From: jonathan@mantis.co.uk (Jonathan Egre')
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Re: My 15 year Mistake (learning to play)
Date: 9 Apr 92 12:22:19 GMT
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

skywalker@DINO.QCI.BIOCH.BCM.TMC.EDU (Timothy B. Reynolds) writes:

> So here I sat, being able to hammer out lead guitar licks all day but
> VERY little chord playing ability. I put together a home studio. Keyboards,
> drum machine and all the asorted goodies so I could have someone to back
> me up while I cranked the lead. This soon got to be boring and I realized 
> I would have to learn to play rhythm guitar. I boxed up the studio and now
> Im learning to play chords and pick some better songs out after 15+ years
> of playing. Always having good rhythm players I didn't have to learn it
> and none of them could match my lead work so it was a good mix.
> 
> I now realize that learning little "flash bits" of lead guitar is ok around
> the house but when you start to get serious about your music you must learn
> to be a complete player, rhythm and lead. I feel like a idiot sometimes 
> trying to pick out what most guitar players easy songs but it's starting to
> get easier now. Im finaly starting to feel like a guitar player not just
> a "lead guitarist".  So try to get in a band with "do you have a rhythm 
> player ?" Someday I hope to start up another band but for now I still have
> learning to do.

I think you're being much too hard on yourself.  I were to convince myself
that I'd wasted 15 years, as you seem to have done, I'd go nuts!

I see a lot of postings from people who consider "well-roundedness" to be 
absolutely paramount.  They worry about being able to play all styles, 
rhythm and lead, every single technique in the rag-bag of modern guitar.
Well, if you aspire to being a studio musician then well-roundedness *is*
paramount; but I don't believe that this is what most of us want.

I suspect that most of us here on the net either play for our own enjoyment
(not necessarily alone) or to entertain an audience or become rich and 
famous.  If you play for your own enjoyment then I really don't see the harm
in playing what you enjoy playing; if you only enjoy playing lead at a 
particular time in your life, then I say, go ahead and just play lead.  
(Or whatever.)  If you aim to entertain other people, then remember that few
entertainers try to play more than a handful of styles, and many players do
very well just playing rhythm or lead - as your own posting shows.  B.B. King
is the best example that I can think of off the top of my head.

I once read an interview with Malcolm Young, the rhythm guitarist with 
AC/DC.  It doesn't matter if you don't like AC/DC's music; the relevant thing
is that he is a professional rhythm guitarist.  The interviewer was trying 
to goad him into saying that every player should learn to play at least a 
little rhythm, but he wouldn't.  He took the view that if you don't feel any
calling to play rhythm guitar, then don't.

Having said all that, I should add that I don't have anything *against*
rhythm playing - I am just trying to say that it's *your* life, and that 
assuming music is your hobby rather than your job you might as well handle
it the way *you* want to.  Learning new styles, new material and new
techniques can be very satisfying, but only if you *want* to learn these
things at that time in your life.  If you simply feel that you *ought* to 
learn these things because everybody else is then you won't enjoy the 
process, so why do it?  Remember the (stereotypical) child who wants to get
out of music lessons - because at that time in his or her life he or she 
does not wish to learn.

Well, that's my philosophy; and although I have written a rather long piece
I don't mean to ram it down your throat.  It would of course be against 
my philosophy to do this!

As a thought on the side: rhythm versus lead is a distinction that is 
perculiar to guitar.  You don't have "rhythm piano" and "lead piano".

Jonathan.

--
Jonathan Egre' / jonathan@mantis.co.uk / jonathan_e@cix.compulink.co.uk
Newsgroups: alt.guitar