This is kind of a random post but I have an older friend that I talk about guitar players with and music in general, and I thought I'd write a post about why the guitar is amazing. It kind of speaks for itself but here is
why the guitar is awesome. I've played the trumpet, bass, piano, flute, and the drums before but none of them can compare to the sound of an electric guitar(electric is my favorite, but acoustic is also cool).
First of all, the guitar is an extremely versatile instrument able to play any style of music. Do you want to play acoustic blues? Covered. Do you want to play death metal? Covered. Do you want to play jazz? Covered. Want to play classical? Covered. Country twang? Got it. You're literally covered on any style of music. Most people start playing guitar because they want to be able to play their favorite songs, and most of the times their favorite songs are based around a particular genre(s), and they'll have to get the right guitar and equipment to fit the music.
Second, guitars are just cool. Go to
Guitar Center(my favorite store). Take a look around the walls and you'll just be amazed. Guitars come in all shapes and sizes, from acoustic to electric, and have all kinds of great paint jobs, whammy bars, interesting tuners, and pick-guards. Even if you don't know anything about guitars, as soon as you see one you will know if you like that guitar just based on how it looks, but also because of how it sounds(you learn that later). Most of the time people buy guitars because they look cool and they think they might want to play. Well, they're right for doing that. My first good guitar was a white Mexican Fender Stratocaster. I got it because it looked super cool, and Hendrix played strats(I love Hendrix). It was probably my best guitar I've ever had but sadly I sold it for my Jackson Dinky. I love the Jackson as well, but I'll always miss that stratocaster. The first really good guitar you get is like your first baby, you'll love it till you die. Anyways, guitars just look cool and are cool. People look super cool playing them in bands, especially rock, metal, and jazz bands. They're cool in jazz bands because guitar isn't necessarily a jazz instrument. Jazz guitarists are beasts. They play like a million chords for like ten people in the audience. Rock guitarists play 10 chords for like a million people in the audience(old guitar joke).
Third, playing the guitar, and music in general is a great way to express yourself. Music in general is a form of art and a great way to express yourself. When I sit down to play the guitar, I feel like that's my way of talking or singing. It's the feels man. Music and the guitar is such a big part of my life that I feel sad and get depressed when I don't play, and when I don't listen to music.
Fourth, guitar isn't rocket-science, and it doesn't take too much practice or skill to learn your favorite songs, unless your favorite songs are technical masterpieces, like say classical pieces by Bach or something like that. But let's face it, the average guitar player just wants to be able to jam on their favorite songs, not to be a guitar god like Hendrix or Jeff Beck. I've seen guitar players with less skills than myself play live in bands and make a living out of playing the guitar and music. It really doesn't take much skill for people to notice you and respect you for your skills. All you need is a little bit of technique and be able to play songs. That's the reason why anybody ever wants to be able to play the guitar anyways, just to be able to play their favorite songs. Over time as guitar players, we learn that we have to learn scales, chords, and arpeggios but in reality all that stuff is second to just playing songs. And you don't have to be a genius to learn a few simple songs. I started out playing
Black Sabbath and the
Ramones songs. Now I'm playing jazz standards and learning how to improvise over the changes. It's not as hard as it looks, but it isn't easy to be a guitar god either. People have put in their 10,000 hours to get to where they're at. People like
Marty Friedman, Tosin Abasi, Steve Vai, and
Hendrix all put in a lot of time and effort to become as good as they are. You do too!
Number 5, girls dig the guitar and guitar players in general. This one has kind of been a joke for a while now and I'm not really sure if its true. It might be because of the whole hand and fingers thing(haha). Kind of like the joke about the guitar who fingered A minor(chord) and the G-string.
Number 6, guitar players are all cool people with unique personalities and unique sounds. No guitar player sounds alike. Even if you take two terrible guitarists and tell them to do the same thing, they won't play it the same way. Hendrix sounded different from all other guitarists in the 60's. Nobody has ever sounded like him since although people have tried. But nobody gives the same amount of emotion and tenacity to the instrument. It's awesome. Part of playing the guitar and an instrument in general is finding your own voice and I would say that every experienced guitar player who has played for a while eventually finds their voice. It's extremely difficult but that's the goal. In the beginning it might've been the goal to say sound like Hendrix or Jeff Beck, but at some point you realize that you have to sound and be yourself, which is the hardest thing any musician can do in my opinion.
Number 7, once you learn a little bit of technique and how to play a few songs you can play in a band. Being in a band is the best thing about playing the guitar. Once you're in a band you can start playing gigs with other people and make an attempt to earn some money and make a name for yourself in the real world aside from just practicing by yourself. I've been in one really great band that gigged a lot, it was kind of a nu-metal/grunge kind of band. My first band was a blues-rock band that I played in when I was in high school, we played Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin, that kind of stuff. I have great memorable moments from both of those bands playing gigs. It was the best time of my life. I've even had great memorable moments playing in school jazz big bands. I had to learn a lot of jazz chords for that! It was awesome, both in high school and the little bit of time that I spent in college.
Number 8, once you start playing the guitar you're officially an artist, like a painter, sculptor, or someone who designs buildings. It's a craft and a group that most people aren't apart of. Musicians in general are sort of like artists, they can be moody and self deprecating, like myself. I always tell people that I'm not that good when I know that I'm a great guitarist. I just don't 'feel' like I'm that great, and I feel like I have a lot to learn, especially about jazz. In terms of pure technical aspects, I've surpassed most people that play the guitar, but that doesn't mean too much to me because music isn't a technical competition. .But at the same time I can't see why people would hate on someone like Malmsteen just because he's super fast and technical. Saying he has no soul is just wrong to me because the guy plays his heart out on just about every lick.
Number 9, once you start learning, you never stop. Music is something that you can't master. Guthrie Govan is a great guitarist that is very modest and always in a state of learning despite being a great teacher. People like him remind me that you have to always be open to learning more about music as you keep playing and get older. Sometimes people get to a certain point and they stay that way because they don't know what to learn next, or where to go from there.
Number 10, even if you never play it you can always say you tried once, haha. There's nothing wrong with sucking at the guitar. You can only get better. With all the magazines, websites, and guitar teachers out there you can definitely hit them up to get better and learn how get great sounds out of the ole' six-string twanger(my favorite way of describing guitar). My personal favorite guitar magazines are
Guitar Player and
Guitar World, and my favorite site for tabs is
UltimateGuitar.com. Some guitarists that you should definitely check out are
Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, BB King, Pat Martino, and
Charlie Christain, just a few of my favorites. By the way, that's a picture of Jeff Beck playing a Gibson Les Paul, my favorite guitar.
