What a good musician maketh!

I have been digging and filling holes all day, and I am nackered! With summer nearly in full swing it has been important to setup an area on the farm that has shade netting so that we can continue growing certain plants and seedlings.
A lot of plants just don't do well when exposed directly to the elements.

Needless to say, I don't have much energy to wrote this post! So i would like to write something that I enjoy and that is not requiring too much energy and thought....a lazy post so to say LOL.

I have over the years had many discussion on this point, and I get many different responses to the question, "what makes a great guitarist?"

I have had the following responses to that question:

• Great technical ability
• Excellent speed
• Knowing the guitar well
• Ability to play multiple genre's well
• Ability to make music that fits well to the need. When to play and when not to
• Ability to play live

There are others but these are essentially the most common responses to that question.
What do you think makes a great guitarist or musician.

There are musicians that know how to sing or play extremely well, but have no feel. Some people like that. Me, not so much.
I have watched a few shows where one of the musos will spend so much time showing off that the show gets boring. Initially you're thinking wow!! Then 5 minutes of showboating and you want to throw something at the muso!

Other musos sound great in the studio, and these days we see many artists that when they perform live it leaves much to be desired. Even huge musos like Madonna that sounded terrible live. Her strength is more PR and song writing that actually singing.
We also had auditioned musicians that were fantastic when we demo them, but live were stiff and difficult to play with. Again for me this is not good for the band vibe.

For me you need someone that feels the music! And then has the ability to put that into their instrument.

I will use 2x guitarists as an example.
John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Slash from everywhere!

Here we have 2 guitarists that often make mistakes when playing live. I can hear that they are technically not great....and the skills are not nearly at the level of Joe Satriani, John Petrucci or Brian May.
BUT, they have the amazing ability to make the music the song needs. They somehow have fills and licks that turn a decent song into a great one.

Take a listen to the tiny little guitar solo in this pop/country song. this guy knew exactly what the song needed and nailed it!

Anything more would have detracted from the song.....this is what I'm speaking of.

In RHCP, they got a good guitarist in called Dave Navarro. This man can clearly play better than John did, but the albums were not as successful with a better guitarist in place....why?!?!?! Because John added something more than technical ability to the music, and made them into great songs...regardless of his skill shortage (or drug problems).
Slash has taken over hard rock and rock music for 20 years....and shows no slowing down either. His ability to take almost any song and get great fills, riffs and solos in place that suit the song perfectly is his greatest skill!

I will sit and listen to the little pieces he puts in music that are so simple but so effective. He really is the master at this. And frankly his success is evident of it too.

So for me, as much as I love the Jimi's of the world, I LOVE the artists that move me in the music...the ones that carry my emotions to places that only music can take me. And this is why I listen to music, for that very reason. It is not to stand there with my arms crossed, judging a musician from afar (something that happens often to musos BTW) on how well they can hit the notes or if they will make a mistake....perhaps think they can do it better.
No one really enjoys 5 minute solos...especially on the drums!!

So for all the opinions out there on what makes a musician great, to me it is their ability to play what is needed when it is needed, and feel the music more that play it.

This can be classical music, spiritual music, operatic, rock n roll, hard rock and even some pop songs (very few move me- its really the lyrics that can touch me here).

Of course there are those special musos that can be technical and feel the music all the same....look at the below videos to see some of them in action: Goose bumps!!

How cool would it be if Gary Moore could sing as well as he plays guitar?? Same for Joe Bonnamassa actually
So to the future Frusciante's, Slash's and Gary Moore's....please make sure you feel what you do. Throw those feelings into the music and move the people listening to you....and you will be successful in my book.

Perhaps you agree? Perhaps not?

Either way, cheers

[Image and video credit YouTube, rollingstone.com, guff.com]