Artie Owl Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Hey gang, Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's just a long week at work, but lately I feel like I ain't got no soul playing guitar, and that scares me; what if I never did, never will? It's hard to say, when typically you're your own toughest critic, but what do you guys think? Are you born with soul or do you have to earn it? Maybe I've just been listening to too many guitar players who've got soul to spare and comparing myself to them, I don't know. What say you all? Soul is earned or soul is born? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Soul is born, blues is earned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 It's what's in the room the day you took that picture of that song(recorded it), or the night you did that show. Sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not. As humans we do not do everything exactly the same every time, that's just the way it is. Comparing yourself to others is a dead end one way no trucks over 2 tons median stripped toll boothed pot holed road that hurts yer teeth and you'd rather not go down if you don't have to. For me, it was about 20 years of playing and I was happy with myself. There is no Soulful or Not Soulful. Or any other of those words. You either hit it hard or didn't. If you did, hope you do two in a row, or ten, or thirty in a row. If you didn't, hope you hit the next one hard. Either way, be happy with what you did. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChanMan Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Fine quote, there ZZ!! I don't know about soul, but you ARE either born with rhythm or not. Everyone has dry spells of un-inspiration. Shake it off and keep jamming, man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 What the heck you mean you ain't got no SOUL? What is SOUL? If you mean you are supposed to have this certain sound or quality that makes your playing you, you got that, wether you like it or not. Everything you play sounds like you because it is you. If you mean playing with feeling, that happens when you do it and it don't when you don't. Just because you don't feel like playing or enjoy it when you are by yourself does not mean a thing, and has nothing to do with your abilities. Now, if you got the blues, that is a whole different matter. If you are feeling down, maybe get you some fried chicken and pie to eat. That will help to cure your soul. If you want to PLAY the blues, then just go on ahead. You play it however you want. Happy, dirty, lazy, funky, heavy. One or the ability to play one way does not mean it is better or worse than another, and how much effort you put into it is strickly and only what you DECIDE and do and not a way to judge how much you CAN do or will do another time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 " I dunno, but I've been told, but I've been told, a big legged woman ain't got no soul.." Actually they do...... :unsure: .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Or, do you mean soul like a big purple cadillac and a sharkskin suit with wingtips? Or, like a pink cadillac with a fur coat? Randy Rhoads had high heels and pokadots. That's not soul, that's style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I personally don't buy into the whole soul thing when it comes to playing. For me its about inspiration and skill...You don't always have both. Some days your fingers don't work the way you wantem to... Some days you're not inspired... But you're always you...like Chan said...everyone gets in a rut sometimes. I have recently climbed out of mine...wrote some cool *** riffs last night and i'm stoked. I was in my rut for about a month or so...but I kept playing through it. Just stopped writing and played... Good luck Artie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I've never worried about it, because I know I can't play blues stuff nor do I try.... Maybe I'm interpreting your thread incorrectly, but you don't have to be a blues player to have soul in your playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 No, not blues and soul, just feeling blue because I don't feel like my playing has soul, an essence within it kind of thing. I think everyone's right though it's just one of those things you've got to play through. I was also curious to see what other players think of "soul" and such too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Soul comes in different forms.... Dont worry about it and just let it come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I have a metal soul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I have a metal soul. that's what I'm talkin about .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chase1410 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Hey gang, Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's just a long week at work, but lately I feel like I ain't got no soul playing guitar, and that scares me; what if I never did, never will? It's hard to say, when typically you're your own toughest critic, but what do you guys think? Are you born with soul or do you have to earn it? Maybe I've just been listening to too many guitar players who've got soul to spare and comparing myself to them, I don't know. What say you all? Soul is earned or soul is born? Soul is born Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 No, not blues and soul, just feeling blue because I don't feel like my playing has soul, an essence within it kind of thing. I think everyone's right though it's just one of those things you've got to play through. I was also curious to see what other players think of "soul" and such too. I think one thing that perhaps we all suffer from is when we are playing, we are so caught up in trying to play the music in our head and making it come out a certain way, that we don't LISTEN to ourselves and hear the music that IS coming out. It's kind of like listening to yourself when you talk. That is not something that ever goes away. Ever notice that regardless of wether or not you like your playing, other poeple still like it? And as far as being inspired, why worry? You know when the band strikes up and everyone hits that groove you are going to be right there and it is going to get you going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Everyone has "Soul!" Some just don't "tap into it," musically. They do it, in other ways, though, quite often. Acting, art, whatever... CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnastynebr Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 You cant a have a soul and be a good blues guitar player. Everyone knows that you have to sell it. Quit practicing and buy a plane ticket to Mississippi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 You cant a have a soul and be a good blues guitar player. Everyone knows that you have to sell it. Quit practicing and buy a plane ticket to Mississippi. I thought you could sell your soul at any crossroads if you burried a box with your photo in it in the middle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 If I may interject with 0.02 Soul is related to hunger V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzboy Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I sold my soul to play Rock 'N' Roll. Unfortunately, though that never happen and now I want my soul back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ne14t? Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Everyone is born with a soul, its what you sell for musical fame :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 If you immerse yourself in it, you can soak some up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 You are born with soul, you just need to learn how to use it and develop it into your personal form of expression... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAS44 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 We all have spells like that, though when I'm feelin' blue I tend to play more "soulfully" the emotion just wells up inside. I heard an ol' female blues singer (her name escapes me at the moment) say that it's okay for men to sing the blues, it's become accepted. While a man can sing his heart out on stage, but to cry offstage (especially in older times) was to be a milksop. If you're not feeling it, take a break, listen to something new. Almost inevitably the urge will well up in you again. I don't think either is born, I think they are both learned and earned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I think each of us has, through nurture rather than genetics, a potential of singing with "soul," but that "soul" is culturally defined. For example, if you listen to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass material such as the older Carter Family material, you'll hear songs that verbally express some very serious and emotional stuff - yet it's sung in what might seem to be an almost expressionless mode. That doesn't mean it's without emotion, it just means that the cultural expression of such feelings is relating them in a culturally-defined manner. When I was a kid, even the bluegrassers used to say Bill Monroe couldn't help but even talk "modal." If you listen to much of Monroe, you'll heard what I mean. There's plenty of expressiveness or "soul," but it just ain't like Lightning Hopkins. Ditto for more than a few old time black Blues musicians whose local cultures brought a musical response that was very understated, both on guitar and vocally. Yet one "expects" a rural southern black guitar picker to sing with "soul" and gets hit with more of a "I'm reading this story as I remember it" sort of response. We all have soul. It's just that, IMHO, in today's world with so many musical influences around, it's easier to copy than to do one's own thing. Kinda funny; as a solo I'll do "Stormy Monday" in a very gentle sorta thing; with a bass and another guitar, maybe drums, cranked up in volume, I tend to do more of a a blues semi-shout. Which is "me" and which may have "soul?" I'd say both reflect me as a musician who responds to different situations - whether well or not is up to others to determine, but it's my thing my way... Bottom line... don't worry about it. Yeah, if you're trying to copy others, it can get frustrating. Heck, Look how old and gray I am and it's hard enough for me not to kinda wanna sound like Ian Tyson on cowboy stuff and try to warp my voice to sound like he did when he was 30. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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