Rating guitar playing ability

[OregonJim]

Originally Posted by spock

Truly, all I ever wanted to find among a forum full of guitar players was how folks might come up with an arbitrary list of those playing skills that could be loosely associated with a particular level of guitar mastery

Arbitrary is the key word. It's like trying to define what is "art". There's no way to steer a conversation such as this into any cohesive direction. I understand the desire to have a concrete answer, but there isn't one.

[Glennwillow]

I don't know how to rate abilities or how to rank anyone, including myself.

A professional is one who can make money with his or her skills. A professional who makes more money, so that he can actually support himself or herself with his/her art can probably perform at a higher level or at least has something to present that people want. Many of the most professional musicians in the world can't read music worth beans.

Financial success in music is the only way I know how to rate a guitar player. By that standard, most of us here are probably not terribly successful, especially in the music business of today.

- Glenn

[Harryjmic]

Hello all,

New here trying to get the word out regarding music I've recorded. All the songs were written and performed by me. Think Jazz rock mostly, not sure what I'd rate myself as a guitar player as my heroes really set a high bar and I compare my ability to theirs. I think when it comes to arts of any type once you reach a certain point it's a matter of preference, as there are many ways to express your art, none of them are bad, just different.

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by spock

I frequently see the terms expert, advanced, advanced intermediate, low intermediate, advanced beginner, etc. thrown around and wondered what they truly meant. Granted, rank beginner if fairly easy and most would agree Tommy Emmanuel is an expert, but for the rest of us in terms of playing the guitar only and not taking into account knowledge of music theory or ability to read music, as some are fantastic players but can't read a lick of music or tell you anything about music theory, while others know everything there is to know about music theory but can't really play worth a hoot, what to you constitutes the various levels of guitar playing ability? Obviously, some are flat pickers, some fingerstyle, some acoustic and others electric, etc, but how would you describe your relative level of playing ability and on what do you base that? In other words, I think and intermediate guitar player should be able to do this, or when you are comfortable being able to do this, you are certainly an advanced player, and so forth.



No wrong answers, just curious.

I'm a hack, that is an immediate fake with a poker face. Lol

[rllink]

In all aspects of my life I have always hated boxes and the labels on them. At this point I will not allow myself to be confined to someone else's definition of who I am and what I am. So I simply won't take the test, whatever it is. So, sorry to those who took the time to express their own criteria to measure one's place in the continuum, no disrespect intended. Anyway, I am not particularly competitive and no matter how slow or how quickly I learn it gets me no closer to the end, I'll just skip the categories. Just my philosophical view of the argument.