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Comment by wvh | Hacker News Reader

I think it's pretty frustrating if the songs/pieces you actually want to play are demanding or even at the virtuoso level.

If you really want to play a David Gilmour guitar solo or sing some Led Zeppelin, it better not suck because it won't hit the mark at all.

For me, the reason to pick up the guitar as a kid was to play stuff I liked, stuff that turned out not to be that easy, and every time I play, I feel that gap of where I feel I should be to respect the music I'm trying to play.

I wish I had more your attitude.

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Rick Beato did a video about being able to identify guitarists by a single note. David Gilmour was by far the easiest to recognize. It got me wondering how much work would it take to even be able to play a single note as well as David Gilmour. And even then I would still only be imitating someone, not creating something original.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESY87hn7_Q

Wow, true. The David Gilmour note is plain as day. Only other one nearly as easy for me was EVH. The Jimi note sounded like Jimi but like the top comment says, a lot of the others sounded like Jimi too.

Jimi and Eddie are the two singularities of guitar, though. Before them it was unimaginable for anyone to sound like that. After them it was the normal.

(Although they're also tones that a lot of players still try to chase for their entire lives and never really reach. There's some magic to them beyond the more obvious steps.)

Cranked tube amps melting down was also part of that magic. A feat not appreciated anymore in this day and age on most stages.

I've heard two people separately tell me that Yo Yo Ma would start his concert by playing a single long, low note. And they both told me they were immediately hooked.

There's plenty of good stuff that's hard to play, but there's also so much good stuff that's relatively easy.

It's also obvious to me that at this point I'm never going to reach the virtuoso level even if I really wanted to, but so what? I suck, but whenever I manage to play something that I couldn't before it brings me joy.

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