[LNW]

Originally Posted by Guitar Slim II

You act as if learning the songs you want to learn is trivial. For a player, it's kind of the whole point...

But when you say you "learned a song", did you learn it note-for-note like the guitar player on the record played it? And could you nail it?

If you can already do that -- that is, play just like B.B. or Hendrix or Clapton or Knopfler et al -- well, you're probably already beyond what most teachers can teach you.

But if you can't play it note-for-note, in real time, then you haven't really learned the song, IMO. That should be the goal: play what the cats are playing, right down to their signature licks and favorite chord voicings. And really play it: in time, with the record or with other musicians.

And even if you don't really want to play covers long-term, you master a style by mastering the masters. That's how you make a style part of your own musical DNA.

Styles like blues and rock are usually pretty basic, the harmony is pretty straightforward compared to jazz or classical. What can you do, then, but just try to be a better player? And the best way to do that is to learn from great players...they're the best teachers you'll ever have.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and opinions regarding my question! Good food for thought. I completely agree that there is an aspect where I do enjoy letting the "greats" be my teachers. For instance, I really enjoyed working through a guitar book on Eric Clapton's acoustic album and learned a lot from that.

However, and this is related in part to my time playing classical guitar, is that at least at this point in my life, I'd rather learn some "tools" for my toolbox to improve anything I'm playing, whether by myself or jamming with others. Instead of putting in hours to really master the Moonlight Sonata or some complex song by Clapton, I'd rather put in that same time learning tools to create my own jams...finding more chord progressions I like, figuring out how to do solos better, finding cool new chord voicings, etc. So instead of just merely playing covers, I'll have a firm grasp on the theory behind their musical understanding (the chords, scales, licks, etc)...and create my own style and play the way I want to play, too. I want my "messing around on the guitar" to get better by learning new things I can incorporate into all of that.