Does his playing move you?

I think it’s time to balance out the karmic discordance from my post on Guitar Heroes Just Don’t Get. It was a fun post to make, but hopefully you realize that it was mostly done tongue-in-cheek and my general focus here on Fretterverse is to promote good will and positive vibes among guitarists. Too much trash talking and ego-stroking is not a good thing for us axe slingers.

Throughout history there have been thousands of phenomenal guitar players. It seems like the list gets exponentially longer every day as more youTube videos and guitar blogs appear. But some players have transcended time and become true guitar legends thanks to their contribution as players. Many a guitar conversation has taken place where you were told you must listen to such-and-such because he is such a great guitarist. To not be a sycophant and shout praise for said player from the rooftop is akin to blasphemy and being cast out. So you check that player out, but for whatever reason you just weren’t blown away. You thought they were very good, and you can certainly see why they are hailed as legends, but they didn’t move you as much as you were expecting them to. Ever happen to you?

So with that in mind, today I thought I would take a slightly different approach and talk about some players that are obviously great but for some reason I never really got into them. I certainly listened to them a little bit, and their contribution to the guitar is quite obvious, but I never truly fell in love with them as players.

Let me state up front that this is not intended to imply that I (or you) hate any of these players as the post title suggests. Hey, good title creation is Marketing 101. (Don’t hate the player, hate the game!)

The point is that even though I never really fell in love with the playing of these guys, I still checked them out to see what they were doing and wanted to know why everyone else considered them masters of the guitar. You have to do your research; you can’t just focus on the stuff you like otherwise your blinders will eventually blind you completely.

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

I really hope I don’t need to explain why he’s considered a guitar genius. He pushed the envelope and created sounds with his guitar that had never been heard before. I can only suspect at this point it’s the younger generation of players that may not have heard Hendrix, but they should.

I had a phase of about six months where I listened to Hendrix religiously. Pretty much every day, all day was spent absorbing his playing and trying to get it in my ear. As I did this, however, it seemed more like research than passion. Though I certainly get why he had such a strong impact, his impact was not of my generation. By the time I was old enough to really start to get influenced I had been seduced by the sounds of metal and prog rock.

Kenny Burrell

Kenny Burrell

His CD Midnight Blue is generally accepted as one of the must-have jazz guitar CDs. His playing imprint has been on many recordings, and his influence within the jazz guitar community is quite widespread. And that’s not to mention that he’s still going strong and playing around the world to this day.

Talk to most jazz guitar players and they will list Burrell as either a direct influence or someone of immense talent that has garnered that player’s respect and admiration.

For me, however, Burrell’s playing style just never grabbed me. Now, I fully admit that I have only been a big jazz fan for 7 or 8 years now, so I accept that I just might not be getting him yet due to immature ears, but I’m much more into Montgomery, Bruno, and Bucky. I think, for me, Burrell is a little bit too “inside” of a player and I prefer something a little more aggressive and dirty.

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Good old “Slowhand” himself. Clapton has been one of the preeminent figures in blues guitar for several decades. From songs like Layla to Crossroads, Clapton has retained god-like stature for over 40 years. His less-is-more approach garners legions of die-hard fans, and his phrasing is awesome. Tone? Check. Emotion? Covered. Clapton certainly has it all. So why don’t I really dig him that much?

I’m not sure, to be honest. I like the songs Layla and Crossroads, certainly, but I can certainly take a pass on Tears In Heaven. I think perhaps, like Burrell, his playing is just a bit too clean and sanitized for my ears. I apologize if that sounds blasphemous, but it almost seems a bit too spot on and perfect, especially for a blues player.

I haven’t really heard anything from him in a while so perhaps he’s playing a bit differently now. Perhaps?

Tom Morello

Tom Morello

I should start off by saying that I was a huge Rage Against the Machine fan when their debut CD came out. The whole rap/metal thing really spoke to me, as I was at the time also a huge fan of Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and N.W.A. The riffs were solid, the drumming was grooving, and they had a lyrical message that appealed to my early 20′s angst.

But, the praise Morello would receive for his “innovative” guitar playing didn’t quite capture me the way it did many others at the time. Though he certainly pushed the envelope of our instrument and showed that the guitar could be used to create soundscapes in addition to the traditional notes and chords, it never really caught on with me. I’ve always been something of a plug-and-play guitar to amp guy, never really getting much into effects and guitar “tricks.”

With all of that being said, and with all of the reasons why I am not the hugest fan of these guys, and also completely unlike my previous post on guitar heroes I just don’t get, I wholeheartedly suggest that you dig in (deeply) to these players and try to understand why they have had such a massive impact and influence on the guitar.

Do Your Homework

Your mileage may vary, and you may hate these guys completely or fall in love with them instantly, but either way their mark on guitar music has been indelible and you should absorb the contributions they made. Learn from them. Try to understand how their styles developed. Analyze their approach and see if you can figure out why they play what they play – and when they play it!

You’ll be doing yourself a great disservice if you just dismiss the greats that came before you simply because you don’t like the genre they play in or some other crazy reason. Do your homework and build your foundation stronger.