Just how bad are you?

[Cyrokk]

Just kinda curious as to how everyone stands.. I tried to make the poll so that the techniques included are used in most genres of music.. Notice I left sight-reading off the list, as that would've totally skewed the poll..

My weaknesses, btw, are that I can't vibrato worth a crap on the 1st three strings, I don't do so well with trills, and I've spent little time on the post-fifteenth fret area so that I tend to stumble and fall when in the region.

Cy

 

[Link]

Im a shitty bass player. When I write songs I make it so I can play em when Im drunk.

Sloppiness counts!!

 

[Salabim]

where's the 'im a drummer' option???

 

[Slackmaster2K]

I suck big time at fingerpicking....and at regular pick picking....I'm not too keen on my left hand skills either. I know some chords, but most chords I don't know. I also don't know any scales, but I do know what scales are, so that's good. I do know how to find the key...I guess that's my strongpoint. If you play a song for me, I will find the key, although sometimes it takes me a while. My timing is so bad that I don't even know it's bad until I record myself. I can't play a 60 second part without making at least one mistake. I can't play rhythm, and I don't know enough tricks to play lead. I'm not sure how some guys can seem to play both at the same time, that always amazes me. I also don't really know any songs, and I must say that I've never really known any songs. I guess maybe I've figured out several dozen songs over the past 12 years, but mostly on accident. I don't even remember my own songs a lot of the time. Also I'm not very good at tuning the guitar...I wish I knew how to do that harmonic tuning trick the guys at the music store do, but I just do the regular 5th fret reference thing....I'm semi-tone deaf so even after tuning I'm usually still out of tune.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Time. No time to practice and a level of skill that doesn't beg for improvement. I haven't actually learned anything new on guitar for several years, though there is tons about the instrument that I don't.

I keep thinking "Next week I'll start learning fingerstyle blues" or "I'd like to learn some fast paced bluegrass stuff" but it never seems to happen. My fingers are really happy playing the stuff I've always played. My ears are happy, too, but... after a while you get to feeling like a one trick pony.

Chris

 

[Track Rat]

I'm no string strangler but I can hold my own. I can do a decent Merle Travis style finger picking and an OK blues/rock lead.

 

[MenT-aL]

I can play solo's fairly well and most other styles of play, i can pick pretty fast, but all in all when i wake up on the wrong side of the guitar, i can play awful!

Need work on my pinky, it's still a wee baby, and i could do with improving in accuracy!

But as we all are, I am improving every time i pick up my guitar!

aL

 

[Treeline]

Chris - Martin Simpson is a killer fingerstylist who does guitar workshops. He has a really simple piece of advice for those of us (like me!!) who get stuck in a rut, and that is to do something different with the guitar first thing out of the case, every single time you take it out. It really doesn't matter that the "different" thing is - just that you try something that's different from whatever you did the last time. When I thought about that, I realized that I would slip into the same doodly chord pattern every time I picked the guitar up - without ever thinking about it. No wonder I was in a rut...

My thing is that I play solo too much (to the extent that I have time to play at all). Whenever I get together with someone else, I'm reminded of the need to focus on rhythm and to listen to the other player.

 

[Gidge]

I never practice so my technique pretty much sucks....back in the 80's i played about 6-8 hours a day so i was pretty good but those days are gone.....

 

[dragonworks]

I now consider myself a journeyman, you know, the kind of guys boxing champs use for tune ups.

 

[mixmkr]

if someone ever listens to my shit in the mp3 forum, I might find out, as rating yourself gets you into trouble....unless you just say ya play like shit...just like every other modest F#(ker does
Pinkie=yes....the fret spacing get toooo skinny up around #18+...yes (how do ya play the mando?)

Gidge...can you still ride a bicycle??

 

[langleyt]

hmmm, reading this thread made me think about a lead guitarist I used to play in a band with. He was really fanatic about his Les Paul, I mean big time, he claimed he loved it like a child. Okay, so why didn't he play it like he loved it? (I ask myself) Anyway, we started noticing he wasn't playing the little strings (or whatever you call it) at all. In fact, his hands hardly moved position at all. And it was really screwing around with the music. So one day, we snuck when he wasn't looking and checked out his guitar. We lifted it up and looked down the neck and it was warped really bad. So bad that when you tried to play anywhere but at the top of the neck it just went dead.

We told him, in a kind way, that from the sounds of his guitar that the neck was probably warped and he might want to get that fixed. But he never would, and we just had to keep putting up with it. It finally pissed the drummer off so bad he just quit, and that was that. But the sad thing is the guy could really have been a fine guitar player and was just too lax to make the effort. To this day I still don't understand it, but oh well.

Anyway, one of the things I really enjoy about the people here at HR is the attitude and care they have for their instruments and gear. Maybe I should mail the dude some of the posts from here and give him a few things to think about. hmmm

 

[MenT-aL]

Too warped at the top end of the neck to play! Damn that's a fine excuse for when i have those bad days! hehehe

 

[dtb]

Being able to play an original acoustic guitar piece with an intro, a middle, and ending without screwing up is the bomb. Then overdubbibg a bass part with my drum machine. Adding a sweet little mandolin and a little guitar solo. Getting the timing down so it sounds like there are 4 pcs playing together. Sometimes it's pure accident the way the timing works. Doing this knowing maybe 4 or 5 chords, never playing a bass, playing bluegrass mandolin for many years, and now playing guitar full time with a few little combos, is the most rewarding. And I still hardly ever use my pinky. Love for some of you to hear some of my stuff. Ask Reel for a review. He seemed pleased.
dtb

 

[atomictoyz]

Im my worst critic.... I would like to be able to play like all the good players do, but I don't have more than 1 hr a day at best for playing, recording and writing. Im not sure what degree of difficulty you must reach before I could really say for sure how bad I am. I have a place at Waldo's website where I have some guitar stuff. Not alot of people except maybe Gidgemeister, would appreciate the playing...its kinda Vai-ish.... Some days are better than others...

Peace,
Dennis

 

[Scooter B]

Man, I am just hoping you all are alot better at recording than playing...I have been taking in alot of info from some of you...he he.

Basic bass I can hold my own and rythm guitar enough to do demo's for song writing. My main focus is to do song writing and put together some equipment to record projects with friends. No comercial income expectations here.

While I have been strictly old fashioned analogue so far I am starting to see the benefit of pasting together a "perfect take" over trying to get it 100% in one take or by punching in and out.

I have spent entire evenings trying to get one usable take and still not got it. One keeper verse here and a keeper chorus there but punching in and out yourself while trying to play the part also, breeds much frustration.

So I imagine I will be headed a Pro Tools direction someday due to playing limitations.

 

[pchorman]

As an extension to this thread, and if the originator doesn't mind me derailing it a little, exactly what is it that makes one player more capable than the other (aside from practice, of course. Let's assume for the moment that two radically different players have had nearly similar level of dedication over the years.) There isn't always a strong correlation between a player's ability and some of the more obvious contributers to his skill, such as: the number of hours he puts in, his intelligence or even memory, and his dexterity, for examples. One guitarist may have to work inordinately harder to achieve the same ability as the next. There's far more to it, and it beats me.

And then there's that "grass is always greener with the other person's playing" illusion that some are better players than you when it usually turns out they're often thinking the same thing about you. It's as if their playing seems better just because the style is different, not because they're more capable. Know that feeling? Now that I think about it, it's like wanting another woman just because you haven't already nailed her. same for playing styles. get it and you're bored - move on.

 

[Track Rat]

Well, there's good players and there's good players. What I mean is I've known guys that can run a scale up and down in 64th notes at blazing unhuman speeds but didn't have a clue about what "sounds" good. No sense of, I don't know, melody for lack of a better word. There's technical proficientcy and there's musicality. Ya know what I mean?

 

[pchorman]

I absolutely know what you mean, and it's one reason the less melodic shredders do little for me.

A "good ear" of course is another part of that equation but almost goes without saying. I guess I was referring to basic capability; that is, the ability to play something whether or not the guitarist truly appeciates its melody, tone (harmonic spectral content), timing, or anything else that makes a score sound pleasing. I wasn't even referring to creativity. Some guitarists "get it" early on and need to make little effort. Everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses obviously, but I was seeking to understand this so called strength in guitar playing. I see little in common with that skill and any other. It shows in no other way. A person can be a sloppy pig bastard in almost everything he does or touches, yet not so when he handles the guitar. A person can be brilliant with acute memory and coordination, yet suck at the instrument given the same number of hours of practice as the next guy. Although there's no way to gauge how much someone really applies himself (practices, that is), I've still noticed this and find it strange.

After thinking out loud about it, I guess it's like someone's signature. Some are sloppy and illegible and some have a neat, controlled flair. I think the answer to my original question is: who the hell cares why? was just probing

 

[Treeline]

You mean there really is life after hearing that 17 year old kid (who's been alive about half as long as I've been playing) do the neutron fingerdance (that I'll never be able to do, not even if I'm reincarnated as a medium gauge Fender pick) on a PRS at the local guitar shop, right after I felt pretty good about finally nailing the timing on a Bill Broonzy version of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot?"

Thank God!!