What makes a great guitarist?

[Shaun Ponsonby]

The age old question. An argument I've been having for a long while, with a friend of mine. He believes it's just skill, and nothing else. I think thats the wrong answer, it has to be more than that.

They have to have a combination of...

*Skill
*Soul
*A certain amount of songwriting ability
*To play solos that suit the songs
*To have the ability to make somebody totally lose themselves in the music.

Discuss...

[Coyote]

And the ability fuse influences into something completely different and unique.

[Shaun Ponsonby]

Exactly, exactly

[Mr Badguy]

I don`t know if there is an answer to that question.

It`s a pretty intangible quality that makes someone great.

If there was a textbook for it then we`d all be doing it, right?

What makes Jimi Hendrix making a racket with feedback and a whammy bar genius rather than some dumbfuck who can`t even play making a noise just like it?

It`s all in the way he does it.

[Shaun Ponsonby]

I'm really just asking for people's opinions, there is obviously no real answer.

[ThrillsNSpills]

Originally posted by Mr Badguy
I don`t know if there is an answer to that question.

What makes Jimi Hendrix making a racket with feedback and a whammy bar genius rather than some dumbfuck who can`t even play making a noise just like it?

It`s all in the way he does it.

That's a grate question and I think it's a bunch of attrbutes but in Jimi's case if you can remember the solo in Freedom (studio) one thing he does when soloing is just play a c-hair after the beat. I think that's part of the magic in his phrasing.
Or in the octave climb in All Along the Watchtower which is probably a better example.
It's hard to know if it was a calculated move on his part or if that was just how he did it. (or if he stole it from Miles Davis)

[Mr Badguy]

Originally posted by ThrillsNSpills
That's a grate question and I think it's a bunch of attrbutes but in Jimi's case if you can remember the solo in Freedom (studio) one thing he does when soloing is just play a c-hair after the beat. I think that's part of the magic in his phrasing.
Or in the octave climb in All Along the Watchtower which is probably a better example.
It's hard to know if it was a calculated move on his part or if that was just how he did it. (or if he stole it from Miles Davis)

Absolutely.

If I were to use a couple of examples:

"Star spangled banner" from Woodstock: To the untrained (or uneducated) ear, a cocophanous racket, but in reality the destruction of the National anthem for the times. I`ve got the tab book, but it`s so much more than a guy abusing the whammy bar on his guitar, you can play the notes but you can`t caputure the essence.

"Machine gun" from "Band of Gypsies": A man using a guitar to play notes from his very soul. Shit, you can feel it. Again, you can play the notes but there is something deeper that isn`t on the paper.

[Terry]

It's one of those things that's hard to itemize or describe, but you know it when you hear it.

[Jimmy Jingles]

To me...Stevie Ray Vaughan

Talk about someone pouring everything they have in them every fucking time he picked up the guitar.

The guy was fucking incredible.

[Panamark]

Any guitarist that you experience "feeling" when they
are playing, is a good guitarist.

Anyone can play a first position "D" chord..
Yet real players can pour their entire heart, soul
and feelings into that same simple chord.
And you can feel it !

Some of those old Blues guys with open
tunings and one finger chords were phenomenal.

Its all about the emotion produced by the playing..

Well to me, anyways..

[Coyote]

Vibrato plays a pretty important part here, too.

One can add some serious expressional power to a note.

[binnie]

To me, a great guitar player is like a great singer: as soon as they start to play you just know its them, even if you've never heard the piece of music before.

An example. Years ago I bought a collection of covers Sebastian Bach had done, and when the solo came round in "Communication Breakdown" my ears pricked up and I thought "damn that sounds like Slash". I checked the linear notes, and I was right.

To have that recognizability you have to have something unique beyond skill, beyond being able to play with feeling (which is more important that skill) or energy. Its the ability to communicate a unique character, just like a great voice does, that makes a great player.

[Panamark]

Yeah, both good points..

Our old friend EVH is instantly recognizable..
First time I heard "Beat it" I knew it was Ed.

Although I can counter this a little, Ive heard
songs by Satriani and Vai that were obviously
them, but didnt seem to have any emotion
in them.....

Would you still classify that as greatness, Binnie ??

[Panamark]

The solo to "Stairway" gets me everytime.
The amount of feel and emotion Pagey got
out of those basic blues scales, is phenomenal...

[Panamark]

Same goes for Dave Gilmour...

(On the less is more trip)