Guitar Gear

I was looking for some videos of a local band here in Northern California, called Big Rain on YouTube, and they did a cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” in a reggae style. Not bad at all. But as I’ve been looking to expand my current repertoire, I’ve been looking for different songs to cover. “Ain’t No Sunshine…” is very intriguing to me, so I looked for other covers of the song on YouTube, and ran across this dude, NAUDO, from Brazil. His instrumental version of “Ain’t No Sunshine…” on the classical guitar is beautiful, and not only that, effortlessly done. Check out the video. This guy’s awesome!

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Just read a great article in Guitar Jam Daily entitled: Industry Insider: The Cobain Backlash and it got me thinking about what really makes a guitarist great. I know, this is such a subjective thing that if you ask ten different people, you’ll get ten different answers. But I’d like to posit an idea about what makes a guitarist great. The idea hit me because of its simplicity, and it’s simply this: Musicality. I know, rather nebulous but – at least in my opinion – it’s the one word that truly captures the many facets of a guitarist’s greatness. It’s also a term that isn’t limited by style or genre.

I began thinking about musicality being the key to measuring guitar prowess several months ago after reading an interview in Guitar Player with Ana Vidovic, THE babe of classical guitar. In that piece she talked about really focusing on her musicality, and got me thinking about my own musicality, which then lead me to thinking about musicality being the true measure of a guitarist’s greatness.

So what’s musicality? To put it simply, musicality is the relationship between instrumental technique and musical expression. Achieving a close relationship between the two requires a certain level of virtuosity in the instrument you’re playing and also a thorough understanding of the music being played: Where volume or rhythmic or expression characteristics can be applied within the body of a song. A truly musical musician will add subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) nuances to the things they’re playing; and while quantifying musicality can be a difficult thing, it’s very easy to discern between a musician with a high degree of musicality and someone who isn’t quite as musical.

Unfortunately, many of the guitar magazines out there seem to focus on shredders, so it has warped a lot of people’s views on who would or could be a great guitarist. In their view, the faster you play the better. But speed doesn’t mean at thing as far as musicality is concerned. But as long as we’re talking about speed, let’s look at a couple of pure, lightspeed-quick shredders: Yngvie Malmstein and Herman Li of Dragonforce. Herman Li is incredibly fast and he has tons of tricks up his sleeve. But listen to a few Dragonforce songs, and you realize that he’s using the same licks in practically every song. Where’s the musicality in that. On the other hand, Yngvie has so much more control not only over his speed and dynamics but also the tonal characteristics of the various phrases within his leads. So where Herman is a super great guitar technician, Yngvie is a true maestro.

But let’s not just look at shredders. Remember, musicality is not genre specific. What’s important is the relationship a guitarist builds between his or her guitar with the songs they play. From that perspective, let me list just a few of my favorite great guitarists:

• James Taylor
• Albert King
• Elliot Smith
• Joaquin Lievano
• Neal Schon

This by no means is a complete list. I listed guitarists from different genres. None of them were the fastest, and in Elliot Smith’s case, not necessarily a real technician per se, but each brought a very definite musicality to the table in all the songs they play(ed).

So next time you want to compare what guitarist is better, you might think about comparing them on a different level other than speed and technique and ask, “Just how musical is this player?”

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If you’re a fan of Star Wars like I am, I’m sure you’ll remember the following clip from the “Empire Strikes Back:”

Try not… Do or Do Not… There is no try…

I tell you, Yoda had it right. Of all the sayings I’ve heard in the hundreds of movies I’ve seen over the years, these words have always struck a chord with me (excuse the pun). They’re powerful words, and have been somewhat of a guiding force in my life. As a former youth minister, I used to use these words often to help kids learn about the true nature of commitment. Let me explain a bit…

How we approach life has much to do with the language we use. If we think a certain way, we talk a certain way, then act along the same lines. With respect to the word “try,” I believe that it’s one of the worst words to use in our language. Why? Simply because it leaves us a way out. “Try” means “to attempt to do or accomplish;” the operative word being “attempt.” To me, success is all about commitment, and it’s black and white: You’re either in or you’re out; you either do it, or you don’t do it. There’s no middle ground, THERE IS NO TRY. “Try” indicates a lack of full commitment, of not being completely committed to what you’re doing, and that’s a huge problem for me.

To drive the point home further, what’s even worse is that the word “try” is passed off as an action (it’s a passive verb “to try”), and that’s the biggest farce of all! If you’re game, let’s take a test, shall we? Grab a pen and place it in front of you. Now, TRY to pick up the pen. If the pen is in your hand now, I didn’t say to pick it up. I said TRY to pick up the pen. Replace the pen and repeat, and only stop when you’ve successfully TRIED to pick up the pen. Remember, don’t pick up the pen. TRY to pick up the pen. As you can see, it can’t be done…

To realize the true nature of the Force, you have to be committed – 100%. This is true for anything in life. If you want to achieve any kind of success in life, you have to be committed to achieving success. You don’t just try – you have to do it. Of course, I realize that “success” is purely subjective. Far be it from me to tell you success from my personal point of view. But irrespective of how we might measure success, we have to DO the things that are necessary to achieve success in anything that we do.

So what does this have to do with playing guitar? Everything. If you want to be good at playing guitar, you can’t just try it out. You have to learn, practice, play, then repeat the steps – constantly. Playing guitar is a voluntary and deliberate action that requires knowledge and practice to gain proficiency. To me, “trying” to play guitar is like a monkey humping a football. It’s the right idea, but the wrong execution.

I wrote this latest entry in response to a couple of my kids wanting to “try” the guitar. Mind you I’m not really an intense, Type A personality. But I wanted to drive the point home that if they wanted to shred like Herman Li of Dragonforce (which is why they brought up playing guitar), they’d have to put in the time. It wouldn’t happen overnight. But I also added that everyone has their own pace of learning. Some take a shorter time than others; others take awhile. But whatever pace they go at, if they want to achieve that level of proficiency of technique, they’ve got to stick with it. We’ll see how it goes… 🙂

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Ig wrote a great article last week, and challenged his readers to write letters to themselves that they’d read some time in the future; a lot like Marty did for Doc in “Back to the Future.” So I’m going to take a crack at this.

Hey!

Looks like you’ve come a long way. I know you were thinking about giving up playing, but knowing you, you just couldn’t keep away from your passion. Hopefully, you’ve kept driving towards incorporating different kinds of styles into your playing. I know you started a bit late with improvisation on the guitar, but I’m hopeful that you are now a master of it; or short of that, can work your way around the fretboard instinctively, switching modes to suit the musical phrasing.

Speaking of musical phrasing, you must have written a few hundred songs by now. I wonder what style of music you’re writing? It’s a good bet that rock and roll is still your staple, but I hope you haven’t given up your dream of finishing your concerto. I can only imaging what it would be like to combine a full orchestra with a rock band, and a huge choir. While I know that you originally thought that you’d hire a big name to play lead guitar, at the rate you’re going, I hope you decided to play that role yourself.

You’re probably not a shredder – that’s not something that you ever aspired to being. Though I know that learning various techniques to incorporate into your playing have always been one of the earmarks of your learning experience on the guitar. Never forget though, you always need to sound like yourself, be it on guitar, or vocally.

I know it has been a rough road to get to where you are. But what’s life without struggle? How can you learn without making mistakes? But just keep doing what you’re doing. Keep pushing the envelope with your skills. Be happy with all you’ve accomplished, but don’t settle with where you are. Complacency leads to boredom, both inside and out; and you are far from being boring.

Cheers!

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