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How do you not become a mediocre player?
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TGerman
Posts: 138
Joined: Nov. 27 2005
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 How do you not become a mediocre player?
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A recent quote from ToddK, and one that I have seen many times, "...Decent players are everywhere" makes me wonder, how do you avoid mediocrity and become ? The obvious answer is practice, practice, practice but at what point do you define your playing as decent or above average? Is it possible to become an excelent player later in life (I, for example, am a newbie at 34 (wow, gettin' old))? Or is it a combination of natural talent, practice and finding the right teacher?
Todd
BTW - I do not recommend getting shoulder surgery, it is MISERABLE!!! Only 2 more weeks to go in this immobilizer (for a total of 6 weeks) before I can pick up the guitar again and attempt to play. Arghhh!
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Date Feb. 24 2006 11:40:42
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: How do you not become a mediocre... (in reply to TGerman)
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Well, I'm a mediocre player, so don't know if my advice really counts... :)
Let me make a distinction. There are two broad categories that I have noticed among experienced players. One is the competent musician. The other is the eternal intermediate player.
The competent musician plays with good rhythm, enough technique to play music, good enough ear to pick up music to play with other musicians, and a repertoire of songs he can play without messing them up.
The eternal intermediate player usually plays Paco de Lucia or Vicente Amigo pieces with bad rhythm and lots of mistakes or weak notes. He may be able to play along with a compas CD, but he wouldn't have much of a chance of pulling them off in a live situation. The eternal intermediate player has invested a lot of time in tremolo and picado, and can usually wow friends and family with these flashy techniques. Of course, he probably knows that they aren't _really_ mastered, and they aren't reliable under pressure situations.
Notice that in my competent musician category I didn't mention the difficulty of the pieces. You see, I put Grisha in this category, as well as a bunch of mediocre musicians who can just strum some chords in compas for singers. To me, it's a mindset and way of prioritizing your time. You can have flash, but you have to have the foundation. I think the foundation is rhythm, technical ease, knowledge of songs, and the ear (the ear can be intuitive or analytical knowledge of harmony, chord patterns, and intervals).
The lesson I get, at least, from listening to Grisha's and Todd's advice is to slow down, work constantly on my rhythmic accuracy and other aspects of basic musicianship. Whether this means I will end up playing flashy and complicated parts with the kind of verve they show is unknown. I do, think, however, that it will eventually at least land me in the competent musician category, which is where I would like to be.
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Date Feb. 24 2006 14:41:20
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: How do you not become a mediocre... (in reply to TGerman)
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Sorin,
my post wasn't meant to be directed to you or anyone in particular. It speaks from my experience of tackling hard pieces as an intermediate player, and then, as my ear and musicianship improved, realizing they didn't sound good. I haven't heard John's clip, but I did read the comments on it, and I have to assume he is awesome. But notice that what the good players commented on was timing, not any particular technique.
You can play picado or tremolo or rasgueado or any other technique damn fast, and then later realize they were sloppy and basically worthless. I'm not saying that applies to you in particular, it is more about my personal journey.
I know you are working on fundamental musicianship, for example your foray into solfege, so I think you are on the right track.
_____________________________
Connect with me on Facebook, all the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/migueldemariaZ
Arizona Wedding Music Guitar
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 27 2006 5:06:08
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sorin popovici
Posts: 427
Joined: Jan. 7 2005
From: Iasi, Romania
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RE: How do you not become a mediocre... (in reply to TGerman)
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sorry Miguel, I dont know how do I light up so fast...I try to avoid it cause I know I have this tendency,but I also wrote what I wrote to say what I feel about the tremolo subject and to defend a little this technique as I like it very much and there are lot of people that fell in love with guitar just for recuerdos d'alhambra or "una limosna por el amor de dios".I like these memories and to me it was a reason to work harder.
I remember that the first thing that grabbed my atention when seeing first Grisha playing
that Nunez siguiryias(i think is called Remache) was that beautiful tremolo.I say "defend"
this technique ,but I do not mean that u atacked it .I mean it more like ,it can be read that way also to someone who's not carefoul and not experienced enough(I am not saying that
I have so much experience but I am saying that there are people who read and jump (just
as I am sometimes) to conclusions).Sure tremolo can also be boring,but arpegios,rasgueados ,picado can be boring for the same reasons just as tremolo.I dont think people can overexercise the tremolo,I look at some tremolos just like the one in fuente y caudal and to me ,puting enough sweat into that, it will pay off eventually.Though
I dont think u can overexercise smth,I know u are right about exercising it wrong ....and
I hope I'll see the day when I wont have to relearn anything again ,as this is the most frustrating thing to me.Just wanted to say that.
I apologize again,but I feel like I am making a little progress...six months ago I would have lost it  and light up for no reason.Again that was just my opinion on tremolo ..all else about "working constantly on my rhythmic accuracy and other aspects of basic musicianship" I agree and unfortunately this is the hardest part.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 27 2006 7:00:32
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