Is this enough to be successful?

I was recently listening to an audio speech on business development. Yes, every once in a while I listen to something completely unrelated to guitar. Sorry to disappoint the Fretheads! In the audio, the speaker was talking about Attitude and Knowledge. His point was that in order to be successful in what you do – in his case, business – you needed both attitude and knowledge; that you couldn’t achieve the right attitude without knowing what you are talking about, and that you couldn’t learn what you needed to know without the right desire, commitment, and passion for what you are doing.

I ended up turning off the audio at this point, not because it was bad (quite the contrary) but because it got me thinking about how Attitude and Knowledge relate to guitar – music in general, really. In order to be “successful” at music/guitar, does it take a combination of both Attitude and Knowledge, or can someone achieve greatness without one or the other?

As I went through my mental Rolodex of all of the bands and players that I liked throughout the history of my music career, more or less every one of them is a very learned scholar. From Holdsworth to McGill to Satriani, all of the players I admire seem to have a very intense and passionate grasp of music theory and the technical aspects of guitar. I’m quite certain this is what has shaped my musical personality to be so pro-music education. It even came to a point in my development where I thought knowledge and proper technique were more important than vibe and feel. (I have since backed off this opinion greatly.)

But all of these great, knowledgeable players also have the right attitude. Attitude in the one sense of being committed to mastering their instruments and the genres they were playing in, but also attitude in the sense of having the balls and ego to go for it and become the guitar giants that they are. You really can’t be timid and shy and achieve the level of success  they have (at least on stage and on CD).

So there it is, right? It takes both attitude and knowledge in order to become truly great at music.

Well… not quite.

Punk rock legend Sid Vicious

As much as I like to pat myself on the back and do the self-congratulation routine for having figured out another one of life’s big mysteries, just as I was about to declare another mental victory, I thought about Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and jazz guitar great Wes Montgomery. I think it’s safe to say that Vicious wasn’t exactly the most musically intellectual bassist we’ve ever seen or heard. Montgomery, great as he was, couldn’t read music. Both had great ears, obviously, but neither were particularly knowledgeable about the inner-workings of music by any measurable standard. Yes, they were knowledgeable in terms of having a grasp of the music they were playing, but hopefully we can both agree at least on the point that attitude was a much more important measure of their musical personality than knowledge was.

There are, of course, many more examples of great players who didn’t know much at all about the technical aspects of music, theory, or even how to properly tune their guitars (as sacrilegious as that is, don’t get me started), so I don’t think I can just easily dismiss “attitude only” as a legitimate path to success.

Though I think both are important to being a well-rounded musician (and person, to be frank) don’t dismiss one over the other. You can be the most well-educated musician in the world but get no attention because you don’t have the charisma to carry your audience, and you can have the greatest rock tattoos and leather pants in the world but fail to sell a single CD because you always play in F while the rest of your band is playing in E.