another angle: When I've done gigging regularly, I just gigged, I didn't "play guitar." When I'm not, I've a bad tendency to get into a practice and technical development mode that's satisfying, but ain't how to sound like a pro. Meanwhile the pro may strum G, C, F and D for a four hour gig night after night and have an audience feel he's the smoothest guitar player they've ever heard. So...

 

m

[milod]

Jocko...

 

I think a couple of us are saying about the same thing in different ways.

 

When I've had the opportunity to play with other people, I've always wanted internal feedback and communication so that we played as a group, not as a bunch of individuals.

 

One might argue that such a skill is more important that wailing on the fretboard - especially if the wail doesn't fit what one or two or five other folks are doing...

 

That may mean you play at 5 percent of your technical ability or it may mean you've gotta learn to stretch your technical ability in ways you ain't done before.

 

That's also, to me, what it means to be a guitar player.

 

To be an entertainer is the rest of what you said that is oh, so true.

 

"Playing any instrument live is 75% presentation (stage presence, working the crowd, making eye contact and pretending your having a great time etc...) and 25% of actual musical talent or ability to play your instrument."

 

I would add to that also, recognizing the right stage persona for a given venue and style.

 

m

[ledzep59]

Have to go with my pal Socrates on this one and go ahead and say:

 

"All I know is that I know nothing"

[milod]

Jocko...

 

Buddy, I think we've had some similar experience. <grin>

 

I'll never forget I had been given 2 tickets to a Carlos Montoya concert in the spring of '65. I asked a friend if he wanted to go; no, he said, but suggested his girlfriend might be interested. She was.

 

He obviously wasn't concerned - at least partially because he must have figured what would happen.

 

Yup, we sat in the front row; I was leaned over watching those flashing fingers and probably drooling like an idiot. <grin>

 

I'd wager that if the concert was memorable from the young lady's point of view, it had less to do with Montoya than with a guy totally spaced out watching Montoya playing.

 

BTW, I'm assuming you were at Osan. Ever hear any of the bands in that big basement ballroom at the Tower Hotel in Seoul? It was interesting to hear a Korean take on rock styles of the '80s.

 

Always preferred the Nashville Club at Itaewon myself. They had pretty good burgers, too. But then, that was a long time ago and in a different life, eh?

 

m

[milod]

I really enjoyed Seoul...

 

Last time I was there was prob'ly 93 or 4. It's been a long time. Never hit Pusan. Was over at Gangnung (they used to write it "Kangnung" and there's a case for transliterating either way) which I recall was actually north of the parallel but still South Korea. Was invited to the Choong Moo annual ceremonies at Onyang a cupla times. Kyongju (I s'pose they're transliterating that with a "G" too nowadays) was a neat place to visit too... I vaguely recall one of those bands we're talking about playing over the fumes of soju.

 

We visited an Olympic stadium somewhere during a politically-oriented "run" around the country - can't remember exactly where right now - and had a lunch. Swapped songs. They sang "Arirang" and I did a verse from "Home on the Range."

 

I've a hunch the tailor shops in Itaewon are mostly gone. One thing I learned from before and after the Olympics is that the Koreans did not want to live like a third world country. Nope. So the false walls with Chanel purses and PC software likely are going unused except for more legitimate storage nowadays. <grin>

 

Hmmmmm. Now how in the world would I know about that.... Hmmmm.

 

Interesting, though, how one might have more than one life, eh?

 

m

[milod]

Yeah, I truly enjoyed working in Korea, short times that the trips were over the years.

 

Sometimes there were odd occasions - like being told to make sure not to show or print terrain features when I was at a Tiger Division location near the border. Okay.

 

Guitar relevance...

 

I think the way the Korean people worked so hard to recover from the Japanese occupation, then war in the 1950s, etc., is why Korean-made guitars went up in price. They didn't want to be a third world nation. Regardless of potential quality questions of woods, etc. - the Korean war destroyed trees like you wouldn't believe - I've a hunch workmanship would be about as high as anywhere from that pride if you paid for it.

 

But as you may have noted in the early 90s, the generation who lived through the horrid years up to, let's say up through 1980, was dying off or retiring and the younger generation simply wanted an up-to-date standard of living as they perceived it.

 

As for soju , I certainly absolutely positively emphatically never, ever, would have had a drop more than I should have.

 

Well... perhaps just a drop. <chortle>

 

m

[tulsaslim]

I called myself an 'advanced hack' since my chops aren't up to playing professionally these days and I'm not gigging. I've always considered myself a 'garden variety bar band lead player'.

[zigzag]

People who don't play think I'm great, and good players think I'm just okay. I listened to Satriani play on HDNet TV the other day, and listening to him makes me want to put the guitar down for good. So, I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Don't really care though 'cause I'm only playing for myself.

 

Also, when I play for friends, I think I sound great and I'm happy with my playing. When I play new stuff for my instructor or for people whose opinion matters to me, I seem to lose my focus. That happen to anyone else?

[Basshole]

I can play about anything on the bass with relative ease. Slap bass not so much. I would say I'm advanced based off what other strangers have said.

[milod]

Yeah, one reason I wrote what I did is that whether one is "novice" or "advanced" is a matter of comparisons that are awfully subjective.

 

I know I almost certainly lack the talent to be a reeeeeally good picker by my own criteria. The fact that I may be something of a better picker than somebody else is to me rather irrelevant. There are so many exceptional players. I can't do BB in blues, nor Parkening in classical, Clapton for rock nor Pass for jazz, Chet for virtually anything...

 

A problem with guitar for me and many others, is that there are a so many ways of playing.

 

One has to wonder about Segovia in a rock band or Montoya playing country lead guitar, or Leo Kottke playing cool school jazz or Charlie Byrd shredding. Could "Shredder A" come close to playing classical like Segovia?

 

In a sense, I think this whole poll almost should be more along the lines of "against what player to you attempt to measure your guitar skills?" I'm perhaps too greedy 'cuz deep down I'd like perhaps too much ability at too many styles to learn in a half dozen lives, let alone the one I've been dealt. So obviously I'll never be all that good at any of 'em.

 

I guess that's why I'll sometimes describe what I do as kinda a guitar version of an old fashioned piano bar player who did a little bit of solo playing of different stuff in a pre karaoke era.

 

Now....

 

Add to that the factor of "are you a guitar player or an entertainer who plays guitar" and there's an entirely different question involved that will affect many folks subjective analysis of your pickin'. Again, a lot has to do with how you and/or your band are marketed and booked for performance and the degree to which you meet audience expectations.

 

m