I stopped listening to guitar players over thirty years ago, except for Leo Brouwer, whom I still get excited over every time I discover a new video of his.

Let’s take an analogy like movies.

To take the trouble to go to a movie theater to watch a movie, a movie has to fulfill a few requirements for me.

First, it must have a compelling story.

Second, it must have good acting—acting that makes the story come alive and believable.

Third, it must provide sufficient contrasts and spellbinding scenes; scenes that make you want to keep on watching.

Fourth, it must be so powerful, it transports me to another world, in other words, I find myself getting lost in the movie.

These are the basic requirements for a good movie.

I’ve gone to some movies where the action is so plodding, I left in the middle.

Or when the acting was so bad, I resolved never to watch another movie by the actor or actors again.

But how about production quality?

There was a movie years ago that quickly attained cult status—the Blair Witch Project.

The movie was low budget, shot apparently with a home camcorder, and the cinematography was so bad, I had to turn my eyes from the screen quite a few times because the scenes were jerking so hard.

But the story line and suspense was so compelling, it kept me glued to my seat—so production quality didn’t matter.

When I listen to music, the same is true.

To me, a good performance has to be compelling on these same terms.

There must be sufficient forward motion and unexpected contrasts to keep me engaged.

There must be enough variety in tone and presentation to make me want to listen more.

And most importantly, it must have those special moments—called moments of ecstasy by Gould—that make my heart just want to melt.

These are moments of magic which I hear all the time in Brouwer’s playing, as well as Glenn Gould’s.

Above all, there must be a sense that the performer is trying to reach me and create a special experience for me, and that he’s not there just to show me what a great player he is, or what a beautiful tone he can produce.

So yes, in general, I don’t find many guitar players very compelling.

Of course, I’m not there ticking off each of these criteria as I listen to each player.

Just like a movie, you know instinctively when a movie is not worthwhile watching.

Posted on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 at 11:22 am under AOV, AOVguitar, creativity. Follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.