"many world renowned guitarists have 100+ different guitars at home. To become a master, you need to learn most of the available tools, and learn them well"
Most of those guitar players made their name as a guitar "master" using a small amount of instruments, and only started collecting later. It was not uncommon for songs made with a single guitar to have paid for all the other instruments.
Sure, a lot of them continued breaking new ground after acquiring more instruments, but that was definitely not the source of the mastery, it was already there before the big collection started.
My friend is quite impressive at the guitar despite never having lessons. He says the day he went from beginner/average to pretty damn good was when he decided to learn a Hendrix part way beyond his then skill level.
> The biggest problem with the low end market is that kids these days just don't seem to realise the work ethic required to become proficient at guitar. I've played for over 40 years, I have two young sons who play, and I have done some teaching.
Were you teaching 30 years ago? I suspect that people didn't have much of a work ethic back then, either - but you weren't teaching them, so you didn't realize it.
Oddly, there are some amazing young guitarists... though obviously, anyone who is already great has likely been at it for 10+ years, so there may be a significant shortage 10 years from now.
I think you're right. I made a comment below about Jimi Hendrix. It's debatable how much "natural ability" he had, i.e., he wasn't one of those rare prodigies who picks up the guitar at age 3 and can instinctually make it sound good.
But what's not debatable is his overarching love of the guitar and obsession with learning everything he could to play it better.
> “John Mayer?” he asks. “You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.”
Sorry, but my 17 year old son was so inspired by Mayer about 5 years ago that he invested a LOT of time learning how to play guitar and sing like him, and other artists with similar styles. [0]
He is now building quite a steady music career even while finishing high school (he was booked for 3 gigs just this weekend).
He is also interested in past guitar heroes such as Eddie Van Halen, Mark Knopfler, Angus Young, Andy Summers etc. and spends a lot of time going through 'older' stuff to learn more.
While he has a lot of natural ability, there is no arguing that it takes a LOT of hard work. He practices for a minimum of 2 hours a day - sometimes even up to 4 or 5 hours, not counting gigging time. We often have to call him away from his guitar to do school work or eat.
I envy the time he lives in though - I started playing when I was 15, back in the early 80's and it was really difficult to find decent gear, and the only way to learn anything new was to try and figure it out by ear or find someone else who knew to teach you. Nowadays, the proliferation of Youtube and other online learning resources, the huge selection of reasonably priced gear, and things like software and hardware modelling amps mean players can dial in ANY sound they want under any situation. Unheard of in my time.
It just needs kids who are interested enough to turn it into their passion.
There will always be people to get hooked on old artists, but the point remains that we're not in a world where there are guitar heroes like in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and the numbers of people who become inspired enough to work at the instrument for long enough to achieve proficiency has consequently declined.
I learned in the mid 90s, probably inspired by Oasis, and related Britpop artists. Of course very quickly I was listening to older musicians like Page, Hendrix, and Clapton. Even then though my friends who played music and I were well aware that the age of guitar hero was over and that it was quirkier to want to play guitar music than it had been ten years before. There were no more Slashes on the horizon.
Music scenes seem likely to never be so one dimensional as they were in previous decades, because there's something for everyone online, and I can't see a time when Top of the Pops has three big rock bands playing on the same night ever again.
Excellent point. Also, who cares if someone is 'a great guitar player' in the sense of mere technical virtuosity. Youtube is full of guitarist videos with GREATEST and !!!! in the titles, a million notes a minute, sound and fury signifying nothing.
Your comment reminded me of Hendrix - most if not all of what he did seems to fit under 'stuff found by messing around on a guitar, moving chords/bass notes around, experimenting with sounds', mostly with no 'theoretical base' whatever except for developing what sounded good, what was fun to explore. In a word, playing.
Personal note: Someone played me Radiohead a few years ago for a while, I'd never heard them before. I remember thinking - I can see why this would sound amazing/mindblowing to someone who'd never heard anything but mainstream/charts/popular/etc rock. Like someone who'd only seen Hollywood movies discovering the whole world of movie-making for the first time. (I'm into jazz, classical, funk, reggae, indian classical etc etc)
There are random dudes on youtube who are virtuoso guitar players. So many in fact that they will never get signed because it's not a differentiating or marketable factor.
“You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.”
Emphasis on a bunch of kids. As someone who likes guitar it pains me to say that this seems true.
My son is 11, in a (very) music-heavy school. When I was his age I think almost every boy (and some girls) in my class learnt guitar - it was the instrument.
In my son's class I think there are 2 learning it.
The guitar will never die, but the popularity isn't what it was.
However, many cannot handle the ego damage that results from truly assessing their skill level relative to the best.
One of my favorite guitarists is Matt Bellamy of Muse. His ability to perform is absolutely world-class. I can get better at guitar all I want and I know it barely moves the needle when compared with him. The thing is, the better I get the more I notice in his playing and skills which makes me better understand the full extent of his skill.
It's too late to be the sexy rock god, but playing is doable.
The best advice I ever heard about learning guitar was from Eddie Vanhalen to Wolfgang. Wolfgang was getting discouraged. Being a good father, Eddie spilled the beans.
He told his son it's basically about 10 cords. Don't try to learn them all.
I wanted to learn to play at least one Johnny Cash song. So many of his songs use just a few chords. A, E, and B7 come up so often, with a Capo on the second fret.
I would never even think about playing in front of anyone though, but then again never wanted to be "A sexy guy". Content with Begging.
Most of those guitar players made their name as a guitar "master" using a small amount of instruments, and only started collecting later. It was not uncommon for songs made with a single guitar to have paid for all the other instruments.
Sure, a lot of them continued breaking new ground after acquiring more instruments, but that was definitely not the source of the mastery, it was already there before the big collection started.
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