0-4. Crap.

It’s a real beauty, Zack. I will oblige and play it for you, but I’ve heard you play and I’m not sure there’s any assurance of magic in these hands.

You guys…I’m lucky to hang around with clever blokes like you.

It’s kind of cool. I like playing music again, for the first time in 12 years. Plus I can now listen to music and admit that I like something about it, rather than listen just so I can hear some mistake.

It’s nice for a change. Maybe not forever, but definitely for a little while longer.

I’m starting to think feel flows out of technique. And make no mistake, endlessly repeating the same 3 chords or opening lick of a tune (It was Interstate Love Song by STP I think back in high school) is a valid technique. I know guys who can play that riff flawlessly. And though I like to privately make fun of them, the sick thing is, they can really play the hell out of those first four bars. My downstairs neighbor practices the same song (his own horrid original material) every day for about 3 hours. It’s pretty bad, but last week I realized, “Holy crap, he needs to tune his damn guitar but he’s playing that out of tune piece of shit really cleanly!”

So having great feel can maybe be defined as playing a certain element of music brilliantly. It’s not that a player lacks technique in general, just that this player has chosen to master a different element of technique. Music theory is a technique. Melody reharmonization is a technique. So is soloing over changes, trading fours, playing an acoustic guitar passionately enough to get laid, or being able to play the tapping part of Eruption by Eddie Van Halen while chugging two Miller Lites. But it’s all music.

I really think the issue gets clouded by so-called technicians who play coldly or without soul. The truth about these players is they’re not really great-they just play a certain skill set better than the rest of us. However, because there is so much to learn and prove before you die, they don’t spend the time really meditating on and marinating in the technical element; they just get it barely to the point of proficiency and move on to the next thing. But when we hear it on a record, we tap into our own insecurities and fears of mortality and draw the conclusion, “Wow, that guy plays so much better than me. I must not be good enough if I can’t play that line like he does.” But who knows how many times it took to get that line right? Think abaout it; when was the last time you saw an act live that moved you that featured “technique?” Or, when was the last time you heard an artist that you love sound good playing anything other than the specific (often narrow) technique they have mastered? How would the Edge sound sitting in with Andrea Bocelli? For that matter, how did Chick Corea sound with the Foo Fighters a couple of years back?

So, just because one player’s scope of mastery may be smaller than another’s, it is in no way less valid for being so. We are all great; we are all masters. And, the mastery of feel evolves only through repition of a certain technique, until it comes out by itself, uninfluenced or commanded by consciousness. No, you can’t teach feel; it teaches itself once technique has been fully digested.

But, I know what groove feels like when I hear it, and I can make it happen in a track. Playing live with said groove has gotten better over the years, but I know my limits.

I dunno… I think feel can be refined and improved… but man… I think you either have it or you don’t.

I’m a lousy teacher… so what do I know?

Quite simply, I started playing guitar to meet girls. This has been my M.O. up until a few years ago, when said skill secured me a fiance. So technically, I’m finished playing the guitar. Now I suppose I’ll have to re-purpose this skill for another end-use.

Groove, feel, time, all of those things can be worked on and worked out. I would submit to you that Zack’s voracious appetite for listening to good music is largely responsible for his sense of groove and feel. It may not have been his reason for listening, but the result was a more developed sense of time, groove, feel, all of those supposedly mystical genetic qualities.

Yes, there are some shredders who hang out here, and they’re veryveryvery good.

However, you play with feel. Feel cannot be bought with lessons, or bargained for with Deity. You either have it or you don’t. Technical proficiency has it’s place, no doubt, but I’ll take a player who can groove any day.

This is not to say our shredders can’t groove… I’m just making a point. :)

Kind of like the moral opposite of a Takamine.

Can’t wait to hear some clips… does anyone know a decent producer in your area?