One Genre?

[Dru Edwards]

I love DADGAD. I play more than one genre but I'm not as diverse as many other players simply because I only play what I enjoy. So, fingerpicking, some flatpicking, strumming, and some hybrid picking/strumming/soloing stuff.

[RalphH]

I only ever really listened to and played heavy metal.

Getting into acoustic has kinda changed that for me.

Interestingly I like playing a wider range of stuff than I like listening to. i like playing pop/rock like Bowie, Soul Asylum, Passenger, Coldplay, Tracey Chapman, etc etc. even though I'd never put them on to listen to.

I would never go see myself live

[rwmct]

I like to mess around with the songs I liked in my formative years.


That covers a fairly broad cross section across the entire timelines of of rock, folk, and country.

Last song we focused on in my lessons was Aqualung. Currently Buckeroo. Before that spent a lot of time on Fire & Rain.

I am thinking Jimmy Rodgers may be on deck . . .

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

So I’m about as far from being a folk music purist as anyone with as deep a background in folk music as I have can be.

I'm going to have these words tattooed across my back.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

How many of you stick to one kind of music....

I'm pretty varied, especially since my main instrument is keyboards, where I'm into blues, smooth jazz.... but I might come up with something completely different.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

How many of you stick to one kind of music over all else, be it DADGAD, bluegrass, classical, country blues, etc.....? I've been lucky enough to play many kinds of music over the past 60 years but now that I've retired and don't gig much, I'd like to settle on one thing and really work on it but I seem to get distracted by whatever I happen to be listening to at the moment. My first love was Chet/Merle/Piedmont but have gotten interested in DADGAD lately and that takes a lot of work, plus, I still like to play jazz chord melody on occasion. I guess I should just play them all but at this stage in my life/career, I'd just like to specialize in SOMETHING but I seem to be too 'fickle' style-wise.

Meh, I say.

Actually, I would say this: perhaps this is not the best question for you? If you were meant to go deep into a genre, wouldn’t you be deep in that genre? Why force it?

May I suggest an alternative? How about “what can I play that helps me reinforce my groove/pocket skills that builds on techniques I want to explore?”

I now play with no pick 50% of the time. No specific patterns; I just kinda use my fingers, approximately a 2 on the Beck/Knopfler scale of Random Fingerstyle Competence .

But I play anything from rockabilly, to Superstition, to pop and classic rock - whatever helps me reinforce driving a groove and adding fills using a thumb-and-fingers flywheel right hand. Any song/style that keeps my grooving with no pick, you know?

What do you think?

[Silly Moustache]

Short answer ... no.

Read on if interested,

As a drummer, I started out playing Shadows, Ventures type material. That changed with the '60s West London R&B scene (mentored by Charlie Watts) then after a long time I changed bands to a Soul band with k/b and saxes, then onto a a three piece (basically "Free" copyists).

As a guitarist, I wanted to sing and play like Tom Rush, but mostly all I could do was endless 12 bar blues in E. I wrote a few songs - teenage angst etc., then with the assistance of another AGF member, discovered bluegrass, and became a dobro and mando player.

Texas singer- songwriter material, Guy Clark, Robert Keen, TVZ, Butch hancock, etc.

So, each solo set I do will have a blues, a sad song, a dramatic song, and ... ?

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

How many of you stick to one kind of music over all else, be it DADGAD, bluegrass, classical, country blues, etc.....? I've been lucky enough to play many kinds of music over the past 60 years but now that I've retired and don't gig much, I'd like to settle on one thing and really work on it but I seem to get distracted by whatever I happen to be listening to at the moment. My first love was Chet/Merle/Piedmont but have gotten interested in DADGAD lately and that takes a lot of work, plus, I still like to play jazz chord melody on occasion. I guess I should just play them all but at this stage in my life/career, I'd just like to specialize in SOMETHING but I seem to be too 'fickle' style-wise.

I guess the question is, why? Why do you think you should specialize?

I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that it's because you want to be the best player you can be. You want to get really good.

I'll admit, now that you mention it, that my favorite guitarists, each of them, tend to specialize in one area. You could argue that to get really good at something, you need to focus on it.

On the other hand, these guitarists I'm speaking of tended to develop their style (singular) out of multiple previous styles (plural), which complicates the question. Cross-fertilization of different styles could therefore also be the key to making you really good (or uniquely yourself) as a player.

But yeah, you should ask yourself why you feel you should specialize. It might help to answer the question.

[DukeX]

I agree with the posts suggesting if you really had such a strong desire to specialize you would have done so long ago.

You aren't going to find your answer here.

[rokdog49]

I sing and play. Everything that is singing-based is fair game.

[catt]

It's a perennial question on most boards. For me, it's an interesting question as I'm extreme in my musical indulgences and used to wrestle with this a lot. I think it's common for a lot of folks - who may be concerned in the "dilettante - pro" sprectrum. And it's a quite valid challenge - assessing one's skills, goals, etc.

My anecdote: it took me 40 years to accept my situation with music (totally obsessed; unable to control it). As you may guess, I'm much happier since coming to terms with this. Yes, it's a mess - my house looks like David Lindley's, I hear from descriptions, and probably worse as I'm also into accordions, woodwinds, harps and...

You'll go where you most want, one way or another. Not that there won't be some mild angst and discussion about it though!

[FrankHudson]

I'm another one in the all-over-the-place group.

I think I'm at my heart a folk musician in the generic as apposed to "File Under" record store sense. That is generally play things from a "heard that, figure out someway to play something like that" as opposed to a studious musician who learns the theory and then composes or plays based off that theory.

What I heard and want to make some approximate sound of is hard to describe without excessive length. My aims in this regard will fail, but it pleases me to try and sometimes produces interesting failures.

Anyone that wanders into the music I've composed and played a lot of parts for as the Parlando Project on the web or elsewhere can get some idea of the range of stuff I attempt. I often fear that the casual visitor will start to listen to selections from the Project and by the third or fourth one find something that they don't like and stop listening--no, that's not my worst fear, my worst fear is the first or second one they come upon will be something they would never want to listen to.

Noisy punk/indie stuff, string quartets, solo acoustic guitar, orchestra pieces, electronica, bad jazz, eccentric singer-songwriter things follow in any order. I play acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass, naïve keyboards, small percussion, and via MIDI and virtual instruments I'll add world instruments that I no longer try to collect and any instrument found in an orchestra hall.

Well fear or not, my best interests or not, despite my actual desire to write things that folks will find worthwhile, that's what I do.

[catt]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

...and via MIDI and virtual instruments...

I'm at an age - closing in on 60 - where sometimes I feel like getting back into synths and staying in bed

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

How many of you stick to one kind of music over all else, be it DADGAD...

Um, DADGAD is NOT a "kind of music".

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by catt

I'm at an age - closing in on 60 - where sometimes I feel like getting back into synths and staying in bed

Really, already...?