dan-o-guitar

Glad that was up front and stickied. For those of you who don't know, Jack has written a great article called Is It Okay to Clone? It walks you through the basics of cloning, copyrights, ethics and what you can and can't do and still keep your karma in balance. Pretty much the first thing you should read as an introduction to the whole IP topic.

I'm 41 and have been playing on and off since I was 13. One would think that with those impessive numbers, I would have ended up a pretty good player. Until spring of this year, that wasn't the case. I'd pick up the guitar occaisionally, maybe play for a week or so, then give it up for a few months. I never learned much beyond ten or 20 patterns/licks and I'd just noodle on the for a while. Since February however, I can't wait to play and usually get at least an hour in every day. I truly enjoy playing now--it is one of the most positive and rewarding parts of my day. Recently, I tried to figure out what had changed. I thought about it for a while and realized that it is much more fulfilliing to be me--in other words when I sit back and reflect on my playing, or listen to recordings I'm working on, it's apparent that I've subconciously given up trying to play like someone else. I think as guitarists, we are exposed to so much talent through recordings and live acts, that we end up setting that level of playing or accomplishment as our goal. We want someone else's tone. We want to master someone else's songs. All in all, the subconscious shift I've made is to just play what comes from my brain and my heart. Is my playing good? I don't know, but it sure makes me happy. It's kind of liberating to realize that you can play guitar just for you, not for how others think you should play. And that realization brings a renewed level of self-confidence along with it. The bottom line is: you are already a great guitar player. Because you are unique. Music is not a competitive sport--don't be suckered into comparing your playing to others. Guitar will set you free.