What makes great players? How does it happen?

[jgcable]

Here's how...

You have to be born with a natural musical ability and then you have to practice your ass off and dedicate almost your entire existence to your instrument. Some people would call that obsessive compulsive behavior. Thats exactly what it is. All the great players have it.

Ask yourself... do you think that Hendrix didn't play every waking moment? Some people think that he sat around and got wasted and jammed out once in a while. Some people think that Eddy Van Halen was born with a guitar in his hand and already knew how to play it. Some people think that Malmsteen just sits around and eats donuts and drives Ferrari's or that Keith Richards is too stoned to know what he is doing or that Eric Clapton was beamed down from heaven and doesn't really need to practice that much.

Thats it.

If you aren't a great player you don't possess any natural ability or didn't do one of the 2 things above.

I am happy I was able to clear that up for all my JCF bro's.

[DonP]

Exactly. I don't have natural ability and I'm not doing my homework of practicing scales, learning solos etc (I have a life LOL!).

I just slop around jamming to my favorite CD's and so far that's good enough for me.

[jgcable]

Exactly. I don't have natural ability and I'm not doing my homework of practicing scales, learning solos etc (I have a life LOL!).

I just slop around jamming to my favorite CD's and so far that's good enough for me.

And let me clarify one thing. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with not being a great player. Some of the best musicians I know who have been in the game the longest aren't great. You don't have to be great to love to play and make great music.

[jgcable]

and... when it comes to guitar solo's... its not the quantity of the notes... its the quality of the notes and the note selection.

Meedley meedley meedley is forgotten almost as quickly as its heard.

Just ask 90% of the shredders from the 80's who were in bands that never made it big. I think one of them washed my car last week.

Play notes that people will remember you for. Get your own damn voice. Nobody cares how many notes per second you can play.

[Chad]

I read a great thread on this recently on another forum. The bottom line was that natural ability really doesn't even take a person very far.

"Talent" really is the ability to practice in a focused, goal-oriented manner. It's a given that a lot of practice is required, but beyond a certain point, it's far more important WHAT/HOW you are practicing vs how MUCH you are practicing.

[jdelva]

Hello, this is like my 10th post on the forum, I think I was born with the creativity or "musicality", I just don't have much time to practice so there are certain things I'm not able to play. So yeah, I think you need to have creativity and ability to become a great player

[CowboyFromHell]

and let me clarify one thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not being a great player. Some of the best musicians i know who have been in the game the longest aren't great. You don't have to be great to love to play and make great music.

amen!

[bombtek]

A good balanced breakfast helps.

[ginsambo]

Natural ability bullshit. I was drawing and painting persepctives of cathedrals and race cars with mm scale accuracy when I was 8 years old. By the time I finished high school, kids who had absolutely no talent whatsoever were passing off decent art due to being taught, practice and a genuine interest in it.

It's more about practice, and moreover a willingness and unsatisfied hunger and never ending interest for it, practice and high personal standards. And that has to be songs and music in general and pushing the boundaries with creativity. Songs will teach you the melody, tonality and rhythms, creativity will push your boundaries and make you question everything and try new things and practice will make sure you get there consistantly, but like everything in life you have to have the drive inside you to get there. There is a difference to being born talented and genuine creativity. In fact, although I do a job that is creative, I would argue that I was natural gifted as an artist, but I am not very creative and there is definitely a difference to being talented and creativity.

These supermusician kids you see, it's no more than a language that they have grasped early on, like a novice guitar player watching a pro play, we get blown away. But break it down into it's components of why they are like that and it's really not so impressive IMO.

For me personally, it pisses me of when people label kids as creative and super talented when to them it is just like a language they have learned or something and it comes easy, but respect to the ones who are genuinely talented and actually still interested in it and creative about it too!

I personally think Clapton is over rated shite, but EVH is a rhythmic genius. At the end of the day, it's just another language that you have to be able to communicate to people so they relate to it, of course elecution helps, but at the end of the day, as with any language, it's what you have to say that matters.

[javert]

10,000 hours of practice.... and some other stuff.

[Axegrinder87]

The obvious answer is....



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...



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...Jackson guitars :idea:

[Newc]

Axegrinder wins. You don't need to practice, you don't need talent, you don't need to be creative, you just need a Jackson. Go buy one and see for yourself. If after buying one, you don't achieve greatness, you might need to buy another one, or several more. Eventually you will have enough Jackson guitars that you will be perceived as a great player by other people ("gee, he's got a lot of Jackson guitars, he must be a GREAT PLAYER!")

Greatness is, after all, measured by how others perceive you, not in how you perceive yourself.

[Pointy]

Natural ability and talent will help you get started and will give you the final push to the top once you get there. Everything in-between is practice and perseverence!

...but just in case, I play a Jackson

[Newc]

Greatness is not the same as fame. There are many great players who will be forever consigned to YouTube. Look at how long Eric Johnson was highly revered in and around Austin before being known by the larger guitar community. Meanwhile, you had people like Cobain inspiring young'uns to buy a Fender Jaguar.

[Jacksons Rock]

You have to find the right pick!

Edit: seriously though, what it takes is practice and playing - lots and lots of practice and playing. You can and will get to where you want to be if you stick with it.