Guitar Players of ISH...

What are your strengths and weaknesses on your instrument?

Strengths:

I have really good finger tone. Vibratos and bendy vibratos and double bendy vibratos all day. Gilmour-esque. melodic and singy.

very natural strumming rhythm. easy for me to keep time and keep it crisp since day one. not easily thrown off even by odd times or awkward strum patterns

good ear, can pick out melodies quickly - therefore i am nice with call and response. used to know this crazy old singer guy who would try and do robert plant impersonations and i would echo him. fun shit

Weaknesses:

downpicking. just... cant do it. no matter how much i practice it, theres something physiologically insurmountable. my wrist just does. not. move like that. kind of a bummer, it would be so fun to really bang out master of puppets. just cant.

much better at playing licks on the wound strings than the unwound ones. idk why, but the feel of the skinny strings can trip me up. I can play pretty fast runs on the lower strings, but when i get to the top two, i usually play a bit more deliberate and do a lot of aforementioned bends because i get sloppy running through scales up there

similar to the downpicking issue, i cant really tremolo pick. it feels like there is a hard ceiling on how fast my wrist can move

finally, i'm not fluent enough on the fretboard to play real jazz music. could still change this, but so far have lacked the patience



How about you

Not a guitarist, but:

Strengths:

I get really creative with bass lines. Can totally play lose shit, counter melodies or stay in the box.
Not just a dude who does 8ths all day long. Not my style, but sometimes it's needed just like unisono.
I'm like a really really poor man's John Entwistle.

I react well to rhythm shifts.

Weaknesses:

I had a hand condition for quite some time. What I'm ultimately lacking is practice and thus speed and I'm not as fluent on the fretboard as I used to be.

I absolutely can't do slap n pop and also don't like picks, they just feel unnatural for me. I have to use them to record certain songs, but I really hate them.

I took up bass for a while because I was friends with a good songwriter who needed a bassist. I also could never slap pop. Shit looks so fun too... shame.

You don't have to downpick Master of Puppets.

[QUOTE=RRR3]You don't have to downpick Master of Puppets.[/QUOTE]

Others have said this to me. I can hear the difference. It really is not the same.

For a long time, I've wanted to learn to play an acoustic guitar.

I want to post up on a beach with a hat out for tips.

[QUOTE=stalkerforlife]For a long time, I've wanted to learn to play an acoustic guitar.

I want to post up on a beach with a hat out for tips.[/QUOTE]

Learn 10 easy songs. That's more than enough. 2 months tops.

[QUOTE=Prometheus]Others have said this to me. I can hear the difference. It really is not the same.[/QUOTE]
Kirk doesn't downpick it does he? It's just James because that's how he plays.

[QUOTE=Prometheus]I took up bass for a while because I was friends with a good songwriter who needed a bassist. I also could never slap pop. Shit looks so fun too... shame.[/QUOTE]

Yeah superfun, but not that needed for our genre. Still want to learn it someday.

Man I've been playing guitar on and off for getting close to 4 years now and I still absolutely suck. Well, I haven't been playing for 4 years, I just started playing 4 years ago. I still have no idea how to be any good. It's incredibly defeating and frustrating.

I'm left-handed but I didn't have access to a leftie guitar so I have always played a right hander, which meant a frustrating beginning. Despite that, I persevered and taught myself how to play, still, my strumming is my weakness and I have problems consistently playing 32nd notes.

I was never into learning songs to cover, I did learn a few to help myself learn the techniques but my approach to mastering the instrument has always been to improvise to a backing track. It's a test of creativity, timing, staying in key and also recognising when to appropriately insert a wrong note to give flavour to your solo; all of this make up for the real experience of playing a guitar.

[QUOTE=RRR3]Man I've been playing guitar on and off for getting close to 4 years now and I still absolutely suck. Well, I haven't been playing for 4 years, I just started playing 4 years ago. I still have no idea how to be any good. It's incredibly defeating and frustrating.[/QUOTE]
Not to be a dick but if you are talented you could expect to be good after 10 years of consistent practice. Four years of on and off playing doesn't warrant any expectations.

[QUOTE=RRR3]Man I've been playing guitar on and off for getting close to 4 years now and I still absolutely suck. Well, I haven't been playing for 4 years, I just started playing 4 years ago. I still have no idea how to be any good. It's incredibly defeating and frustrating.[/QUOTE]


Same. I can only realize how far I

[QUOTE=stalkerforlife]For a long time, I've wanted to learn to play an acoustic guitar.

I want to post up on a beach with a hat out for tips.[/QUOTE]

If you want to be Andy Mckee, playing guitar takes years of dedication.

If you want to play Yellow Submarine and Wish You Were Here... literally a few weeks.

It would be hard to overstate how good it can feel to just play a little music on a shitty day. If you do it, you'll be glad you did.

[QUOTE=RRR3]Man I've been playing guitar on and off for getting close to 4 years now and I still absolutely suck. Well, I haven't been playing for 4 years, I just started playing 4 years ago. I still have no idea how to be any good. It's incredibly defeating and frustrating.[/QUOTE]

Based on what I know about your taste in music, you're probably aiming too high. I might hate most metal music, but by and large those are very highly skilled craftsmen.

What [I]can[/I] you play? What are you attempting to play?