And remember - it has to swing . There is an old saw about playing music, not the instrument. The guitar is one of the few exceptions. To do justice to the instrument, a balance must be struck between concentration on the music and exploration of the guitar's potential. While horn players can play only one note at a time, the guitarist has the choice of playing any number of notes simultaneously.
Notes can be slid, pulled, and hammered.
Chords can be played as grand barre chords, or in pieces, including arpeggios. You can run bass lines alone, mixed with your melody line, or accentuated with chords. Attention to these devices will add to your playing and interpretation of the music, not detract from it. Because you have all these options at your disposal, you also have more responsibility to each piece of music than does a horn player. To play a song as a solo piece, you must arrange it and play all the parts.