Originally Posted by: dlwalke

If I could get more letters into the title field that might have been clearer, but it occurred to me the other day that I frequently hear guitarists (professional and aspiring) make the distinction between lead vs rhythm. Like, I heard Chrissie Hynde in an interview saying that she always just wanted to play rhythm and was never to interested in lead (which I take to be synonomous with melody and solo playing). Others clearly want to do the opposite. But I don't think I've heard that distinction made with respect to other instruments. For example, lead vs rhythm piano or xylophone or violin or harpsichord. So I'm asking myself (and now this board I guess) if that's because I don't attend to discussions of those other instruments so much or, alternatively, is there something unique to the guitar that lends itself to having it's practioners focus, or have the possibility of focusing on those different possible roles. Maybe it's just a quirk of history and the development of guitar styles (when did lead guitar become a thing). Or maybe my premise is incorrect and there are indeed lead vs rhythm violinists or violin parts (e.g., in an orchestra), for example.

[edit: I appreciate that most every instrument can do "a solo" - like at most every rock concert I've been to, but that doesn't quite seem like the same thing].

This is true, really. And for the record, I think someone should aspire to be a lead xylophoninst!

I do think it comes down to the nature of guitar and popular music. In many ways, rock, country, blues and so forth all have a very rhythmic sense to them. Versus classical music is more about orchestration and parts and movements and so forth. To me, though elememts of rhythmic playing would exist in a classical style, rhythm is no what defines the style. In rock/country/blues etc, rhythm is mostly the point and lead playing is just a subset of those styles.

I should note that even in classical playing, there are soloists, so the style is not without precedent with regards to a player taking a part that is made for a single player that, for all intents and purposes, showin' are off their chops.

A rock song can't really exist without the rhythm but can without a lead so in a manner of speaking, seperating them explains their role.