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The end of: THE BEST GUITARIST

 
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RD



Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Posts: 293

PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:19 pm    Post subject: The end of: THE BEST GUITARIST Reply with quote

WHO IS BEST

The following is addressed to people that are so eager to state who is 'THE BEST' guitarist.

4 things for these people to think about:


1. MUSIC IS ABOUT CREATION, NOT COMPETITION

Believe it or not, but true musicians don't see music as a competition. A guy like Satriani isn't thinking: "Oh shit, Vai is getting too good!!! I must do something to win the race!!!!". Do some research, and you'll see I'm right about this. If you do find a musician who's thinking that music is about competition, you'll most likely hear that in the playing (in a negative manner). It will block the creativity and vision of that individual to some degree.

2. AUTHORITY

Who gave you the authority to state as a fact who is the best guitarist? Why should other people acknowledge this? Don't you think it's BETTER to say that you PREFER a certain guitarist over another instead of stating who's best?


3. WHAT RULES?

I wonder what rules/criteria you would use to decide why Steve Vai is better then, let's say, Paco De Lucia. Or why Jimi Hendrix is better then Django Reinhardt, etc. With so many styles, this is just impossible, especially after reading point 4.


4 HAVE YOU HEARD 'M ALL?

Let's say you do think music is about competition and that you do have the authority and that you also got the perfect ruleset figured out..... then still you'd first have to hear ALL guitarists from all over the world. Are you sure you've heard them all? How can you be sure of this?


That's just something to think about.


Please do copy & paste this on Youtube whenever you want Smile
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice post with very good points. This is a subject that I doubt will ever go away because it's human nature to discuss who's 'THE BEST' in any type of discipline. It's really just an opinion but the problem is that people state the opinion as some sort of fact and then denigrate anyone else who doesn't agree.
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van hellion



Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Posts: 46

PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

brilliant!
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sumis



Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 570
Location: gothenburg, sweden

PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

you're spoiling the fun man! Wink

thanks.

.
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Slabbefusk



Joined: 16 May 2007
Posts: 5
Location: Sweden

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Music is an art not a sport. Should be enough.
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sumis



Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 570
Location: gothenburg, sweden

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Slabbefusk wrote:
Music is an art not a sport. Should be enough.


i beg to differ. music is not one thing or the other, but the name of a group of many different and sometimes contradictory practices, some more arty than sporty, some more sporty than arty, some sporty and arty, some neither.

art music is art music. sport music is sport music. is there always possible in a specific case to make a clear distinction? that's another discussion ...

.
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nik harrison



Joined: 09 Apr 2009
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:21 am    Post subject: Re: The end of: THE BEST GUITARIST Reply with quote

RD wrote:
WHO IS BEST

The following is addressed to people that are so eager to state who is 'THE BEST' guitarist.

4 things for these people to think about:


1. MUSIC IS ABOUT CREATION, NOT COMPETITION

Believe it or not, but true musicians don't see music as a competition. A guy like Satriani isn't thinking: "Oh shit, Vai is getting too good!!! I must do something to win the race!!!!". Do some research, and you'll see I'm right about this. If you do find a musician who's thinking that music is about competition, you'll most likely hear that in the playing (in a negative manner). It will block the creativity and vision of that individual to some degree.

2. AUTHORITY

Who gave you the authority to state as a fact who is the best guitarist? Why should other people acknowledge this? Don't you think it's BETTER to say that you PREFER a certain guitarist over another instead of stating who's best?


3. WHAT RULES?

I wonder what rules/criteria you would use to decide why Steve Vai is better then, let's say, Paco De Lucia. Or why Jimi Hendrix is better then Django Reinhardt, etc. With so many styles, this is just impossible, especially after reading point 4.


4 HAVE YOU HEARD 'M ALL?

Let's say you do think music is about competition and that you do have the authority and that you also got the perfect ruleset figured out..... then still you'd first have to hear ALL guitarists from all over the world. Are you sure you've heard them all? How can you be sure of this?


That's just something to think about.


It's nice ideology, and I agree with all of it, right up to the point where it doesn't fit into the real world very comfortably when the "best" player gets the gig at an audition. They are chosen from others who don't get the gig...
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wahwah666



Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 3
Location: Bucks, UK

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My take on this is 'if you haven't heard them all, how can you judge something so OPEN'? Maybe the 'best' guitarist is some 9 year old sat in a bedroom in Warsaw? I recently saw the live vids of Anton Oparin from Russia on youtube (now in LA under someone's wing) doing Paul Gilbert's 'Get Out Of My Yard' and 'Scarified' and he's 12. Now, he obviously has a gift for playing this stuff and I was mightily impressed but we won't see any fruition until we know if he can WRITE and play his own stuff in his own style. The world is in his hands and hopefully he will do good but it still won't make me believe he's the best...that's too wide a poll...popularity usually decides these things.
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RD



Joined: 27 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 12:47 pm    Post subject: Re: The end of: THE BEST GUITARIST Reply with quote

nik harrison wrote:
RD wrote:
WHO IS BEST

The following is addressed to people that are so eager to state who is 'THE BEST' guitarist.

4 things for these people to think about:


1. MUSIC IS ABOUT CREATION, NOT COMPETITION

Believe it or not, but true musicians don't see music as a competition. A guy like Satriani isn't thinking: "Oh shit, Vai is getting too good!!! I must do something to win the race!!!!". Do some research, and you'll see I'm right about this. If you do find a musician who's thinking that music is about competition, you'll most likely hear that in the playing (in a negative manner). It will block the creativity and vision of that individual to some degree.

2. AUTHORITY

Who gave you the authority to state as a fact who is the best guitarist? Why should other people acknowledge this? Don't you think it's BETTER to say that you PREFER a certain guitarist over another instead of stating who's best?


3. WHAT RULES?

I wonder what rules/criteria you would use to decide why Steve Vai is better then, let's say, Paco De Lucia. Or why Jimi Hendrix is better then Django Reinhardt, etc. With so many styles, this is just impossible, especially after reading point 4.


4 HAVE YOU HEARD 'M ALL?

Let's say you do think music is about competition and that you do have the authority and that you also got the perfect ruleset figured out..... then still you'd first have to hear ALL guitarists from all over the world. Are you sure you've heard them all? How can you be sure of this?


That's just something to think about.


It's nice ideology, and I agree with all of it, right up to the point where it doesn't fit into the real world very comfortably when the "best" player gets the gig at an audition. They are chosen from others who don't get the gig...


Well, in that same 'real' world (what is 'real' anyway?) you got people who don't even have to do audition because they found a way to make a living with their own music. I mean, does that mean they are 'better' musicians per se? I don't think so. On top of that, the person who gets chosen to 'get the gig' after doing auditions might not necessarily be a 'better' musician then the others, but instead, perhaps the person's personality fits the band 'better' or his playing style suits the band 'better'.

I mean, lot's of (young) Paul Gilbert fans think Gilbert is 'best', but Steve Vai fans think that he is the best, etc., etc., while all of them have their strong and weaker points.

I think when people make statements, they have to be more specific.

For instance, you could say that Steve Vai is technically a weaker accoustic player then Paco De Lucia. So technically speaking, Paco is a better player on the accoustic. See? Now I'm being more specific, which is totally a different way of reasoning then to say that someone got the gig, so he must be the best. That kind of reasoning is still way to vague and dumb if you ask me. That kind of stuff could also imply that the guitarist of 'The White Stripes' is better then the guy who 'got the gig' simply because the guitarist of 'The White Stripes' is so fucking good that he doesn't even have to 'lower himself' to do any audition in the first place. I mean, I'm sure that that's what 'The White Stripes' fans would come up with Smile

So to avoid this vague 'best' stuff that really doesn't help anybody, let's just not use the word 'best' anymore and be more specific when making statements. Or you could say you PREFER one player over the other because of certain reasons. I mean, is that really so hard? Am I the only one who has eliminated that pesky little word out of his vocabulary? You know what, I think I actually am and I find that very sad because I can write whatever I want but it seems people just don't want to get the fucking point.
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digitalkettle



Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 132
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:05 pm    Post subject: Re: The end of: THE BEST GUITARIST Reply with quote

RD wrote:
Am I the only one who has eliminated that pesky little word out of his vocabulary? You know what, I think I actually am and I find that very sad because I can write whatever I want but it seems people just don't want to get the fucking point.


Dude, you can only control how *you* regard such an issue...anything else is fail at teh internetz.
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larkinguitar



Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When someone says "This guy is the best player on the planet!"... Can't it just be that person's passionately stated opinion? You're building it up to be something more than that.

Some opinions are less informed than others. You have to respect the fact that everyone has their own methods and ways of justifying those opinions, and none of them are less valid than others. (Implying someone has to go by *your* system - (otherwise, they're a moron with an illegitimate opinion) - is pretty arrogant, to be honest). Some people put a lot of thought into it, others don't. Why does this bother you so much? Every time someone says Vai is a better player than Paco, does God kill a kitten? Laughing

People tend to express their opinions passionately, especially when speaking about something close to the heart like music and the musicians who inspire them to wake up every day and play/practice. If, for example, I'm completely obsessed with Guthrie's playing and can't get enough, and despite having heard every single guitarist in the world and gone through someone on the internet's system for "fairly" judging who's the best guitarist, in my most discriminating mind I still believe he's the best, am I wrong? Isn't "best" still an opinion, and am I less entitled to that opinion because I forgot that some other guitarist is better at something than Guthrie?

Stop worrying so much about what other people think about other guitarists. It shouldn't matter to you. I mean, I wish people put more thought into a lot of things, not just music or the opinions they express on internet forums, but I can't let it bother me when they don't, you know? You can't stop people from being people. Wink
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sumis



Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 570
Location: gothenburg, sweden

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well, neil young kicks everyone's ass. that's a pretty uncontroversial statement.

.
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