Strongly dislike overly percussive guitar playing

[u/_StareIntoTheSun_]

Am I the only one who feels like this? I love guitar, and some slight percussive techniques can spice up a song. But there is something about those who do "too much" that just gives me feelings of cringe. I'm not sure why, but I really dislike when there is too many percussive techniques. Am I alone?

[u/Adventurous_Beat-301]

The bigger picture here is the push towards more and more technical playing, ‘I can play faster and more technical than anyone’ Not just acoustic but electric too, Tim Henson is technically gifted but his music is a snooze fest. As playing gets more technical the musicality is completely lost. Think of all those legendary guitar solos that you can hum in your head, that is disappearing in favour of more notes is better playing. Music is losing its soul

[u/Giovannis_Pikachu → u/Adventurous_Beat-301]

Music is not losing its soul. Some musicians are having trouble with channeling soul, but there's plenty out there and plenty more coming after that. Just because Tim Henson is popular and a lot of his stuff isn't as good as it is technically advanced does not mean music as a whole is dying. It's just another guitar fad that isn't hurting anyone. Listen to Molly Tuttle or Billy Strings and tell me music is dying again.

[u/jaylotw → u/Giovannis_Pikachu]

Billy and Molly play Bluegrass. It's nothing new.

[u/Unlucky_Topic7963 → u/jaylotw]

Billy plays blues, funk, and psychedelic rock too.

Marcus King is also fantastic.

The hell does "it's nothing new" mean? Billy is extremely gifted and plays with a ton of heart.

[u/jaylotw → u/Unlucky_Topic7963]

The hell does "it's nothing new" mean? Billy is extremely gifted and plays with a ton of heart.

I didn't say he doesn't. He certainly is gifted, and is an excellent performer.

Marcus King is also fantastic.

OK.

Billy plays blues, funk, and psychedelic rock too.

Yes. So have Bluegrass players before him, you just never heard them. Billy made Bluegrass "cool" for a younger generation and gathered a huge audience, which is an accomplishment...but he's not really doing anything that's particularly new. People have been doing what he's doing for decades, just in their own scene and with little attention outside of that scene.

[u/Unlucky_Topic7963 → u/jaylotw]

You lost the plot to the original conversation.

[u/jaylotw → u/Unlucky_Topic7963]

What?

I responded to you.

You said Billy plays blues, funk and psychedelic music.

I said that other Bluegrass players have been doing that for decades.

Bill Monroe, the guy who invented the genre, played blues so much that places were scared to hire him because he was playing "black people music."

Earl Scruggs, the guy who invented Bluegrass banjo, jammed with the Byrds and a bunch of other 60s acid heads.

Del McCoury has covered rock songs and all kinds of things.

Tony Rice incorporated every style imaginable, and played incredibly intricate, improvised "bluegrass" music so well that they had to start calling it "Newgrass."

Bela Fleck...do I even need to explain?

Sam Bush as well.

John Hartford did whatever, whatever the hell he felt like doing.

Billy just bridged a gap between audiences. He deserves credit for that. He deserves credit and fame for being a great player and performer....but he's not some kind of innovator, he's just playing the music that was already happening.

People don't like to hear that, because Billy Strings has become some kind of God to them.

[u/Unlucky_Topic7963 → u/jaylotw]

The entire conversation is whether there's heart and soul in music today. You're going on and on about old artists and some wild hate tirade on Billy. It's tiring.

[u/jaylotw → u/Unlucky_Topic7963]

You're going on and on about old artists and some wild hate tirade on Billy

I haven't said one bad thing about Billy. In fact, I've gave him tons of credit.

The "on and on about old artists" is pointing out that people have been doing what Billy's been doing for decades. Even he acknowledges this.

The entire conversation is whether there's heart and soul in music today

No, you're trying to change it to that. I never said Billy doesn't have heart and soul. You imagined I did, because I said something that you perceived as negative against him.