know when you're good

feral · Post by **feral** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

How do you know you're really good at playing an instrument such as a guitar or drums?

Everyone thinks they are good, of course. Not everyone is, of course.

How can you be SURE that you're really good and not a hack or dilettante?

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

It's called practice bro! And practicing the right things as well. And practice all the time. And never quit practicing. Oh yea, learning about your instrument helps too!

Trucula · Post by **Trucula** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

RobTheDrummer wrote:It's called practice bro! And practicing the right things as well. And practice all the time. And never quit practicing. Oh yea, learning about your instrument helps too!

I agree totally!...but no matter how good you think you are ,there is always someone, somewhere thats better....so don't worry about it....like he said..PRACTICE..just to please yourself...its always a high just to master a new riff...don't worry about being good in anyone elses eyes...just please yourself and have fun doing it..(like masterbation..j/k)....Others will tell you if your good...(its something you can't say about yourself)...and thank the ones who tell you and keep practicing!....one tip (like in magic) the only way to become noticable is to do what someone else hasn't done yet...(and thats hard)...if your like me your hard to please..I love what everyone else does and always think I could have done better..(personal struggles!!)

feral · Post by **feral** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

Practicing is no guarrantee. I know more than few who believe they are great dancers, and they dance a lot. But they stink! They are lousy but they don't know it.

So how do you know that you are really good? Maybe you stink but your friends won't tell you.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

It's not that objective.

GUITARII · Post by **GUITARII** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

It's not a matter of knowing when you're good enough, it's a matter of how bad you want to play! Like Trucula said... and someone else told me a long time ago, for every one person you're better than, there's a million out there that will smoke your ass... you just have to accept that and play to have fun. The same person told me that everytime playing out in front of people is worth 10 practice sessions.... so the more you get out and jam, the better you'll get! Take every opportunity to jam with others too because you'll always walk away with something if you take the time to appreciate what they have to teach.

I still feel that I suck as a guitar player... but I like doing it, I know enough to get by, and people seem to enjoy listening to it when I'm out - so it's cool! Unless there truly being entertained by me making an ass out of myself.... in which case, that's cool too! When it's all said and done, I was the one up front bringing a little bit of joy to everyone there... and I loved it!

RAM Z · Post by **RAM Z** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

I couldn't agree more Trucula and GuitarII ! GuitarII nailed it with that last part . Those are my thought about myself also !

It's all about what you want and what direction you want to take it in. I try to take a little peice from every show I've ever seen big or small and use it to my advantage. Knowledge is a powerfull thing once you know how to use it correctly. There are a lot of bands on here that I have seen and usually I learn something every time I see them, I pay attention to what people are playing always ,even on t.v. shows. I still suck but, every time I pick up a guitar I try to improve by learning something totally new, like weird chords or a certain style of picking . When you stop wanting to learn or being what I like to call "enchanted" by a certain instrument you lost any chance of ever being what you might consider good. I know my limitations for now so I play the shit out of what I do know and that's all I can do for now but, I'll never give up because some day I wanna be great not good, mainly for myself and I don't care if it takes till I'm 80, I'm gonna do it, some day. I don't think I really ever worried if anyone thought I was good or not, it just doesn't matter Too Much" to me.

FretBored · Post by **FretBored** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

I was jamming in the garage and the wife came in and said she thought it was a CD or the Radio. Man that made me feel good like I was getting somewhere!!! Then she turned around and said she hated the song. Oh well?

I started lessons and she says I am improving and that it is worth it.

I have to agree with the practice and a teacher will help with improvement. As far as good enough... That's up to me and I could play my whole life and I know I will never reach the level of my Guitar Idols. But I keep at it and I am having fun. Take the fun out and you might as well be rakin' leaves.

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

When you are having a talk with an old friend and super-musician (a certain bassist, guitarist, saxist, etc you may know) at the U.S. Hotel and he tells you that years before, you played the best guitar solo he hever heard right there jamming at the U.S.

i.e. when your peers think you are good

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

Hurricane wrote:The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.

You do mean music right ?

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

tonefight wrote:
Hurricane wrote:The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.
You do mean music right ?

Go have another beer..

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

Hurricane wrote:
tonefight wrote:
Hurricane wrote:The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.
You do mean music right ?
Go have another beer..

you buyin ?

Trucula · Post by **Trucula** » Monday Feb 27, 2006

Hurricane wrote:The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.

"True Words!"

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

feral wrote:Practicing is no guarrantee. I know more than few who believe they are great dancers, and they dance a lot. But they stink! They are lousy but they don't know it.

So how do you know that you are really good? Maybe you stink but your friends won't tell you.

Practicing will make you better! No one becomes a good player by just picking up the instrument. There are players out there that don't practice and think they are good, but they aren't. And it's not what you practice, it's how you practice. It's also good to be a self critic and watch yourself play and learn from that too. I agree that there are a billion better musicians out there than me, but I can still be as good as I want to be, so long as I work for it. Also, Bobby hit it on the head about playing in a band. If you mesh together with your bandmates, you will be that much better! Also- do you think Felix got as good as he is without practicing? How are you supposed to learn or write tunes without practicing? I used to teach percussion and the more we practiced, the better we got....

It's just silly to say that practicing is no guarantee, if you practice the right ways, then you will become better!

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

Hurricane wrote:The best player in the world dont make a good band.........
The best bands play together.

Hell yes ... wise words, Bobby.

We are a four-piece and we are from four different counties. Kenny and I took the time (a lot of it, actually) and shopped for the right people when holes appeared in our line up early on.

We went with those who clicked with us on stage and on a personal level, those with the right attitudes and those with the chops. The end result of our patience is what I consider a group of friends that loves to make music and throw a party at the same time. What a great way to escape from reality.

As far as how to know if you're "good": That's a loaded question. Friends, family and neighbors will tell you exactly what you want to hear so distance yourself from that criticism, it will be biased in most cases.

I guess attendance at shows could be an indicator of how good you are, as could how often you're playing and where you're playing.

I think the best gauge around this area for determining how good a band is is a Jim Price review. He's about as objective as they come and he doesn't sugar coat things when they turn into a trainwreck or an abortion for that matter. If you need work, he'll spell out what's wrong.
The best thing to do if you should get a "negative" review from JP is listen to the advice and work harder to get better. Getting pissed about it will not make you a better band or performer.

r:>)

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

BadDazeRob wrote: The best thing to do if you should get a "negative" review from JP is listen to the advice and work harder to get better. Getting pissed about it will not make you a better band or performer.

r:>)

Are you saying that one should not get on his or her own band message board/guestbook and bitch about a bad review?

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

I'm only saying what I'm saying ... go have some beans, FutureBobby ...

r:>)

Punkinhead · Post by **Punkinhead** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

Does anyone else think that the more they learn about their instrument and music, the less it seems they know in the big picture? Or is it just me?

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

I can see where you are coming from punkinhead. I think it's important to keep a good balance of knowing the instrument vs understanding music. Some players stretch too far and want to show all of their riffs every song. Others want to play to the tune. I used to want to show my skills, but now after understanding a bit, I realize that there is a time and place to do that. Most importantly, a musician has to play to the song. What I like to do is practice all kinds of stuff and apply it where need be. Some call that a bag of tricks, that's why its in the BAG....

You don't want to open the whole bag on every song! Play in moderation.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

It's funny that for the longest time, I considered myself to be at a plateu in my playing. I wanted to be able to solo like Pastorious and slap like Wooten. I still can't solo like Pastorious nor slap like Wooten, but in many respects, I am a much better player than I was say two years. My technique is much more clean, my timing is 10x better, and I think that I'm much more of a solid player than I was two years ago. And even thanks to Kevin "Toonarockguy's" suggestion, I'm a better pick player, though I'm still about 95% a pizzicato player.

One thing I've learned early on in my playing history is that you must play with good musicians. If the guys you're playing with are crap, you're going to sound like crap, no matter how good you sound as an individual. That's sort of what Bobby was saying earlier. When I joined Bad Daze, I found the guys so easy to play with that it was a no brainer. I've been in playing situations where I had to work twice as hard to compensate for a drummer who didn't have his shit together, or I knew the song arrangement better than the guitar player. I don't have to deal with that type of unprofessionalism in this band, so I can concentrate on what I'm doing.

There's a lot of good thoughts going on in this thread.

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Tuesday Feb 28, 2006

I take full credit for any and all improvements of FutureBobby on the bass for the past 2 years. Especially plectrum improvement.

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Mar 01, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:I don't have to deal with that type of unprofessionalism in this band, so I can concentrate on what I'm doing.

Yes, if we're anything, we're professional. If you don't agree with that statement, well, then you're just a poo-poo head.

r:>)

SATAN · Post by **SATAN** » Wednesday Mar 01, 2006

I'm a poo-poo head.

SATAN

gypsy123 · Post by **gypsy123** » Thursday Mar 02, 2006

the more and more I play does work
but I always want to know more and more,
sometimes feel I can never know enough about my instrument and Ive been playing since I was 4,
mom was a music teacher,
taught me piano the hard way with a ruler on the fingers,but I dug the instrument

now I needed a replacement guitarist for different shows and had an ad out
a young guy had an ad on the internet he played blues rock,-I thought great,he unfortunately didnt know a lick of blues just strummed..yikes
I have been around for awhile and have taught blues to other cats and the single most important thing is keep it simple when it would always be over the top..I totally agree that you have to listen to other cats because I did when I was told I was over playing or played too much when I was learning(eons ago-LOL!)
you can never know enough and yes someone is always going to smoke you
I always say I know what Im doing and with a little feeling a little soul you'll get by-Gypsy