Totally changing the way we play...

[metal mania]

I haven't posted on here in quite a long time. The last time I posted I listened to and played mostly metal lead guitar. Since then I went through a long acoustic phase (which coincided with the end of the band I was in) and thus became more rhythmic. I've also been more into jazz chords and phrasing (listening to the likes of Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Mingus, Pass, etc...) Now I feel more comfortable as Dave Matthews style rhythm guitarist than a lead. I think it's amazing how we develop through our musical lives, I've only been playing for 7 years...How have some of you developed over the years?

[Malcolm]

What I play in public and what I play at home go down two different roads.

In public I play dirt simple I IV V Country. I play in two bands one rhythm guitar and in another the bass guitar. In both bands we have a total of perhaps 70 to 80 songs that we play over and over and over and over - you get the picture. My public playing is on automatic pilot.

So..... to keep my interest alive I mess around with many things at home. Keyboard for one. Clarinet for another. Theory lifts my kilt and I'm working on transposing real book bass clef lines into generic bass line riffs (R-b3-5-b7) at the present time.

[Zoso_Player]

I play blues and classic rock mostly now. It took me a while to settle into my own playing style. I went on a metal kick a couple years ago, but I just don't have the chops or the time to practice Vai and Petrucci songs. I've been trying to get into country guitar on my own (Albert Lee style licks and such) and I've found it challenging. It's a real departure from what I've been used to for the last 8 years. As I've gotten more into country music, I've been feeling the desire to learn the banjo and the lap steel guitar. we'll see.

[Malcolm]

I finally traded my banjo in on a bass. My neck of the woods you'll find more use for the lap steel than the banjo.

5 String bluegrass IMO is mostly tab, learn your tab to the 25 bluegrass songs and you are good to go. Did not lift my kilt. Take off the 5th string and play Dixie Land - liked that. But, again, more need for a bass than a banjo.

[garry.handsome]

I play various things...Metal is one of my favorite...I had a band that played metal and we had some good gigs in town...but we had to break up in the end...

and now I am looking to form a new band...

[Malcolm]

Join, don't form. Show up and play, much simpler.

[popmusic_sux]

I've definitely changed the way I play. A lot. All I used to play was electric guitar, I started off with the easy Green Day kinds of songs, stuck with a lot of 90's rock, and occasionally ventured into metal as I started to get a little better. I still listen to a lot of 90's rock (ok, almost all 90's rock), but a video that was posted here a few years back began to change the way I viewed the guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xon04MB1rDw

Eventually, I got into other similar-style guitarists like Michael Hedges, Andy Mckee, Don Ross and Antoine Dufour, and started working on those skills: tapping, fingerpicking, pop and slap, rasguedo, all that stuff, and I almost never plug in the electric anymore (in fact, when I moved out of my parents' house I didn't even take it with me, all I have is my Breedlove acoustic).

Every once in a while, I'll go back and play some of the 90's-style rock, but I usually just stick with the solo acoustic guitar stuff these days.

[55'gibby]

My musical style has changed so many times of the years, it's hard to say where I'm at today. I usually play in classic rock/blues bands, and I've been playing most of those songs for years. When I play by myself, it's a much different story.

I guess my first major change in the music I play happened when I was in college. At the time I was playing mostly metal or heavy rock. I ran across a guy who used to be a touring guitarist (he even did a tour with Jeff Beck). He heard me playing in the schools music room and laughed at my music. He said that I am playing the most simple, souless crap on earth. After a week or two of back and forth, he took me to a club in detroit (bakers keyborad lounge). That night my musical life changed. We saw T monk with George benson... I was never the same after that. I realized that music is far more than a string of notes, rather it's the entirety of what's played. Over the next several months He had taken me to see 6 or 7 more jazz fusion bands (Mahavishnu, Chick Corea, Herbie Hand**** to name a couple). This absolutley changed how I play. I no longer see music as a platform for guitar work, rather something that needs to be taken in total. I loved the interplay of rhythms, progressions and harmonies ever since.