The Slow Secret Death of the Electric Guitar

[Lurker13]

I'm also feeling like a hypocrite lately.

Why? Same reason as Witt?

[$harkToootth]

Not the same reason as my friend Witt (if you people saw my guitars someone would start a relief fund or try to sponsor me like child in a war torn area). I just know the feeling. I was going to post about it more but in-between my last post and now I watered my neighbors flowers and I think I reconciled my problem (which was not a real problem but a theoretical one). Still, it never feels comfortable feeling like a hypocrite.

[Lurker13]

Not the same reason as my friend Witt (if you people saw my guitars someone would start a relief fund or try to sponsor me like child in a war torn area). I just know the feeling. I was going to post about it more but in-between my last post and now I watered my neighbors flowers and I think I reconciled my problem (which was not a real problem but a theoretical one). Still, it never feels comfortable feeling like a hypocrite.

I'm glad you reconciled your problem. You seem like a great person who would make a good friend IRL, as well as on the internet.

Feeling hypocritical sucks. I've felt that way occasionally after pushing debates too far, just because I wanted to 'win'. Later I kicked my own ass for it. Now I try to make it a point to be more intellectually honest.

My guitars don't make me feel hypocritical, but these days they make me feel kind of depressed. I have two really nice guitars, a Gibson SG Standard and a Fender MIA Stratocaster. But I'm disillusioned with my own lack of musical skills and loss of creativity and lack of time to devote to music, so I keep wondering why I have such nice guitars. Every time I pick them up, I feel like I'm supposed to create some masterpiece worthy of them (whatever that even means)...and we all know that isn't happening.

[$harkToootth]

Thanks for the compliment! Right back at you!
Please excuse the long post...

NSFW: show

I wouldn't sell yourself short. Not sure how old you are but life is long (and short). So you can develop all sorts of skills (or aesthetic realizations) with time. I think a lot of people equate "practice" with "learn music theory and develop flawless technique" but in reality "practicing" is just "getting the guitar/gear to do what you want it to do". This can be anything and the only way to find out what that is is with "time". For example (anecdotal) I don't really practice with scales or modes these days so much as I work on multiple finger picking patterns and slapping/punching/flicking the strings (on guitar). My sentiment mainly came from synths as you don't have to be a concert pianist (especially if you are heavy on sequencing pitch) so much as you have to understand what equipment you have and what it can do (which again takes "time").

Actualidiot and I talked about this in another thread. I do agree there is a sort of inflection point with gear (which I have well and beyond passed with pedals at this point). But at the same time, you only really know that point when you spend time with said gear. I don't know.

One of my favorite musicians is ATRAX MORGUE and I know for a fact he used like four cheap pieces of gear (although to be fair, the synth he used would cost like 7x the price now and that one is an outlier as it has tons of modulation sources and routings) and he made countless great (but not for everybody) tunes. He just spent an obsessive (borderline sick) amount of time with his gear.

Bringing this back on track, music retailers do not operate on the premise of 'time with gear = comfort with gear' but instead 'buy this gear because so and so uses it / it looks cool / this gear is imperative to the skill you will develop / you need this gear.

[mathias]

My guitars don't make me feel hypocritical, but these days they make me feel kind of depressed. I have two really nice guitars, a Gibson SG Standard and a Fender MIA Stratocaster. But I'm disillusioned with my own lack of musical skills and loss of creativity and lack of time to devote to music, so I keep wondering why I have such nice guitars. Every time I pick them up, I feel like I'm supposed to create some masterpiece worthy of them (whatever that even means)...and we all know that isn't happening.

Two things: 1) I think we all feel like this, and 2) it comes and goes.

I've read a lot of threads in the past where people have encouraged me to listen more widely to different music, to try to play stuff I normally wouldn't, to try going and having a life outside the instrument before coming back to it, etc.

These are all good things. But ultimately I like the more zen like thought that we can all play the music we are meant to play, and it just takes time, practice, patience, and inspiration to bring that music into the world. (Zen Guitar and Victor Wooten's book are both inspirations of these ideas.)

Often, being impatient seems to have been my downfall.

[$harkToootth]

That post succinctly sums up what I was trying to articulate in my elongated post.

[Lurker13]

They were both good posts, thanks to both of you for responding.

I also seem to have a strange idiosyncrasy that doesn't help - I never hear music in my head when I'm playing. Even if I was hearing something just before playing, as soon as I grab a guitar it's gone, and I have no memory of it. It seems like a strange mental block, and it leaves me with no mental inspiration for composing except for the barren thought 'How am I going to wiggle my fingers this time?'

[$harkToootth]

I think that just goes back to spending time with your instrument. Kind of like developing your vernacular. Having more words or tools or techniques at your disposal allows you to do more with one thing. Developing another hobby/skill helps too. Whenever I am reading (the reading thread!) my guitar playing and cognitive function improve (relative) in general. Taking a hiatus from guitar and focusing mostly on synths for a few years has helped with understanding modulation and weird things the guitar strings (inter modulating) and pedals (cv control) can do.
I'm not the best example of doing this but I always have notebooks/pads/post its on or around me. When I get ideas I just jot them down. Same with dreams, I can't site the study but I'm pretty sure it has been proven keeping a dream journal drastically improves dream recall.

I also NEVER get it right the first, second, or thousandth time when trying to implement my ideas into music. Only people like Eliane Radigue can translate an idea by twisting some knobs and then turning on the machine. She is a marvel though. Then again, she put in nearly two decades with her beloved ARP 2500 before achieving what is widely considered her masterpiece (for those into her work, I'm talking about the trilogy). She put in so much time with that machine that she actually used to refer to it as a part of her.

Last point, and I'll stop ranting. I was talking about this article to my colleague and I said to her...whoever wrote it obviously does not listen 2 wyked fcken acid m8.

[Faldoe]

One thought, without electric guitars all you guys won't need your fuzz pedals no more

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rynxqdNMry4[/youtube]

The most amazing thing about this performance is that it was a complete improvisation, right then and there.

Yeah, it is amazing.

Pedals can be tools but they can also be distractions.

In the ultra consumer reality we live in, we have so many gear options but it often seduces so many people - myself at various times too - into that endless chase/hunt for something, which in and of itself (the hunt) is kind of the drive or ends up being the drive. It's not really about playing so much as it is or becomes about finding the thing or things you think you need to aid in your playing or creativity.

For me I'm at a point again where I want less pedals and want to focus on playing/breaking old habits and see if I can find what I want from the guitar itself, or bass.

Even with synths too. I don't want lots of them and I like the idea of doing more (or what is needed) with less and getting everything out of an instrument.

[Chankgeez]

I watered my neighbors flowers

Is this a euphemism for "pissin' on your neighbor's lawn"? :surprise:

[$harkToootth]

I'm like the resident greenskeeper/caretaker on my block...I am the caretaker...I was always...the caretaker

[Chankgeez]

[$harkToootth]

100% accurate.

[behndy]

Yeah, they're right. The guitar's not the future...



...synthesizers are!

Oh boy oh boy more modular synth demos that all sound like they came from 1968..... So new, so fresh.. So... Mindfuckingly boring...

ouch. i. i got FEELINGS man.

[Blackened Soul]

Yeah, they're right. The guitar's not the future...



...synthesizers are!

Oh boy oh boy more modular synth demos that all sound like they came from 1968..... So new, so fresh.. So... Mindfuckingly boring...

ouch. i. i got FEELINGS man.

ah but YOU know what I mean, most demos of componat synths are like most demos of guitar stuff... 60s-70s receationalists. I don't have anything against people doing it but I also don't think people should call it experimental or new, and for gods sake wear a cape if you must go through a yes phase