OT SRV

[Tony Forestiere]

Jeez---

Listen to the first lead on "Tightrope".

I'm gonna quit playing guitar! The tone is KILLER!
BTW Little Wing could also cause me to sell all my stuff!

Why does God take all the guys who haven't met their potential?

[javacody]

Little Wing is amazing. If he could do it, so can you.    We all have the same potential.

[Ansil]

Little Wing is amazing. If he could do it, so can you.    We all have the same potential.

not true at all it is a proven fact that the amount of a particular muscle in your fingers that is essential to guitarist can not be increased via any excercise. and that what you are give is what you got,, get used to it.

other than that. we all have a pretty good shot at it.

[Tony Forestiere]

True or not..I am referring to a bootleg live version of Little Wing that I just came across. Pure MAGIC!!! I don"t know if I could ever call myself a guitarist after that :roll:

[Alpha579]

arrrgghhh! life is so cruel! first hendrix, then Vaughan, two of the most influencial, amazing, stunning guitarists. Ill think of ol' SRV when i play little wing like a sloppy pickle...

[RDV]

I do that Little Wing song myself! I can't worry about the fact that SRV did it better than RDV. I still cry when they show SRV's "Behind the Music". I remember where I was & what was doing when they announced he was dead, it was devastating. It still sucks.

RIP

RDV

[keko]

I remember where I was & what was doing when they announced he was dead, it was devastating. It still sucks.

There might be a generational leap, but it happened the same to me wehn Kurt Cobain passed away...I know he's not a guitar hero to many people, but surely he did influence a whole generation....BTW, I do feel more influated by SRV and JH (not james hetfield...I'm talking Jimi here)

if you believe in God, or even if there's a God, let's hope they're all rocking hard out there....'cause angel's kind of music (imagin shiny bells, and toyish keyboards) is a bit lame to my ears.


If you sing the blues, do till you "don't wake up this morning"...then you'll know you're dead

[petemoore]

Potential is something everyone has, but you waste...lol
 Potential is a funny word, 'everyone has an equal potential' is for moot discussions that don't ever end up making sense, except to console the non-adept into trying harder and stuff like that.
 There are very large differences in Ppl's potentials. Ppl with huge potential may have large egoes, and be competetive.
 I used to give guitar playing evaluations and lessons...for a short time...I was always too honest. Dude with long spatula fingers and ability to keep complex counts [timing] accurately / or guy with fat short 'construction hands' would ask me if they had potential and would get entirely different answers.
 I've seen ppl try guitar and give runs for moneys in 6mo to a year, others practice and practice for 10years and really can't play 1 thing well.  
 The cerebral cortex [connects the left and right halves of the brain] can be built up if it is 'excercized' at a very young age, is 'set' almost invariably at age 7...developing left/right hand coordination is dependant on cortex size/effeciency...it's like taking a look at a baseball pitchers pitching arm compared to his non pitching arms bone thickness/density.
 Potential varies all over the map...'we're all the same" is merely a phrase to console and inspire those who still have a chance if they try really harder.
 Just being exposed to noises in the womb creates brain matrix.
 Drinking filtered water helps too.

[fretbuzz2003]

not true at all it is a proven fact that the amount of a particular muscle in your fingers that is essential to guitarist can not be increased via any excercise. and that what you are give is what you got,, get used to it.

Where'd you hear that? Sounds like B.S. to me. Any muscle can be strengthened by exercise. Think about when you started playing. I bet you couldn't hold that F chord for more than a few seconds, now you can play it for a 2 hour set.

[javacody]

petemoore, I respectfully disagree.

Let's leave physical limitations out of this discussion. When speaking of potential, a human being is limited only by their own attitude. If you believe that you are a little blue smurf, then by God, you are! Your brain is constantly remapping itself. I would also suggest that people who have been "practicing" for 10 years and gotten nowhere are not using the correct method. Adaptability has been the key to survival for our species, which in itself, I believe, proves you wrong. No offense.

Here's a little quote for you:

New therapies to "reprogram" the brain and allow "remapping" of the cerebral cortex

Certain regions or populations of cells within the brain perform specific functions. When one area dies off, other areas either nearby or even on the other side of the brain can take over. This can be described as "remapping" the brain. Functional MRI and PET imaging techniques have demonstrated that this occurs in the post-stroke setting. Researchers are now examining methods to encourage this remapping in stroke patients.

That was taken from http://www.infoaging.org/d-stroke-10-future.html

Check out this link aimed at younger folks, but informative nonetheless:
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1101/teaching/teaching2.htm

Another good quote:

Brains are quite adaptable and do have the ability to recover after damage. When a brain is damaged, remaining neural tissue can sometimes take over and compensate for the loss. The ability of the brain to recover lost functions does not indicate that the damaged tissue had no function. Rather, this ability illustrates the brain's capacity to reorganize and rewire itself.

from http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/brain-myth4

If people can relearn to walk and talk after experiencing brain damage,then anyone can play the guitar well!

[petemoore]

Well some people think they have potential...lol
 I suppose it depends on the definition or something like that.
 The brain does have the ability to re-route connections, and new connections can be made.
 Say you take your basic brain with a given potential, the add copious amounts of ecstasy, even though theres now a hole in the side of the brain that a mouse could crawl through, and the overall brain weight is down by 60%, there has been no change in potential...lol
 Say you take your person, and their finger just doesn't go that way, doesn't mean they can't create, possibly guitar might not yield the greatest potential as a medium for creating.
 For centuries It's been held as truth by some [they didn't know the area of the brain responsible, just the cause and effect] and recently scientifically proven that stimulating the cerebral cortex with left/right hand coordination/timing at a young age is crucial [according to numerous studies, teaching manuals etc] to maximize a persons musical potential.
 Music teachers [realistic ones] talk in terms of potential, and I believe it's a good thing.
 Potentail, like the path  an electron 'chooses' to take around a nucleus, can only be predicted within' certain parameters, as they are both in constant flux, never twice take the exact same path, identifying potentail is never set in stone, it is something that is often hidden, and can always be developed.
 It is my belief that the potential you start with gets multiplied by your experiences which develop it.
 Django Reinhardt being a prime example of what someone can do with what someone else [like me?] might have labelled as a limited potentail.
 Everyone has potential, I think maybe we need a new term to differentiate between those with the ability to absorb, and apply mentally, and have a physical setup that can be adapted to whatever it is they want to manipulate in a quicker more effective fashion, or quite slowly or not at all.
 I just use potential as a word to identify differing amounts of 'percieved' potentail, the fact that I'm usually right...even soem of my students can see when it's just not for them...if you don't like typing about useful information because of some political correctness, your'e limiting your potential to understand how the word potentail as it has been used throughout history.
 Say you take a severely retarted person, and attempt to explain waveforms as related to electric impulses and the responses are completely incoherent, would you say that person has equal 'potential' to learn guitar as one of your chosen Idols?
 I forget being 'nice', and do the person a favor [if they ask], and tell them what I think their potentials are. These discussions can lead to considered decisions about which instrument to try ones hand at etc. and could be wayy off base at any time.
 How about 'adept', ? Finesse? All the same thing, whatever...
 Maybe we should inform all basketball coaches that there is never difference in potential and that using that word to describe potential should not be done.
 We're all equally sort of special
 ...Hopefully I've changed your perception of the use of the word 'limited'...which I don't use in the same sentence as potential, opting for the half full glass approach and the word 'greater'.

[Chris R]

Personally i like "Life with out you"

.. i have some srv live shows.. if anyone wants to trade.

Chris

[Peter Snowberg]

There's a BIG difference between what your mind can re-map to accomplish and what the makeup of your muscle fiber types is. "fast twitch" and "slow twitch" muscles predetermine what you are genetically predisposed to be able to adapt to.

Endurance runners and sprinters have different amounts of each muscle type. Nothing can affect this.... you can only try to develop one type more than the other but you will always be limited by genetic factors based on your particular recessive or dominant genes. Two siblings may have very different muscle fiber type makeups. When I was training for bike racing, much of my effort was spent trying to develop sprinting because the endurance came naturally.

I would love to be able to play fast leads but I just can’t do it, my sister is a pianist and has no trouble playing very quickly. On the other hand I can bike ride 200 miles without much trouble but she can’t come even remotely close.

Take care,
-Peter

[RDV]

My playing is blues-based. Even if I'm going pretty fast, it's still from the Jimi Page, Hendrix school of pentatonics. I've tried very hard to get that fluid legato sort of Yngwie, DiMiola, Holdsworth going and I just can't seem to do it. I know some would say: "These things take time", but dude, I've been playing 30+ years now, & it still hasn't happened. What I do play works out fine for me however, you just have to work within your limitations, while still pushing against them. So what if I sound more like David Gilmour than Yngwie? I've discovered that a lot of non-musicians don't really care for all that super-duper shred-o-matic kind of playing. It really seams to be musicians that actually go in for that sort of thing(like me!).

Regards

Ricky "Slowhand" Vance

[BD13UK]

First up you need a Strat and the appropriate Fender amp then crank the thing up so that it can be backed off for the cleaner passages, possibly a Tube Screamer type pedal and your on your way but the feeling is a totally different ball game, even if you got fifty people to play using SRV's actual gear they would all sound different due to the amount of pressure they applied to the strings etc and their right hand technique, the style of play in question requires considerable feel above all else IMHO, plus he used a very heavy string guage making things even more awkward.

[javacody]

Good points. In some of those articles, they do mention that the mappings for your nervous system are fixed at a young age. For example, if you withhold optical stimulation from a child from a very young age, that child will be blind.

Django is a great example of someone pushing their physical limits. I guess the best point is to play like yourself. How trite.  

I guess I better get my kids playing music now!

[javacody]

One last thing on the topic:

5. You need natural talent to be a great (or even a good) musician.
Don't believe this. It is true that some people possess more natural abilities in one or skill or another. For example, some athletes are naturally fast sprinters. Others are great marathon runners. Others can swim faster or longer. Others can jump higher. Others are stronger. Others are smarter. Others have faster reflexes. Others can through a football better. Others can shoot a basketball better, etc. The point is athletes with great abilities have them usually in one area. For example, Michael Jorden (arguably the world's greatest basketball player of all time) was not very successful when he tried to play baseball (or golf for that matter). Think about athletes in the olympics, they are specialists. They have found their natural ability and developed it to its greatest potential, but that natural ability is usually limited to one skill. Music is very different from a skill or a sport. There is no such thing as musical skill. There exists only a large set of musical skills. Think about some of the very different types of skills a musician needs to have: a highly developed ear, good physical technique on his/her instrument, heightened creativity, the ability to improvise well, songwriting/composing skills, the ability to play in time, the ability to play with others, the comprehension of music theory, a good memory, the ability to read music, etc. The list goes on and on. Some players have a natural ability to play fast, some have naturally good ears, some have good voices, some are naturally more creative than others, some are natural improvisers, etc. NOBODY has natural talent in all of the necessary areas to be a complete musician.

Taken from "Why Aren't You a Better Guitarist?" at http://www.torvund.net/guitar/Articles/BetterGuitarist.asp

[Tony Forestiere]

Javacody has a valid point. Get the kids to start young before their neural synapses have "taken a set". This is a known maxim in all disciplines of child developement. My oldest son is a "natural" at wrestling and is on scholarship in college. He started at 5, and that may have assisted him in the neural and physical aspect of "getting it", but I have to believe that some people have just naturally or God-given talent to "get it right" :wink:  My original post was to opine the fact that we have lost several extremely talented guitarists/songwriters (SRV, Randy Rhoades, Buddy Holly, Kurt Cobain,Hendrix...too many to list.

Bless all the DIY bretheren

[Ansil]

not true at all it is a proven fact that the amount of a particular muscle in your fingers that is essential to guitarist can not be increased via any excercise. and that what you are give is what you got,, get used to it.

Where'd you hear that? Sounds like B.S. to me. Any muscle can be strengthened by exercise. Think about when you started playing. I bet you couldn't hold that F chord for more than a few seconds, now you can play it for a 2 hour set.

actually no that is the stamina not the mass of it, i have had the same hand strength since i was 14 and broke a hand meter,

and even after two torn rotator cuffs. i still can get teh same grip, but my stamina comes and goes with how much i play.

btw i first heard it and thought i was bs too when i saw a add in a guitar magazine, till i did some studing with an ex gf and grays anatomy and her professor there are some things that dont' grow, once they get to a certain point.

beleive it or nto, i have no worries

[Ansil]

There's a BIG difference between what your mind can re-map to accomplish and what the makeup of your muscle fiber types is. "fast twitch" and "slow twitch" muscles predetermine what you are genetically predisposed to be able to adapt to.

Endurance runners and sprinters have different amounts of each muscle type. Nothing can affect this.... you can only try to develop one type more than the other but you will always be limited by genetic factors based on your particular recessive or dominant genes. Two siblings may have very different muscle fiber type makeups. When I was training for bike racing, much of my effort was spent trying to develop sprinting because the endurance came naturally.

I would love to be able to play fast leads but I just can’t do it, my sister is a pianist and has no trouble playing very quickly. On the other hand I can bike ride 200 miles without much trouble but she can’t come even remotely close.

Take care,
-Peter

thank you peter for helping with that.  i was hoping you would chime in