In this category "Guitarist-only about guitar" I plan on discussing all things guitar. As most know I am also a vocalist so I will save that for another category. I think I will call the vocal category "sing for my supper" as that is why I started singing way back in my teens. Guitarists were a "dime a dozen" even back then. Remember the song from the Lovin Spoonful -"There's thirteen hundred and fifty two Guitar pickers in Nashville, And any one that picks a guitar could play Twice as better than I will". So singing enabled me to get more gigs and pay me better. Nothing worse as we all have learned is to practice those 10,000 hours and still be sitting in your bedroom playing by yourself.
This discussion is about the issue of learning a lot of different styles and how it effects you in getting gigs and/or networking. When I was in my 20s I managed a music store for awhile and there was a Gibson Guitars guitar rep that would come by and we would play together in the store and he could play rock, jazz, blues, funk, latin, etc. I was always amazed and looked for forward to him coming by. But, he would tell me if anybody from Gibson asked to never say he played guitar because Gibson only wanted salesmen who were "salesmen" not musicians repping the guitars. The famous guitar celebrity endorsement thing was not where it is these days.
So what I have learned is that knowing a lot of styles is a major plus IF you use common sense and do not try to mix it up when not called for. I have played rock gigs where a Major 7th chord is pure taboo and the opposite with jazz gigs. I know this sounds a little pedantic but you would be surprised at how many guitarist don't get it. With Heavy Metal it's 5ths and 4ths. But thankfully things have changed so much now with the advent of genre crossbreeding it is an adventage to know a lot of styles. I recently saw/heard a YouTube video of the Jam Band Goose playing with a guest player Julian Lage (remarkable jazz guitarist who has reached out more to other styles and sounds). Goose sounded terrific with him and his playing killed.
Lastly, obviously with so much importance on education now, we are pumping out guitarists from schools like a factory. So the questions is are we suppressing creativity, originality, for a lack of a better word "soul". Joe Pass once said he would tell students to play something for him and they would run scales and chords. He would stop them and say now "play a song and with some feeling". So I feel basically if you dig a style then learn it from top to bottom and put your own personality into it. If you like a lot of styles then do the same and find places that will accept or will benefit from your diversity. This post was off the top of my head and we could go much deeper. I am open for all thoughts...
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