From: reh@wam.umd.edu (Huddleston)
Subject: Re: SLASH FLAMES
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 22:38:15 GMT

>I can play circles around Mr. B.B King but I don't say that I'm
>a better guitarplayer than him...
 
Why not?  Maybe you are.
 
>>I like to think that there are certain things a guitarist should be
>>able to play, whether or not they are inspired to play those things
>>during a performance.
 
>If I enter my local live-rock club and see a perfectly-rocking-
>never-heard-such-a-great-groove-kick-a**-rock-n-roll band
>blasting the ceiling of the place I sure don't put on my
>best face of jealousy and tell my friends that 'the dude on the guitar
>can't play Midnight w. Joe Satriani' (which I can...I am the Greatest!!:))
 
I don't either.  And long ago in this thread, I said that if I saw Slash
playing in a similar situation, I think it would be more appropriate than
the pay and acclaim he gets now -- considering his skills as a guitarist.
 
Why should this opinion bother anybody?  This is an open forum for talking
about guitars and guitarists.  We're all entitled to an opinion -- and we 
get a chance to reconsider our opinions and learn by hearing what people 
say when we express 'em.  They're just words, and nothing to get bent over.
 
>Now I wonder... Is it your oppinion that every guitarist should know
>how to play every mode of every scale in the book or am I just missing
>your point?
 
Here's my point: let's say a guy wants to be a professional football player.
This guy is gonna have to be able to cut the mustard, so to speak; there are
certain things he's just going to have to be able to do.
 
There are lots of things that go into making a musician competent: passion,
skill, breadth, sensitivity, imagination, creativity, and musical depth.  I'm
sure we both could think of others if we tried.
 
(Apologies for the obviously male-gendered example.  It fits the context
of the example: the best in the world at what they do earning large
salaries for doing it.)
 
Now this is just an IDEA, but I think we'd see some great playing and some
great bands if the best-known bands and players -- particularly players --
were selected by the same process that gives us our professional athletes.
Orchestras are built just this way, and those folks kick butt.  I think it'd
be cool to see all types of bands formed this way.  I think we'd get a higher
level of composition, as well (when was the last time a CD/tape/album was
filled end-to-end with excellent songs?).
 
This entire dialogue has been interesting for me, because I'm reminded of
how the most wonderful thing about music is its capacity to invoke feelings
in the listener.  But don't we *all* know at least one guitarist that's just
absolutely incredible, from a technical standpoint to being able to raise
the hairs on the back of your neck because (s)he's got such feeling?  I'd
like to see folks like that get well rewarded for what they can do.  And
guys like Slash playing in bar bands :-).
 
>                                           If a person doen't know all
>english grammar, is he/she still allowed to speak his mind or should only
>people that are able to pronounce 'certain things' be allowed to speak??
>It's just a simple reflection on your oppinion stated above applied on
>another area of 'the freedom of expression'..
 
That isn't what I'm saying at all.  If you don't get it, however, why not
apply the same approach you'd wish that I'd apply to guitarists that I don't
care for, and just ignore it?
 
>/Henrik Jonsson

-- 
This posting is the result of years of American public school and television.
Scary thought, isn't it?
 
Richard Huddleston, reh@wam.umd.edu   NeXTSTEP is better: Boycott Microsoft.
Organization: Graduate School of Industrial Administr., Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA