Saturday morning thoughts about skill level

[thomasn]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

When I play songs solo on guitar and take an instrumental break I tend to play the melody, or close to it, on the bass strings with my fingers still basically in the chord shape so I can add in strums to back myself and fill the sound out (Carter style?) - that seems to work OK and doesn't sound out of place compared to the sung verses.

Great way of approaching "solo guitar for the masses", agreed. The consistent rhythm of the chording beefs up the overall sound, and people can tap along. It's not easy to play well, it needs to groove, and you need to be able to voice the parts separately so it doesn't come across as a muddled drone. fwiw, that drone-y arpeggiating I think can be really cool (John Fahey etc..) but most listeners tire real quickly of it since that kind of music lacks a recognizable lead line.