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Why embracing your limitations will make you a better guitarist

Writer's picture: Philip WellerPhilip Weller

Every guitarist wishes they were better at certain techniques or styles, but that longing can be to your detriment. Here's why...

 




We’ve already discussed how being the worst guitarist in your friendship group can have its benefits on the MMA blog. For me, it gave me the drive to elevate my game and consciously venture down a route that made me stand out from the pack. Now it's time to talk about the alternative.


In short, it can hurt your uniqueness on the instrument. I think I’m a half-decent shredder, but John Petrucci would have me for breakfast. That’s fine, because I’m not John Petrucci, and I don’t want to be. I’m Phil Weller…for better or worse.


The point is that we’ll come across techniques or songs that we can’t nail at many points on our guitar playing journeys. Every player is different, we have different physiologies. For each player that can thump like Tosin Abasi there’s another who thumps like Mr Burns. I’m in the latter camp, so I don’t thump, I stick to what I’m good at.


Over the years, I’ve learned to embrace my limitations and champion my strengths. It’s made me a better guitar player. And I’m not the only one to have come to this conclusion…



The David Gilmour Conundrum


No, that isn't a weird math rock band name. Rather, it reflects what would prove to be a pivotal moment in the Pink Floyd guitarist's life. Speaking to Rick Beato, he recently admitted that “I wasn’t gifted with enormous speed on the guitar. There were years when I was younger when I thought I could get that if I practiced enough. But it just wasn’t ever really going to happen.”


Like many players, he wanted to be a hot shot that could shred at 100mph. That, for probably the vast majority of guitarists and music listeners, is perceived as the pinnacle of the instrument. But Gilmour understood that he wasn’t that type of player. Even though he wanted to be, he recognized his talents lay elsewhere.


Consequently, he looked to guitarists he admired that didn’t fit that warp-speed archetypal mould, and analysed why their playing spoke to him. The Shadows’ Hank Marvin was one of those players.


“Back in the ’60s, Hank was just playing a tune, I think I come from there,” Gilmour continues. “I just want to play a nice tune!”


Today, Gilmour’s solos are considered some of the best in rock history – the Comfortably Numb solo especially is usually well ranked in ‘The best guitar solos ever’ lists. And there’s not a whiff of shred there. Instead, his playing is slow but deliberate. It’s lyrical. He’s rephrased his conundrum and turned a weakness into both a strength and the very core of his playing style.

 


“There's no way I'm shredding like they are”


Likewise, prog, rock, and jazz amalgamating guitarist Shubh Saran felt the limitations of his abilities in the heat of battle. Supporting Plini on a North American tour as part of Sungazer in 2023, he took part in the shred wars that always punctuate the Aussie’s sets.


That saw him trading licks on stage with Plini, his second guitarist Jake Howsam Lowe, and fellow support act Jakub Zytecki as well as other rather weighty presences to boot.


“We were jamming Electric Sunrise each night and across the tour, they brought out Mark Holcomb from Periphery, Aaron [Marshall] from Intervals, all these ridiculous people. And I had to be on stage with them. There's no way I'm shredding like they are,” he told Guitar World.

 

Instead of trying to match them at a game he was destined to lose, he doubled down on what he felt made him unique. It was a trail-by-fire journey of self-discovery in front of several thousand people.

 

“So much of our identities we create in opposition to other people,” he adds. “When you’re on stage with guitar players who are very different from you and have strengths where you have weaknesses, you’re able to then form your identity based off, ‘If that isn't me, then who am I?’ I very quickly had to find my space in their universe.”


That saw him delving into his Indian heritage for different phrasing and leaning into his jazz training for chordal solos. He also threw in some Derek Trucks-y slide guitar for good measure. No other player on the tour was doing there. And there was a second lesson to be learned here...


 

Use your illusions


If you can’t shred, you shouldn’t try to, because you’re accentuating something that isn’t a true representation of the player behind the playing. But there are a few cheat codes that can be dialled in to smooth over the cracks – so long as it involves facets of what you’re good at.


“My approach to fast playing is more in line with Allan Holdsworth hybrid picking,” Saran goes on. “In a four-note pattern, each note is played in a different way: one’s picked, one’s hammered, one’s picked with your fingers. That helped me unlock my speed.


Equally, he, as well as many other players, have found selective picking as a way to sound faster than he is. Plini is among that group of faux shredders. “I’ve never been a good alternate picker and I've never put time into practising it,” he accepts via a different GW chat. “So anything that I can do to mimic fast and percussive playing is attractive to me.


“There's something about guitar techniques that you pick up; sometimes they can be so alien to you, and sometimes it’s the exact thing that you need,” Saran echoes.

 

“Selective picking was that for me. Conceptually, I got it in a couple of hours. Afterward, I realized it was so natural because I’ve been doing a version of this my whole life [via the inflections of his Indian phrasing]. It creates the illusion of speed and intricacy.”


John Browne's head is on fire

Be proud of who you are 


John Browne recently said something that still resonates in my mind: “The ultimate goal is to write songs that sound like you.”


It’s a simple concept, but it strikes cold and true. Sure, it could be argued that anyone can be a shredder with hard work and patience. But that ignores that some of us are born to excel at other things. To force yourself down an avenue of shred when your talents lie in a different discipline on the instrument is just a very musical way of lying to yourself.


Play to your strengths. Listeners, be they elite shredders themselves or casual fans who know next to nothing about the guitar, are wise to fakers. You’ll fare much better if you embrace who you are – and cast aside who you aren’t.


Reflect that in the music you write, and how you perform. Honesty, and you, yourself, are your biggest selling points. The guitar is just a conduit to help reveal that to your audience. That might mean focusing on being a shit-hot rhythm player, like Tesseract’s Acle Kahney, and practically ditching lead playing completely. That might mean exclusively sweep picking because you’re not all that great at much else – cough Yngwie Malmsteen cough.


Be authentic, and the rest will follow.



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Finally, you’ll also have a ticket to the Members Community, our community platform full of creative and dedicated players sharing tips, advice, and memes (of course). This community, we feel, is the heart of what makes MMA special. We’re a learning platform, yes, but we’re also a community where each player is treated equally, where we’re all united by the desire to get better and get inspired by one another.  


MMA Ignite is the most affordable way to join the MMA community and elevate your playing to new heights.


And because we understand that your financial situation can change in a heartbeat, players can pause their subscription, or unsubscribe, whenever they need to. You’re not tied down to lengthy contracts.


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