A guy called me asking for lessons, saying he wanted to play 'Just like Joe Satriani'. I took it with a pinch like you do, and arranged a lesson. When he turned up, he had a shaved head and was wearing oakleys, had a JS guitar etc etc etc. I wish I was lying, but I'm not even exaggerating... :eek: He actually wanted to be satriani... Why would you want to play like someone else already does? You're not going to do it better than them unless you innovate.
Point I guess is that a bit of enthusiasm and hero worship don't hurt anyone, but if you turn into a proper fan-boy, people might find it hard to take you seriously.
On the subject of elongated practice - I sometimes manage 3 hours at a stretch, it depends what I'm doing. I've long suspected that guitar players just make stuff up to sound cool, or more 'muso' or whatever. Steve Vai I would say is the most guilty. For instance, I don't believe he used to go to bed listening to a tape of a constant 'A' note, and then woke up being able to see pitch as colour, identify any A instantly blah blah.
I met Vai a while ago, and while I respect his capability on guitar, I found the whole 'guitar as religion' thing pretty irritating, and any reference you see to him not having any ego is a flat out lie.... :rolleyes:
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