-
How Far Do You Want To Go
Originally Posted by pauln
-------------------------
Every instrument has their problems. As an instrument, the guitar is as hard or as easy as you want to make it. It's your journey. It can be a superficial one or it can be endless. You can play a cowboy serenade with three chords, or follow Segovia or Van Eps. It will take your life if you let it...
Pianists Never Have To Cross Strings
------------------------------------
Life would be easier with only One String... Music notation was developed with the piano keyboard in mind. The keyboard layout attests to that. Millions of youngsters can play the piano and read music, yet millions of guitarists die of old age as illiterate musicians. The answer is simple. The guitar fingerboard does not lend itself to our current musical notation. It takes tremendous training to read-and-play guitar.
Point Of View
-------------
Realise also, that the pianist has the keys in view with the sheet music, within their peripheral vision and eye movement, while a guitarist cannot view the sheet music and the fingerboard simultaneously.
5:2
---
Yet, the guitar is a miniature piano, with the capability of rendering chords and melody combined. Not to mention the beauty and expression possible by chord voicings, tone, and articulation of the guitarist. But the guitarist is not a pianist who has 10 fingers and two hands travelling in opposite directions while we have but 4 fingers on one single hand battling for living space or stretching tendons to the snapping point.
A Chordal Instrument
--------------------
It goes without saying that wind instruments are not chordal. The trumpeter or trombonist studies chords so that they can play single notes, but they don't have to execute the chord per se. A guitarist must become a finger contortionist to evolve beyond the thump & thud of a simple C Major chord or F Major barre chord in first position.
Notes In Abundance
------------------
The fingering on many instruments is almost set in stone, but the guitar nominally has six strings and twenty frets, yielding 120 notes. 120/7 provides roughly 17 possible neck areas in which to play a tune. Octaves aside, the guitarist has to train in reading those notes to play them. Other musicians can prepare themselves from the start to sit in and start reading anything, but most guitarists who try that will never reach that lofty goal. You'll only find a guitarist with white hair still using a copy of Mel Bay Book 1 and lying about it. (You gotta love guitarists who are always the first to tell you that, "Well, Tommy Tedesco did it!!")
Fingering
---------
Most instruments do not have such duplication. That's why fingering patterns are so vital to guitarists. Even within each of these 17 gamuts, there are several ways to order the fingers. When you consider linking one area to another, the number of possibilities are staggering.
Electronics
-----------
The strength and conditioning of the signal carrying your guitar's output must be addressed by the performer. Even if Uncle Tex plays a Martin and don't like no amps or cords ruining his pristine folkiness, there's a sound technician somewhere doing it for him behind the stage, in the studio or somewhere in the house. The quality of sound reproduction is crucial for any guitar, amp'd or mic'd. A $10k guitar can sound like a cigar box if this aspect is ignored. Most instruments don't have to consider this as much.
Too Much Monkey Business
------------------------
I've always admired horn players who inevitably show up late with just a small black case. Like a doctor making a house-call. They know by now that the drummer and guitards will still be huffing, puffing, tugging, and sweating as they port their gear, equipment, cords, amps, and pedals towards the stage, so they're still making calls to their girlfriends, stopping for a coffee, and picking up their dry cleaning. They arrive, open the case, blow a scale and they're up and running.
::Last edited by StringNavigator; 07-08-2023 at 01:43 PM.
-
07-08-2023 01:10 PM
-
IF guitar is the easiest then I am a very un-talented musician.
-
You think that's bad... Originally Posted by ragman1
There's a guy lying on the streets of Paris with both his hands hacked off for trying to protect his car from rioters.
Leave the kids alone. We're just having fun.
-
Why is it that we guitarists find it so difficult to translate written music into sounded notes, but violinists do it all the time, up to some illegible number of ledger lines, and violists do it on that crazy tenor clef?
ISTM that they should have as much trouble as we do. Perhaps it has to do with their generally more formal education.
-
It's best not to think of everything at the same time. Originally Posted by himself
On accordion I learned to handle the bass buttons and the keys together. Lady Of Spain! It's essential... But I don't consider myself to reside in the right tail of the Bell curve because of muscle memory. On classical guitar, one always plays a number of parts simultaneously. But you can't afford to focus on every line. That's for the audience to enjoy. As a performer on an instrument like the guitar, your left hand is stopping the strings with muscle memory. Your hand is combining notes in whatever way or combination that is needed to accomplish the music. It's not for the performer to listen to each line, have a cigarette and enjoy. That's for the listener only.
I like to play Bach's Bouree, but I don't play each part separately, I play them simultaneously, though. But as I pluck and stop each note in a multitude of lines, I do not concentrate on each line separately. That's for the audience to enjoy. They can follow any line or counterpoint of their choosing. As for me, the performer, having learned the piece, my hands are self-trained to change the vibrating length of each string as required to reproduce what's on the paper. Yes, there's not much difference between a good musician and an automaton. But we like to think so. It's okay.
When we drive a car, we don't focus on each act separately... brake, clutch, shift, gas, steer, accelerate, red light, crosswalk, go north, take Elm Street, watch for cops, fight with the wife... You'd go nutz! Probably get into some trouble or coardinotion difficulties. We have trained ourselves to do it all at once, simultaneously, and not separately. Although our nervous system is sequential, and reality is perceived independently, the nervous system is fast. Faster than what is required. So we can appear to react simultaneously as we are responding faster than what's around us. Of course, once we are surrounded by speed that supersedes our abilities, the train wins and we're off to our reward.
Everyone believes that the performer is multitasking and making things up as he goes along, but in reality, it's all been practiced at one time or another and is being regurgitated for your entertainment. "Oh! The Myth of Improv...!" Whether you're a Drummer or Hammond Organist with four limbs or a guitarist with four fingers, or a trumpeter with a jaw and three fingers, or a professional three-legged racer, or Bill Clinton busy in the Oval Office, (shades of Ford Edsel
) you're multitasking, but it's made possible by a muscle memory that's combining or encapsulating many small things into one movement so that we do not have to be conscious of them all.
"It's an act. It's a business." (Joe Diorio)
But if you really think of it, it's the vocalist who is irreplaceable.
How many years went into perfecting Doris Day, Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney or Frank Sinatra? Consider the lifetime schooling and high degree of thinking, speaking, phonics, language, acting, gesturing, memorisation, communicating, vocal training, natural talent, ego development, showmanship, womanship, imparting a persona... You know, if you were one day marooned on a deserted island, you could teach a monkey to play a double bass (I've seen this on the internet!), or a dog to toot a horn or a chicken to peck a tune on the piano... But you could never, ever sing like Frank!
::Last edited by StringNavigator; 07-08-2023 at 03:08 PM.
-
Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
Why pay a band? Hire an organist today!Last edited by StringNavigator; 07-08-2023 at 03:49 PM.
-
How about "Cute"? Originally Posted by ragman1
-
I hope he didn't invest too much time into that. Originally Posted by kris
He'd could have been famous had he played wobbling glass on spindles...
A Really Big Shew! Now here's a master multitasker who knows how to handle his sticks.
He's a millionaire today. Not too far from you, Kris.
-
The guitar would be essential when the band doesn't have a pianist or bass and drummer. But your point is well taken since such a setup is rare, even with jazz. Originally Posted by Litterick
-
Being a musician is an act. It's a business. (Joe Diorio) Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
-
Playing jazz is difficult on any instrument.
-
Does anybody learn from guitarists? Does the jazz guitar have its own sound, beyond the electro-mechanical effect of playing an archtop into a combo amp? Blues and rock guitarists have manipulated their instruments to create sounds unique to the electric guitar, by string bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs and so on. They do things with pedals and amps as well. But in straight-ahead jazz, a guitar must be played clean: just the notes, please. It seems to me that the guitar is very constrained in what it allowed to do, and can never be itself. Originally Posted by kris
-
In jazz guitar music, the priority are the notes, not the guitar effects. Originally Posted by Litterick
However, there are outstanding guitarists who did not avoid guitar effects.
A great guitarist like Jim Hall also used a chorus or pitch-shifter.
As long as you know exactly his recordings.
Scof used distortion...etc
Blues guitarists influenced the playing of keyboard musicians.
Often keyboard players imitated the guitar.
-
But I would not call Jim Hall or John Scofield straight-ahead.
-
Jim Hall?
-
People answering this , they could easily answer also these questions :
Which one is the most difficult :
Sport
Language
Profession
Country to leave
Food to eat
Classical or Jazz
And e.t.c
Unless we play 20 different instruments in the level of a Jazz pro , we are inappropriate to have an opinion about how hard the guitar is.
It is also unbelievable how people in this site are ready to fight for their "opinion".
We jazz lovers are such a minority out there that we shouldn't have bother quarreling for such a thread.
Jazz is music , guitar is an instrument.
I studied classical piano from 8 to 16 years old.
I switched to el. guitar because of Heavy Metal Guitar heroes.
When I was intensively studying guitar in MIT I got the worse tendonitis .
I had to stop playing for two years , to avoid the operation.
In the meanwhile I tried to learn trumpet ( 6 months ) , Blues Harmonica ( 2 years ).
When my hand became healthy again ,I was into other styles of music.
Traditional Greek ( my origin ) , Middle East and Balkan.
So I taught myself Bouzouki and Percussion.
I played professionally these instruments for 10 years.
The last 15 years Iam only into Jazz, playing el. guitar and piano , no other instrument.
I still do not know ( and don't care ) how hard the guitar is in comparison with the rest of the instruments .
What I experience is that all the instruments I have played are equally difficult to master for a number of reasons.
So I wish to all Jazz Lovers :
Enjoy the music !
-
^ Yes, I gave up arguing an opinion to death. I still think playing Hammond with bass is the hardest thing to do in jazz. Although the explanation of trumpet was quite scary.
I actually do think jazz guitar has its own sound and idiom for how it's played even only played clean. I like to learn from guitarists being an organ player. An example is it's easy for the guitar to sound bluesy. On the other hand, that's one thing that is cool about organ - it's the only straight ahead jazz instrument where it's customary to change sounds. Originally Posted by Litterick
Last edited by Jimmy Smith; 07-09-2023 at 01:13 PM.
-
Philip Catherine plays what I call straight-ahead. Here he is with Dexter Gordon on the album Something Different (called that since Dexter decided to use a guitarist instead of a pianist). Originally Posted by Litterick
Last edited by jameslovestal; 07-10-2023 at 08:04 PM.
-
Something Different is what it says on the cover; an outstanding album. Originally Posted by jameslovestal
-
-
Note sure what your point here is. Again, Dexter decided to have the album called "Something Different" because the quartet used a guitarist instead of a pianist. Of course, it says "Something Different" on the cover because that is the name of the album. Originally Posted by Litterick
Anyhow, yea, an outstanding album and one of the 5 or so albums I listen to the most.Last edited by jameslovestal; 07-11-2023 at 11:47 AM.
-
It's exactly the same with English ! Originally Posted by AndyV
-
And what instrument is the easiest to play jazz music?
is jazz music easy for everyone?Does every listener have a sense of rhythm?
-
[QUOvTE=Jimmy Smith;1273346]It's not the custom for the guitarist to pound his foot to be the drummer. It is the custom for the organist to be responsible for the bass of the group simultaneously with chord or melody duties. That's way harder than playing several notes at a time on guitar.[/QUOTE]
Jimmy, you are clearly and unashamedly biased as you play Hammond!
Of course guitar is the hardest jazz instrument, it completely explains why I am so bad at it.
Reply With Quote
Moffa Mithra
Today, 08:31 AM in For Sale