What category do you fall in?

How many people here are truly big headed and like to think they are the best? How many want to be the best and try without being a total jerk about it? How many people here can jam with somebody who is better them and admit it to them and try to learn something. I find a lot of people claiming this and saying that. I posted almost all of one of my songs because I wanted to know what people thought not because I wanted to show off. So what is your playing mentality do you want to learn all you can or do you just want to say your the best no arguements and thats final? I hope to get a good thread going on this subject because its such a hot topic. I know what we all write about other people but what do you think of yourself?

I suck. I cant even play the saxaphone.

I mostly a rhthym player. I do melodic leads. On a good day, I'm almost as fast as, say, uh... David Gilmour! :cool:

Originally posted by magicninja
....So what is your playing mentality do you want to learn all you can or do you just want to say your the best no arguements and thats final? I hope to get a good thread going on this subject because its such a hot topic. I know what we all write about other people but what do you think of yourself?

I don't know of anybody that thinks they are the best guitar player around. If they do they are full of sczhyt:eek:. I've heard people on this site brag about how many bpm they can play, or who they can play like, or that they are better than so and so. None of that impresses me. Saying that you're better than someone is only a matter of opinion anyway.. Your opinion. Better how? Faster, smoother ,more melodic, do you know more scales etc. Someone else would dissagree with you. I know a guitar player that can do Stevie Ray, Yngwie and Steve Vai solos note for note, but he is one of the worlds biggest egotist' and all around duppa judda's(polish for a__hole):eek:. This guy is destined to play his extrordinary solo's, solo, because nobody can stand him or will get on the same stage with him because he's a dink.The point I'm trying to make is, nobody cares how good you think you are. Your attitude is very important if you want to work in a band. Your personality will take you just about as far as your talent will.
As far as, do I want to learn as much as I can, the answer is yes. You can never know too much. If you think you know it all, your only cheating yourself. How do I rate myself? I'm good enough to earn a living at it, and I've never had any problems finding a working band to gig with. But I've got one helluva pesonality and a great sense of humor;).
I've got more I'd like to add on this topic, but I'll let someone else talk for a while. Remember, speed is cool, but there's no substitute for experience. So get out there and break some strings on stage.:cool:

I am definitely not the best guitar player, and I really dislike even talking to people who think they're the best because they're not.

You must always remember, no matter how good you are, someone is always better.

Plus, playing guitar is a style, like your hair, or the way you dress. Just because you part your hair on the right and I part mine on the left, doesn't make you any better than me or vice versa. Same way with guitar, everyone has a different style.

I love playing with people who are better than me, but who also have an open minded attitude. My one buddy is a great guitarist, in my opinion, I mean watching someone play Van Halen's Eruption, note for note, is an amazing site to see, but he's not a dick about it, we'll sit down and he'll just be like, ok do this and this and you'll get faster or smoother. And we can play together, he helps a lot.

And that's all I have to say about that.

I'm not the best, only people who listen to me think that ... :)

I used to think playing guitar was a destination, but I found out it's a journey, and it's been a lot more enjoyable since I came to that realization. As far as me being the best, I could care less, I'm not in a competition, as far as dealing with other people who think they are the greatest and get obnoxious about it, well they don't bother me since I found out that when they aren't looking, I can do stuff to their amp that will take them months to figure out............

played with all sort of people from 16 to 50 something..and unofficially taught a couple and it always surprises me that even someone who can't play a simple boogie riff will ,usually,come up with something ..a rhythm,fill or lick for example..and i'll think yeah.nice and pinch it..[sorry former "students" ;)

I usually ended up playing with less technically competent guys so i stuck to rhythm,to give a solid base for improvs etc,and i always like great rhythm players.Always listen with your heart and ears and try to be [humble and] restrained. I can vary so wildly from day to day...when not playing regularly with others..that i find it hard to slag off someone's playing or to give a criticism,in any way......what do you go for,if you made the audience cry,laugh or be sick from your deafing sonic terrorism do you worry that your playing is not as intended...? I know i am not the worst and will never be the best, but, God forgive you if you tell someone they stink..cause the next day it might be you..if they press you, you can always inform them nicely how to get...more advanced.

BTW,One of the better players on the local scene [my former teacher] is so shy he will play with his back to the audience
..perhaps that's a little too humble..but, it's a very difficult area.

My basic take is..what do you get if you have four guys with instruments going their own way..cacophany..and 4 guys playing together,giving and taking...music.

If you think you're so much better you'll never stay in a band,because you'll be trying to outdo everyone.

Originally posted by aiwass
Steve Vai and Ron Thal are both amazing shredders. When approached with this, they both respond with: "I can't play the blues". That's the spirit!

That's why I'm the best, I can't play the blues better than them...

I haven't listened to any Papa Roach, but that doesn't make me envious!!!

Just to bring two threads together, arent I clever. Papa Roach's guitarist makes Mark Tremonti look like Jimi. Only on a metatphorical level of course.

Good question? Does ego have something to do with it? You bet, ego has everything to do with it.

The guys that are truly THE be all and end all play by themselves. No other band members needed/wanted. They don't sing or need to. They just play great big halls and sell out everynight!

It ain't about being great. It really isn't about ego either. The truly great ones have a close knit group of people around them, usually friends and play for and off of each other, therefore all members in the band could be considered great by default. That is when the magic happens and it turns into a show. Nobody in the band says to anyone else "Your playing SUCKED" and means it, the members play and have fun.

Greatness is in the mind of the audience. If you have a bunch of guitar players having a contest to see who is the best they are probably laughing at the joke of it all. They know the truth, there is more to the show than an axe player.

No matter what style you like to play or whom you emulate matters. What does matter is being able to learn and build on what you have with other people that want to do the same. If you want to stand alone, you probably will.

I still have a lot to learn about the guitar and always will continue learning. That makes me sound ****, I'm not that bad honest. So I love being around musicians that are better than me. But on the other hand I also get **** scared, coz I'm real shy, about playin in front of people that are better than me. I always get paranoid of ****in up n just being crap to their standards, so I always make sure I like the people I play with before I jump in. I don't mind taking critisism, as long as it's from someone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong n how I might be able to improve. I actually learn stuff from teaching people from scratch coz then I'll come across something that I didn't notice when I was a beginner.

Slasher, at least you have the confidence to play with others. I do not play well at all and MUST work at it to just keep the chord changes.

Hell, I don't even practice if my wife is home.

:D

well, you remember being 5 years old and playing plastcine/ play dough? making snakes? spheres? and just general blobs?
Well I'm kinda doing the same with guitar... but to be honest, guitar for me is just a grown ups toy... If dont have fun, I put it down, and do something else, this is why i've learned very few songs, never practice scales.. but i'm really enjoying it...
It would be a lie to say i never sat down and tried to learn to tap, or messed around with scales.. but i did it for fun, not a practical lesson... I still learnt stuff in the end..

(and you'll know us by the trail of dead: lol, those guys aren't bad, "mistakes and regrets" is a great song, it's not got mental solos or anything so it bores guitarists, and it's art rock wich really goes over heads... School bands have no concepts and ideas behind them, they just try to strum power chords, that's a big generalisation... I dont know what a.y.w..u.b.t.d are like live, but their records fairly good, and more to offer than most mainstream stuff... I dont know, it's all taste in the end, some poeple like shallow heavy metal with fast solos that pierce your ear drums, some poeple like sensitive 3 chord rock, what does it matter...)

I am a manic depressive, so I do find it frustrating not being as good as I want to be, or should be. But my friends are always telling me that I'm great, n that helps a lot. But due to a stupid ****in chemical inbalance, it holds me back a lot when it comes to the confidence side. Some days I think I'm so bad that I'll stare at my guitars n just wanna throw them outta the window, so on those days I make sure I'm not around them. But on other days I will sit n do some riffs off the top o my head n do a **** hot solo n think **** I'm good. Thats very annoying, I'd like to find a nice level where I can think that I'm good(on the days that my confidence isnt up), but still good on the good days. So I would say playing around people does help my confidence, but only if I know the person.

Originally posted by kimbob
I don't know of anybody that thinks they are the best guitar player around.

I really do know a guy like that, and today his guitar teacher told me he sucks beans.

PS his teacher is an even bigger arrogant loser

Well you cant say there is always someone better.
There is only a limited number of guitarists
on this planet, and therefore, someone has to
be the best.
And what do you know, then we slide in to the question
"Can you measure how good someone is?"
Well theoretically, yes indeed you can.
So when someone comes up to you and says that he's
the best, hear him out first because he might be right!

Originally posted by mc9mm
So when someone comes up to you and says that he's
the best, hear him out first because he might be right!

Here's a quote to one of the best bass player ever, Jaco PASTORIUS. Jaco was manic depressive, and had an ego as big as Texas. So in his good days, he go around telling everyone 'I'm the best electric bass player on earth'. Since he went to guys like Ron CARTER to say that, you must understand people were kind of pissed off at him when he did that kind of stuff...
Well, Jaco said once 'it ain't bragging if you can't back it up'. I sometimes, as a joke, tell people that are introduced to me 'I'm Hervé, best guitarist on earth' some understand it's humor, while others think I'm just an arrogant self sufficient brat. Well, once they hear me play, they usually shut up...(I'm far from being the best, don't go thinking I believe it myself)
I believe though that some of the best musicians around are the soft spoken, discret type. They have worked on their instrument so much that they don't have lots of social skills. So they won't tell they are the best themselves.

Sometimes, the claim of " I'm the best " is just self promotion, not in an arrogant sense but in a business sense, alot of the soft spoken guys don't get much press reguardless of talent, Alan Holdsworth, Eric Johnson, somebody has to "Blow your Horn", somebody has to tell the world about you, if you have talent, then others will pick up on it and start spreading the word for you, even then you have to have a "Gig", niche, market, band , someplace to apply your talent, so it can get the "stage" you are looking for. Mc9mm, says you could theoretically determine who is best, I disagree, Who makes up the test? Even if I hear someone and say he's the best, thats still just my opinion, and nothing more, no matter how you slice it, "The Best" is only subjective to opinion.........