Norio wrote:
After listening to Satriani for a few months, I got one of the G3 DVDs and watched it very carefully, paying attention to as much as I could. That night I nearly quit guitar altogether ? I got incredibly depressed! It took me months to feel good again about my playing ?
I think it was Martin Carthy once gave advise along the lines of "don't spend too much time listening to your guitar heroes because they will ALWAYS be able to do something that you can't."
For me the best and most interesting players are the ones who are themselves. This is not a matter of technique, though these players tend to have very good technique, and it's not a matter of having or not having influences and paying respect to them if you've got them. The guys who are truly distinctive and unique and excellent and ear-catching play like themselves, from some place deep within themselves, a place where nobody can sound like them even if they're playing the same notes and using the same equipment.
Also nobody does it all. I admire both Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy. Both very, very fine players. But Thompson does things that Carthy can't (or at least shows no signs of doing) and vice versa. Nobody does it all, everybody has room to improve. If you ask whoever it is that you look up to, they'll have guys that they look up to, who they can't figure out, who they are trying to figure out and learn from.
