Hey,
shredders. Today I'm going to talk about what makes a musician. You know,
there are so many guitarists (and bassists) out there who call themselves
true
musicians, yet they just practice just things like tapping and sweeping
and
various virtuoso stuff like that all day. Granted, that's great and fun to
do,
but that's not what musicianship is all about. Now, if you're a culprit of
this, I'm not ragging on you or anything, but I think you should look at
this
and maybe get something out of it. Keep in mind, this is highly beneficial
to
both rhythm and lead guitar, and even things like bass, piano, classical
strings, and drums (all of which I play).
Okay, I've compiled a list of ten different dimensions of musicianship.
These
just came off the top of my head--there's probably a lot more you can come
up
with and incorporate.1)
Technique - Is your position correct?
2) Tonality - Does your playing sound good overall? Is it clean? Is
it
articulate?
3) Rhythm - Are you keeping the tempo, or is it just a bunch of
notes smeared
together into an amalgamation of nonsense? (This is especially important
in lead
guitar)
4) Attitude - Is your posture okay? Are you presenting yourself
well to your
audience?
5) Concentration - Are you focused on your task? You can't just be
looking at
shiny objects while you're playing (for all you ADD people like me, ha
ha!)
6) Feel - Are you into the groove? Are you loosened up?
7) Dynamics - Especially important. Do you change your volume
during certain
passages or is it just one "flat line" of volume (meaning it doesn't
fluctuate)?
8) Phrasing - Ties in with dynamics. It's especially important in
the more
melodic passages that you phrase off at the ends of measures.
9) Confidence - Really important. Are you loose and flowing with
the music or
are you tense and nervous? This closely ties in with feel. Keep in mind,
nobody's going to care, let alone know if you screw up some notes. If you
stumble, keep on going.
10) Creativity - Probably the most important. Develop your own
style and your
own music. Hey, go the extra mile--develop your own playing technique.
When
Jimi Hendrix played guitar with his teeth, that was HUGE creativity,
because he
had no one to copy from--it was his own thing.
Probably the most focused on dimension is
the first one--technique. Granted,
this is one of the most important things to think about when you're
playing, but
that's not all you need to focus on. You need to focus on ALL of these
dimensions. When you get these things in line, only then can you be
classified
as a true musician.
I hope you find this informative and helpful to your pursuit of music. No
matter what instruments you play--strings, percussion, brass, woodwinds,
etc.--these are vital to your skills. I hope you can incorporate this into
what
you already know. If you can add more to this, hey, go right ahead. More
power
to you. Keep shredding, everyone.
-David K.
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