Barking Madness

[GuardiansGuitar]

During too much travel running up to the holidays, my mind ventured into a weird place, and that strange joint was cooking up a stew of competition, achievement, and the lambasting of other players that are deemed "less than" oneself.

 

Now, I know that many guitarists DO NOT take part in taking APART other players in the community, but my brain simply wouldn't let go of this stream of consciousness journey. It wasn't a happy trip. It was likely a wrong-headed exercise. But I soldiered on anyway.

 

So here it is...

 

Very very very few musicians are talented, lucky, ambitious, ruthless, giving, and savvy enough to truly command a HUGE PRESENCE. These titans sell millions of records/downloads/streams and often perform in massive venues populated with tens of thousands of fans. They AFFECT entertainment culture. It's incredible.

 

A long way further down the success ladder are what I would still define as equally fabulous players who aren't superstars, but can still etch out a decent living by purely writing and performing music. These people are warriors, as well, and they seduce enough of an audience to maintain the celebrity, content production, and revenue streams to keep them from working everyday jobs.

 

The rest of us? Well, we are not those people.

 

Some of us create and write for fun and entertainment. Some play local, regional, or even national gigs that are cool, but not enough to pay the bills. Some never get out of the crap bars. Hardly any of these musicians engage the large audiences needed to sell significant music or merch.

 

Typically, the expense to do what they do far exceeds the income that what they do actually generates. In factâusing a Marvel Comics exampleâThanos could snap his fingers and vaporize EVERY guitarist who wasn't a superstar or a living-wage earner, and the community of music consumers might not even notice for quite a spell. (Well, unless your family and friends compromised most of your less-than-mammoth fan base and started wondering why you weren't showing up for dinner.)

 

The point here is that a colossal population of "not superstar/not living wage earning" guitarists are, for the most part, IN THE SAME BOAT, so to speak.

 

No one is SIGNIFICANTLY pummeling another player with massive amounts of success they can lord over someone. Let's look at the old "pyramid" graphic that marketing people use from time to time: The microscopic triangle at the top are the superstars, the slight larger section below it are the living-wage earners, and the extremely large section below THAT is everyone else. Welcome to the jungle!

 

Now, here's the part to ponder...

 

If we who all-together populate the foot of the pyramid are basically churning in the same business marketplace of, um, [1] losing money, breaking even, or not consistently bringing in profits, [2] playing much the same venues that aren't regularly arenas, theaters, or high-end clubs, [3] not owning a massive presence in the celebrity and audience slipstream, and [4] not inspiring, in a major way, the next generation of creators, THEN WHY DO SOME OF OUR CO-CONSPIRATORS IN THE BUSINESS OF NOT BEING SUCCESSFUL CRITICIZE THEIR COHORTS IN THE SAME PETRI DISH?

 

It's kinda nutty. In a marketplace of varying degrees of failure, does it really matter if one player is faster than another, or has a better guitar tone, or owns hipper equipment, or writes "better" songs, or whose band is tighter, and so on?

 

Aren't all of these elements simply "ego rationalizations" that hide from the matter at hand, that, as CEOs of our own musical empires, we are pretty freaking hopeless?

 

I mean, a super-fast player who supposedly writes awesome songs and who occasionally performs at a fabulous theater is, in essence, not winning the business battle anymore decisively than a player who tends to make a lot of musical mistakes and has crappy tone, but is very entertaining.

 

PLEASE: I'm not flying the flag for mediocrity here, or saying that someone who chooses not to practice and embraces sloppiness is a person that should be celebrated.

 

I am merely saying â admittedly with a LOT of babble â that one should seriously consider which community they are in, BEFORE they get all egotistical and downright mean and incredibly unsupportive to the people who are standing right next to them.

 

We at the bottom of the pyramid should enjoy what we do, immerse ourselves in trying to create art that is true for each one of us, and, where we can, HELP our brothers and sisters who MAY have a chance to crawl up to the next level of the pyramid.

 

Pissing all over other musicians in our "play space," once again, is like battling to be the last rat on a sinking ship. You may drown last, but you're still going to drown. Does THAT make you happy about yourself?

 

Instead, maybe we could try lifting each other UP in 2020...

 

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ever see a bucket of live crabs? If one gets close to escape, odds are good one or more of the others will grab him. They may not be TRYING to pull their co- occupant down, but they often succeed in doing so.

 

People do the same thing.

 

OTOH, I developed a philosophy of dating while I was in college. 'If one of us wins, we ALL win.' Did a lot to keep me from getting jealous of my friends who were dating a LOT more than I did, I"ve found it works in other areas of life as well.

 

It doesn"t always apply, of course. And I can"t always keep that perspective, because I am not a saint. But I have found it"s a useful thing bouncing around in my head.

[Winston Psmith]

In part, it's about respecting different interests, and different skill sets. There are a lot of ways to play Guitar well, but I don't know many players who are good, or even passable, at ALL of them. So, are the finger-pickers "better" than the flat-pickers? Where does that leave two-handed Tappers? Are the Classical Guitarists better Musicians than the Jazz Guitarists, and do both of them really get to look down on Blues or Folk Musicians?

 

I long ago started incorporating Signal Processing and Synthesizers into my sound; I got my first Ring Modulator back in '73 or '74? I could hear how those sounds would work for the Music I wanted to pay, but that didn't mean that everyone else should want to sound like me. I cannot for a moment imagine that Bonnie Raitt's sound would be improved by adding a Bit Crusher to her rig, and I sure as hell can't play Slide like she does, though I'd like to.

 

I know other players, whose skills I respect and admire, who would never want to put their sound through a Ring Mod, and have no use for MIDI gear. While I can play some pretty esoteric stuff, I've never come close to mastering Slide Guitar, nor Travis picking. That doesn't make one approach "better", it just points up that there are many different approaches and all of them require skill and dedication.

 

I've also learned from other players whose skill sets barely touched on what I was doing, at all, but every new approach to the Guitar opened new possibilities

 

My favorite Dirty Harry quote is "A man's got to recognize his limitations." Sometimes that means just shut your mouth and pay attention to what you're doing, let the other players do what they do. If you're nice to them, they may even come share what they know.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I use that quote weekly, it seems.

[Larryz]

"WHY DO SOME OF OUR CO-CONSPIRATORS IN THE BUSINESS OF NOT BEING SUCCESSFUL CRITICIZE THEIR COHORTS IN THE SAME PETRI DISH?" OP...

 

+ another 1, I love Clint's "a man has to know his own limitations" quote. It always amazes me when our cohorts criticize the successful guitar players that are at, or have been, at the top...

 

I don't worry about who is at the top and who is at the bottom of the pyramid, or where I fit in. I play guitar for my own enjoyment and love learning/creating new stuff while working on my old stuff.

[KuruPrionz]

It seems to me that you may have left an important factor out at the begining - charisma. It is a fact of life that some people simply have far more charisma than others.

It is an intangible, undefinable "It" thing. We all know it when we see it. I have examples, I cannot explain them in definite terms.

 

Joan Jett. I saw her twice. Not much of a singer or guitarist. The first time I was in the middle of a crowd of about 1,200, well back from the front.

While performing, she looked at ME, right in the eye. I felt a strong moment of "connection".

If we are being honest, I doubt she could actually see me clearly at all but I felt it just the same. Charisma.

 

Bo Diddley. I was in the right room when the phone rang and stole our bassist's gig. I got to play as part of Bo Diddley's backup band for one show. Yes, a Legend and a Founder of Rock and Roll music. Also a short, chubby, coke bottle lensed, balding 64 year old man who knew maybe 7 licks in E and changed keys by using a capo. Fairly small venue - 350 people. Bo stepped out on that stage, OWNED it and had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand from the instant he appeared. We all felt differently afterwards, some of us forever. I stood next to him for 2+ hours trying to focus on keeping the groove going so he could work his magic. Charisma.

 

There are many other examples I could give, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Chrissie Hyde of the Pretenders, BB King, Ray Charles etc etc etc. Great music, not denying that but charisma is what took them to the top.

I don't have that sort of charisma. I don't see it at that level around town. Not dissing anybody, we work with what we have. I feel lucky because the music community here is very supportive. We don't hesitate to send another group a gig we can't make, we know they will do the same for us and providing the club owner with a good option keeps us on their list. Many of us have and will sit in with other configurations if our group is not booked and an opportunity arises.

 

it is pretty much impossible to dislike the new friends you just rocked out with!!!!!

A high tide floats all boats.

 

Be good, and if you can't be good, be FAST!!!! Cheers, Kuru