If you listen to indie, you know the guitar is doing fine. I've heard none of the stars play like Hendrix or Muddy or Clapton. They have a different approach to the guitar, and it's damned interesting. A synthesis of 60s rock fused with punk, new wave, and 80s and 90s alt/indie Few if any outright guitar heroes in the way we think of them, but some playing equally as good as what we love.
In other words, the music tells me the guitar is thriving. I'm glad folks are buying instruments en masse. The time is ripe for some extraordinarily talented songwriter/guitarist to come in as a storm, like Nirvana, Oasis, Beatles and Stones.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
Great article!
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain
Thanks for posting that, Sérgio. Since I have nothing but time on my hands, I read the whole thing!
The thing I take away from @ch_willie's comments is that these days it seems the guitar isn't front and center in performance art, but as an accompanying part. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Striving to be ordinary
Proud to be a TFF Dumbass!
It is partly that OS. But it's still complex. A lot of these players are incredibly rhythmic in the guitar parts that are highlighted, and they're excellent at playing arpeggios, varying patterns, intensity, rhythm, times signature changes, etc.
I have a young friend who only began playing a couple of years ago. This was the stuff he learned. After having played, I think three years, I began to ask him to show me things. What he showed me has broadened the way I approach guitar and my own songs.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison
There's a line in an old Firesign Theatre skit that goes, "You gotta start young if you're going to stick it out." (I'll leave it to others to enjoy double entendres and whatnot).
It's been my experience that most people who excel at something started when they were very young. I remember when I was in high school, I went to a free concert held outdoors by a local radio station. I still remember one of the bands playing was a trio named for its guitar player: The Robin Huff Trio. Huff was a 17 year-old who fronted a "power trio" and was playing high-energy Clapton, Hendrix, and you name it stuff. It was literally jaw-dropping. Randy California was 15 when Hendrix asked him to join his band. Craig Chaquico was also 15 when he joined Jefferson Starship. Erik Brann was 17 when the song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida took the world by storm. Shuggie Otis was 15 when he wrote, produced and released "Strawberry Letter 23," which later became a hit for the Brothers Johnson. I have an album by "J. K. & Company" released when J. K. (real name: Jay Kaye, related to famed bassist Mary Kaye) was 15. I can offer more examples, but I think I've made my point.
I started playing guitar when I was 16. But I didn't stick with it after shattering my left elbow, and didn't take it up again until much later. I frequently say that if the Internet had existed back then, I'd be a guitar god by now...
Striving to be ordinary
Proud to be a TFF Dumbass!
Well crap, I started when I was 12, and still have no talent, can't sing worth a shit. But I still enjoy being talentless.
I never had talent or skill to begin with, and still consider myself a mediocre player and musician, and today I have guitars that I bought new and are well road worn, I have years and years of gigs played, band stories, tires burnt, and applause received. Never was a great guitarist but never got a can thrown at me either.
Rock and roll never was about being a virtuoso, it has always been all about making your own statement. Ingwie Malmsteen, Keith Richards and Johnny Ramone made theirs, each one of them in their own way. Shredding, riffing or powerchording, you just gotta be yourself to make music.
Peace, and rock on, brother!
I started learning keyboards young but never picked up a guitar until college. I suck at it, but it helps write the songs and that's what I love. Malcomb Gladwell talks about needing 10,000 hours to "master"
something. I think the younger you are when you put in that 10,000 hours the more effective it is.
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain
Sergio, I hope they weren't throwing the burning tires at you
"Live and learn and flip the burns"
I just read an article that says Fender has sold more guitars in 2020 than any year in its history.
If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison