How good are you?

[Rambler]

Does anyone besides myself find it odd to find guys on a guitar forum celebrating their limitations? It would seem the point of having a quality instrument is to help push past the current playing barrier....

[larryp58]

Nothing beats the sound of an open G chord! Except maybe an open E chord!

 

+1!!!

 

 

 

 

Oh yea, I'm a legend in my own mind!

[Guth]

Does anyone besides myself find it odd to find guys on a guitar forum celebrating their limitations? It would seem the point of having a quality instrument is to help push past the current playing barrier....

 

Well, yes to be honest. I'm going to guess that a few folks posting here are offering modest/self-deprecating responses.

 

On the other hand, I believe that one major impact of the Internet has been an increase in the number of collectors, not just guitar collectors, but of all kinds of different material objects. My guess is that if you loved/horded guitars a number of years ago, chances were you were a fairly serious player. Nowadays people buy guitars for a larger variety of reasons.

 

In full disclosure, I feel like my playing is decent, but there is certainly room for improvement (and of course there always will be). While I'm not too bad from the standpoint of the skill set I've built up, I'm always aiming to improve my technique and overall skills. By far my biggest weakness is my lack of understanding of music/music theory. If I want to, I can pick up any number of tunes via tablature provided I spend enough time it. But in the end, with a few exceptions, I really couldn't tell you what chords I'm playing. In addition, the tunes that I make up on my own, which is how I spend the majority of my playing time, I'm only putting things together the way I am because they sound right to me, but I have no idea why and no clear plan on how to take things further from a "composition" standpoint. So while I might be able to play and identify a number of different chords, when I start moving up the neck, I have no idea what chords I'm playing any longer. I've been looking through a few books to try and learn more, but I'm guessing that I'll probably need to take some lessons to get past this barrier.

 

I don't consider myself good, nor bad. But I have become an increasingly better player over time because that has been my focus all along. I loved the way that albertjohn put it: "Who cares how "good" you are? Just try and be better than you were yesterday." I would add that those of us who own guitars to play them should care how good we are in terms of where we want to be. Most of us here are interested in making music with our guitars, but hardly any of us probably want to make exactly the same music. Strummer or fingerpicker, three chords or thirty +, as long as you have an idea of what it is you want to do, there is always some way to build upon where you are at, whether it is expanding on what you already can do or simply refining what already works for you.

 

All the best,

Guth

[JDWags]

I think you got it all wrong, Jkinnama. This is not a celebration of limitations but a revelation of reality. Rather than feeling inferior over where one is playing on the path to music making, we champion where we are right now and find perfection and joy in our imperfections and trials of trying to play one of these guitars.

 

You can't truely go on to step 2 until you fully embrace and use up step 1. And that is different for all of us. Climb 100 different mountains or climb the same mountain 100 times.......the degree of grace and understanding comes either way.

 

Being honest about who we are and how we are playing uplifts us. There is just playing the guitar and who knows what moves us along to become more skilled with our playing. Hell, one sweet note echoing in your soul leaves mute the idea of levels of play and concepts of safety ropes.

[albertjohn]

Personally I'm not at all concerned about how good I am, in other people's eyes, possible with the exception of my teacher Robbie Gladwell. But that's on a kind of semi-professional basis.

 

When I started playing again 10 years ago after many barren years my goal was to be able to play and sing in the pub on my own. I gradually built up a repetoire, the technique and confidence to do so. There is much room for improvement though so I don't stop there.

 

Whether it's good or not is not the issue. I just love doing it.

 

As for 3 chords. Get a capo.

[Rambler]

Well, trying to get better is the main thing.

[MusicbyFirelight]

Nodehopper wrote: "A heart-felt passionate 3 chord song that means something ....in my book.... beats out all the flashy technically impressive, but cold and lifeless songs any day!"

 

+++

 

Always hoping to get better today than I was yesterday, and trying not to compare my simple skills with the technorati.

[Gilliangirl]

Nodehopper wrote: "A heart-felt passionate 3 chord song that means something ....in my book.... beats out all the flashy technically impressive' date=' but cold and lifeless songs any day!"

 

+++

 

Always hoping to get better today than I was yesterday, and trying not to compare my simple skills with the technorati.

[/quote']

That's so true. We've seen players (celebrities) who can play a whole range of technical feats but they might still leave us cold. And while the guy who belts out a three chord song using different strumming techniques may be doesn't display the technical 'wow factor', we can still get a charge out of the song/performance.

[Gilliangirl]

Adding on to this....

I play my simple little songs in my simple little styles but people who know me say I have my own style and it's engaging, particularly with some songs. This is what my mother tells me anyway.

[Gilliangirl]

And another thing....

I DO NOT apologize for owning guitars greater than my skill level. It's all about the tone for me and even if I'm playing The Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens, it's going to sound good to me, tone-wise. I may not be good but I've got a fussy ear.

 

(Do I sound defensive this morning )

[onewilyfool]

Adding on to this....

I play my simple little songs in my simple little styles but people who know me say I have my own style and it's engaging' date=' particularly with some songs. This is what my mother tells me anyway.

 

They asked Frank Lloyd Wright one time what style he designed in. He answered," I don't design in a style, I design WITH style!!!" Now that may be a little ego biased, but he has a point. GG has a style, it works for her, I like it, her friends like it, what's not to like? Everyone has a style of playing and singing. I consider myself a "hobby" player, because it is my hobby. Over the years, I've just stumbled onto this "style" but it works for me, and gives me a lot of happiness. Keith Richards and John Lennon are/were great rhythm guitarists, Eric Clapton is a great lead guitarist, and plays a mean acoustic. Who is good and who is bad? They are just different. A better question than "how good are you", might be, "who enjoys playing the most"???? If you can answer "ME" (meaning yourself not ME!!!....lol) , you are onto something.

[nodehopper]

I just got done reading a book about The Carter Family. A.P. Carter, Sara and Mother Maybelle and then of course the young'uns Anita, Helen, June...etc... (By the way...I cannot recommend the book enough....really brought the family and their music to life for me .....the book is "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music" written by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg).

 

Anyways ....the point being that the Carters could very seriously be considered THE most influential American music group in US history, yet most of their songs are of the 3 chord, simple structure and strong melody variety. Nothing flashy (although the more I listen to Mother Maybelle's guitar the more I am in awe), but what comes across is as deep as a Blue Mountains river canyon and filled with the lives, struggles, sorrow, longing and joy of generations of folks. The music touches your soul!

 

If I were at the Crossroads with my guitar around midnight and a sharp dressed shadow of a man offered me a deal.....I would pass up the technical stuff. If only I could get to a point were I could make music that touched the listener.... made them happy or brought a tear to their eye....that is what would make me feel like I had "arrived". I wouldn't care that I couldn't cleanly play a G7sus9 (is that even a real chord? )

[dem00n]

I think im ok....mabye not.

Im better then the kid down the block with the LTD guitar.

[Buc McMaster]

I think the chord progression that night was Bmsus2 - D - F#m - E.

 

Let's see now......if I picture my fretboard in my head correctly......that's a Im-III-Vm-IV progression. Yes? And, knowing that and what it implies can open new worlds on the guitar. I remember the first time someone said something like "Okay....I-IV-V shuffle in A......count it off" and I stood there with a dumb look on my face. Long ago and too many chord progressions ago to remember the details, but I knew instantly how little I knew about guitar playing. Now, this is how I "see" the fretboard: the relationship between scales and chords. I understand that chord progressions are based in scales and chords are made up of the notes of those scales. I still don't know very many scales, and the ones I do know I can't say I know that well. But knowing the little that I do about the relationship between scales and chords, I can fiddle around with things and figure them out......pretty much. Can't read a lick of music, can't read tab fast enough to do anything with it. Since exiting the band scene I don't spend much time learning cover tunes anymore.....I spend most of my guitar time noodling with chords and melodies, searching for something with just a bit of uniqueness to it that I can wrap some lyrics around.

 

The more I play guitar, the more aware I become that it's pretty much been done already by others much more accomplished on the instrument than I will ever be. And that's a good thing. A man's got to know his limitations.

[onewilyfool]

It has been said:

 

The difference between a Jazz Guitar Player and a Country and western player, is the jazz player plays 1000's of chords in front of three people, while the country guy plays 3 chords in front of thousands of people.

 

They both have their place. I like and play both styles. All is good....

[Guth]

Buc, I'd love to have some of that knowledge that you shared, regardless of my playing skills.

 

Another interesting reference point appearing in this thread, and something that I tried to touch upon in my earlier post is this: what exactly is it you want to do with your guitar/music? I don't sing, can't stand the sound of my own voice. When I'm talking about me playing a tune, I'm talking about playing the guitar only — no vocals. In my case, more than 3 chords are needed to keep things from getting monotonous . If I were a singer/songwriter, I'd look at things quite a bit differently. Obviously, in some situations, 3 chords can be plenty.

 

I've seen a good number of amazing performers over the years, some amazing instrumentalists (such as Michael Hedges), some amazing songwriters (such as Townes Van Zandt) and some who could do both things incredibly well (such as Kelly Joe Phelps and Peter Mulvey). The thing is, I've really enjoyed seeing all of these guys for different reasons, but consider them all to be fantastic talents. In my book (I realize others here have their own preferences), all of these guys were/are well, well beyond "good". I certainly wouldn't put Townes on the same level as the others when it comes to guitar playing, but when considered as part of the overall package, I enjoyed some his performances just as much as the others. All of these guys conveyed the element of "soul" in their music. You could sense it pouring out of their performances whether it mostly came through the strings, the words, the vocals or some combination of all those things.

 

We don't all judge ourselves by the same standard, nor should we. I've really enjoyed all of the music that people have contributed here regardless of how simple or complex it is. As long as there some basic element of "soul" involved, enough that you can tell the person cares about what it is they're doing, I consider it worth listening to. Not because of how it compares to what someone else has done.

 

Play what you enjoy and enjoy what you play.

 

Guth

[Rambler]

By way disclosure, I was at one point gung-ho for '3 chords and the truth' (heck--1 one chord, let's not forget Bo Diddley), which is to say, militant in defending my limitations. Not being a writer or singer or much of a player, those were powerful limitations. A weekend hippie with a 6 string. Was lucky to get some good pointers from some serious players. Made some luck by seeking them out. Made some more luck by following up on those encounters. Found out some musical knowledge didnt get in the way of expressiveness, actually made it possible to express something. So maybe Im projecting my past when i hear about those three chords. Or the one about the jazz musicians. But its not a snob thing. It is (I hope) an invitation to explore.