I'd rather hear an instrumental piece, especially one that I can almost play as its a challenge that I enjoy.
I understand what the OP means by
Quote:
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singers who just happen to strum a guitar to accompany themselves
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Their apparent focus is on the vocals, not guitar. What they do out of the limelight could be the complete opposite, that they enjoy playing technically challenging instrumentals. I don't know. In my opinion the non-playing public at large is the driving force behind what is popular.
People like to sing along. That's it in a nutshell. It sells.
So we will get entertainers that deliver what the majority want, which for the most part is vocals backed by instruments. So as a prop or maybe they compose their own songs on it, they will have a guitar slung around their neck.
I'm sure that here as members we have plenty of people that "strum just to accompany.." and there isn't anything wrong with that. We're allowed to enjoy this hobby in our own way.
When I was younger (like 20), I was at my girlfriends house (we had just started going out) and I played a few songs for her, Clap, Mood for a Day, Babe I'm going to leave you, etc. and her younger sister said that her boyfriend plays guitar really good too. So a few days later he came over and played and sung as well. He played a few songs, all G C D type of things, and he really had a good voice. We all enjoyed it. Her sister said to me, see doesn't he play guitar good? I just smiled, what else could I do?
She had no concept of the differences in difficulty of what I had played and what he played,
from a guitarists point of view. More importantly though, it didn't matter from her perspective.
So, with this experience well behind me, we all have our own likes and dislikes. My own "likes" shouldn't be used to devalue how someone else enjoys playing guitar. Life is too short for this kind of stuff. If someone strums chords, and sings on a $300 guitar, or an $5,000 guitar, he or she should still be considered a participant in our hobby and not scoffed at or looked down on because "they only strum" or "they have a cheap guitar" or "don't deserve that guitar."
It's crazy. Putting some other style down or another player's style down does not in anyway make my banjo rolls any faster.
