Which one is the real jazz guitar ?

**Stringswinger** · 03-23-2023, 10:41 AM

I think that (for me) playing gigs for pocket money is way more rewarding than trying to be an influencer on social media. Making a slick video takes a lot of work. Much more than just showing up to a jazz gig with a guitar and amp and improvising on a called tune (which is mostly what I do).

Kudos to all the "influencers" out there that put in the work. I don't have the time to watch your stuff. I am too busy woodshedding to do that.

**Christian Miller** · 03-23-2023, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Stringswinger

I think that (for me) playing gigs for pocket money is way more rewarding than trying to be an influencer on social media. Making a slick video takes a lot of work. Much more than just showing up to a jazz gig with a guitar and amp and improvising on a called tune (which is mostly what I do).

Kudos to all the "influencers" out there that put in the work. I don't have the time to watch your stuff. I am too busy woodshedding to do that.

Oh I watch little jazz instructional stuff in general. (Not cos I think it’s bad, it’s just not for me.)

NB: even gigs pay a lot better than being a YouTuber with 7k subs! ;-)

Mind you it’s amazing what gigs pay better then. I have a friend (a top London musican) who uses jazz gigs to subsidise his true calling - a career in criminal law…

**jorgemg1984** · 03-23-2023, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Stringswinger

I think that (for me) playing gigs for pocket money is way more rewarding than trying to be an influencer on social media. Making a slick video takes a lot of work. Much more than just showing up to a jazz gig with a guitar and amp and improvising on a called tune (which is mostly what I do).

Kudos to all the "influencers" out there that put in the work. I don't have the time to watch your stuff. I am too busy woodshedding to do that.

That's part of my argument - imagine all that work that goes into making YouTube videos (no irony) applied to your instrument... Anyway, following Juan's steps, end of rant.

**Christian Miller** · 03-23-2023, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by omphalopsychos

For the record Christian, I do actually appreciate your online content quite a bit. Even with 7k subscribers (a lot by my book) you don't treat it as a popularity contest and it shows in the format (in a positive way). You invest time in depth and rigor and your content doesn't focus on shortcuts. Imagine all the time some others could be spending practicing rather than working on gimmicky editing of their videos. My negative sentiments are not directed at all YTers. Hell, even I have YT/and IG (with like 4 followers or something). I spend zero time editing. I don't even do any post-processing of the audio. Not my interest.

Well I see it as a selfish decision in that it has to enjoyable for me. So I do what interests me. Point of fact trying to emulate a tighter format (something people have often suggested to me) created more work and generated no more views. On the other hand I subscribe to a channel which is literally an older music professor giving unexpurgated classical music theory lectures in front of a whiteboard and he has loads more subs than me. Works for him! You have to follow your own star.

Right now I’m trying to work out why a heavily edited 10m video isn’t rendering. It’s a pain in the butt hole. I should just get a white board clearly.

But you know who is the absolute best YTer? Barry Harris. The voyeuristic aspect of his online materials guarantees its rigor and authenticity. He clearly dgaf that his videos are up on youtube. He's just there deep in the hole with his students, hammering out ideas for the sake of educating the students directly in the room with him and also working out his curiosities. The fact that his videos are online and getting millions of views is(/was) obviously totally irrelevant to him.

Those videos are very precious, and it’s amazing we can watch them any time we like and anywhere.

**bluejaybill** · 03-23-2023, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by Little Jay

True that.

I too have the tendency to sound the same on no matter what guitar I play. I now participate in studio sessions that sometimes really call for a specific guitar sound and I am working really hard to really make my guitars (ES-125, ES-333, Telecaster, Strat) sound like the guitar that they are! It's an art!

Totally right. Back in my younger days when I was doing studio work in addition to every kind of gig imaginable to make ends meet in NYC, I had a '60 ES345, and a '63 strat. Later I added a telecaster. It would never have occurred to me to make them sound the same.

Lately I sometimes pick up my tele and try to get it to sound like my archtop, since I hear about so many using them for jazz here, and it doesn't last long, a telecaster in my mind is great for many things, but trying to make it sound like an archtop isn't what I want from it. Back in the day, a telecaster with a PAF neck pickup was a standard studio guitar, now that you could make sound more like an archtop.

As far as the video goes, people have been making semis sound like arch tops or a reasonable facsimile since forever, just roll off the tone and play jazzy, is that really worth a video? It's like saying HEY, I CAN MAKE THIS COUNTRY TWANGER TELECASTER WORK FOR CLASSIC ROCK TOO!