…but can you play.
For those of us that remember back in 1985, during the heyday of MTV, Billy Crystal put out a video featuring his Saturday Night Live persona “‘Nando” called “You Look Marvelous.” In the video, he says, “My father told me, ”Nando don’t be a schnook. It’s not how you feel, but HOW YOU LOOK!'” Well, as I mentioned in a previous article, looking good is one thing, but playing good is entirely different matter. 🙂
I will submit that how you feel is ultra-important to playing well. Again, I’m going to draw a parallel between golf and guitar. Recently, I stepped up to playing with fairly expensive golf balls. Up to that point, I couldn’t really justify playing with “tour” caliber balls because I was just getting back into the game; so I opted with cheap balls that I didn’t mind losing should I hit an errant shot. But I’ve been hitting a lot more consistently as of late, so before my last round, I purchased some balls that cost about $43 per 4-pack. That’s quite expensive. However, the way they felt and in turn made me feel when I hit them compels me to always buy those.
I wrote an article about that on my golf blog. After I wrote it, I saw yet another connection that I could draw from golf to guitar; and that is that how you “feel” when you’re playing totally affects how you play. If you don’t feel comfortable with your gear, you’re going to fidget and f-up. You’re going to be constantly adjusting to find the comfort zone. If you’re stressed out – as I covered in a recent article – you’re going to mess up, and completely limit your creativity.
So the moral of the story is the exact opposite of “You Look Marvelous.” It’s not how you look, it’s how you feel…
BTW, here’s the original video. It’s hilarious:
Guitar Gear 
True indeed, but it feels so lame when I pick up a top of the line Strat.
ITS JUST TOO EASY TO PLAY… haha
Ill stick with my Squier for a while longer….
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Is that lame in a good way or awkward?
LOL, I dont like it.
Mainly for leads, I feel you need a bit of resistance from your instrument.
Its like when your a singer struggling slightly for those high notes, It just sounds more authentic to me.
I just dont like to hear solo’s that are too clean. Im not talking about hearing imperfections.
Its like bending notes on a guitar thats got 10 gauge strings, I just dont like it, its too easy.
LOL
You gotta fight to rock, you gotta reach the limit of your playing skill and just cross the edge. I like the sound of that. It adds a bit of character.
Totally with you, dood. I think that tension – in its various forms – is a very important thing as it makes you much more expressive. Rock on!
Yeah I guess its something like that.
Keep the topics coming man, you raise some really important things we need to consider.
All the best..
Hmm when I took up playing I borrowed the acoustic guitar of my sister-in-law. It had must have been fitted with medium or heavy gauge strings. It took me forever to master the barre on it.
After a few months I bought light gauge strings and bam! I could do a barre without any problem.
So yes bad gear can seriously hinder progress in ypur playing ability.
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