When someone talks about ‘Guitar
Greatness’, what do they really mean? Do
they mean the ability to play any song
instantly after hearing it, having
incredible technique or being a superb
composer?
The real
answer is none of these, because people
seem to think that having the
‘abilities’ I talk about above instantly
makes them a great guitar player. The
real secret to ‘Guitar Greatness’ is
attitude while you are playing, having
your own signature style and putting
that, your personal guitar style, into
everything you play, even covers.
I was
recently watching a video of the late
Stevie Ray Vaughn. He was playing a
cover of the Jimmi Hendrix classic
‘Voodoo Child’. Even though Stevie could
have just played the song the exact same
way that Jimi Hendrix played it, he made
it different by adding his own signature
guitar style into the song.
How did
he do that? By just letting it come to
him. If you haven’t been playing guitar
for a long period of time you may find
this hard to grasp onto, but when you
have really achieved ‘Guitar Greatness’,
you should be able to sit down with any
musician, start jamming and pour your
emotions out through your playing.
That’s exactly what Stevie Ray Vaughn
did, and that is why he was and is so
famous and called a legend.
People
think that the guitar is an instrument
that anyone can master, but it takes
someone with a mixture of determination,
musical sense, perseverance and
roughness. If you don’t have those
qualities the good news is that you can
create them. You create these by simply
playing your guitar as much as possible,
creating your own sound while also
learning the styles of the greats that
played before you.
One more
crucial aspect of achieving ‘Guitar
Greatness’ is having respect for any
style, you don’t have to like it, but
you have to respect anything that is
played on the guitar, no matter if it is
Flamenco, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Metal
whatever. The secret is that you do not
have to have incredible technique to
master the guitar, Hendrix didn’t, but
he made up for it with attitude!
Good luck
finding your own signature guitar style.
