What Makes a Good Guitarist | Matthew Iovane

Many people want to be good guitarists. To be clear, when I say "good guitarist" I mean guitar-hero-good, not local-bar-playing-good. However, there are few people out there who actually achieve this level of ability. Certainly, I have not. However, I would still like to comment on what I think makes a good guitarist. It is not the focus of this essay to comment on lightning fast fingers or a solid rhythmic ability. I do not believe that a good guitarist needs to have perfect pitch or supersonic sight reading abilities. My goal is to identify qualities of great guitar players that transcend any stylistic considerations. There are great guitarists in every genre of music and my goal is to identify what they all have in common.



The first and probably most important quality of a good guitarist is desire. Whether you are a finger-pickin' country hillbilly or a death metal shredder, you have to want to be a guitarist. A lot of people wish they were guitarists - like when a chick is around that they want to impress, or right after they get their favorite artist's new album - but I am talking about a real burning desire to only play guitar. You have to eat, sleep, and think guitar. This desire is what will drive you to continue practicing when all your friends are out on the town or when the newest movie hits the theater or when the home-team makes the play-offs. Ask any great guitarists out there, guitar is number one.

Secondly, to be a good guitarist, you have to listen to guitar music, or at least music in general. This may sound obvious but I once knew this guy who wanted to be a writer. He always talked about it at opportune social moments and he liked to fill a big chalkboard in his dorm room with all of his "profound" scribblings. The problem was, he never read anything. As you may have guessed, he was not a very good writer. To be good at anything, you have to be familiar with the body of work that has been done before you. This goes for anything. Imagine a person trying to be a great chemist without learning what was in any of the chemistry textbooks. You have to know what has been done before you so you can see where you contribute. The best guitarists are students of the instrument.

Finally, to be a good guitarist, you have to have the ability to practice - and no, not everyone has this ability. To illustrate, for the next two weeks I want you to practice guitar for one hour per day. 80% of readers will not make it past a few days and 99% of readers will not have the perseverance to make it the entire two weeks. Great guitarists have practiced four or five times this much for years! Practicing is a skill that good guitarists have mastered. It is much easier for individuals who have the burning desire I was talking about earlier. I guarantee this, good disciplined practice will trump talent any day of the week.

So there it is. That is my version of what makes a good guitarist. Sure, you can write me off as someone with too much time on his hands and someone who needs to get off his soapbox. Let me say that I will be the first to tell you that I do not possess these three qualities - most of all the desire. Before you write me off though, ask yourself how many people you personally know with all three of these qualities. Then ask yourself how many guitar heroes you personally know.

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