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Nov. 25th, 2009
good rock guitarists
Nov. 25th, 2009 11:20 pmI find myself at something of a loss...
Paisley tells me that she doesn't get what makes someone a good (or great) guitarist or not. (And this from someone who plays guitar herself, but at more of a punk rock level, I'd say...) She says that to her, rock guitar soloing all sounds pretty much the same, quickly becoming tedious, and yeah she can hear that some of it is really fast but so what?
I'm not really sure how to respond to that. To me, there is some obviously great guitar playing out there, and while technique is part of it, it isn't the whole story. (Example off the top of my head: Jimi on Red House: not the most technically cutting-edge of all time, but undeniably one of the greatest.) And I also realize how much subjectivity is involved, where someone else will declare so-and-so The Greatest but I think he's nowhere near as great as what's-his-face.
But I can't clearly describe how I know these things, I just feel them. Is guitar greatness nothing more than an inarticulate subjective gut feeling? Can it be measured on a speedometer? Is it something that you either just get or you don't? What say?
Paisley tells me that she doesn't get what makes someone a good (or great) guitarist or not. (And this from someone who plays guitar herself, but at more of a punk rock level, I'd say...) She says that to her, rock guitar soloing all sounds pretty much the same, quickly becoming tedious, and yeah she can hear that some of it is really fast but so what?
I'm not really sure how to respond to that. To me, there is some obviously great guitar playing out there, and while technique is part of it, it isn't the whole story. (Example off the top of my head: Jimi on Red House: not the most technically cutting-edge of all time, but undeniably one of the greatest.) And I also realize how much subjectivity is involved, where someone else will declare so-and-so The Greatest but I think he's nowhere near as great as what's-his-face.
But I can't clearly describe how I know these things, I just feel them. Is guitar greatness nothing more than an inarticulate subjective gut feeling? Can it be measured on a speedometer? Is it something that you either just get or you don't? What say?