I've gotten to the point in guitar that I can play basically whatever I want; I'm a competant (sp?) lead guitarist, as well as a competant rhythm guitarist. I play about 5 hours a day, on average. Lately, I've been getting in somewhat of a rut in my lead guitar skills; so what I did then was improve my rhythm ability...After about a month, the rut dissapeared, and this chain of events happened a few times until I became what I am now.

My fingering technique (left hand technique) is exquisite, a very articulate yet melodious style, without distortion. For rhythm, I do alot of "Bob Weir" type chords (Bob Weir is the famous Rhythm Guitar Player of The Grateful Dead, The Other Ones, RatDog, The Dead, etc), which are basically Jazz chords with leading tones and extensions, etc, attached.

Okay, skipping the bull****, I've been getting alot of inspiration from Uobuo Neutsou (or something like that), the guy who wrote the Music for Final Fantasy 7,8,9,10, actually I think he wrote it for every single one, as well as some other tunes; The tunes he writes are pretty simple (well, not all), but allow for plenty of room to expand, which is something I like.

Now, I'm not a shredder, and I'm not a flashy guitarist; I'm humble in real life (although I do admit that sometimes I get carried away with wordplay on the internet...Probably one of those temporary lack of maturity on my part), and I play my part. Ian Anderson is huge for me (Singer/Flute player for Jethro Tull), I really like his flute playing, and he's one reason why I'm going to be "going MIDI" in the next year or so.

But I've sucked alot of the inspiration-life-blood out from many guitarists (Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour, Santana, Garcia, Hendrix, Page, Django, Charlie Christian, B.B King, Trey Anastasio, Wes Montgomery, John Mclaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale) as well as many non-guitarists (Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Bill Monroe, David Grisman, Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, etc), and as well as many authors (yes, books do have influences; Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Ken Kesey, come to mind).

However, I've come to the point where I feel that only my right-hand technique can be improved at this point, and that that's the only way I will be able to proceed even further into the depths of music. It's funny because if you look at my list, alot of those guys are relatively flashy guitarists; It's one of the contradictions I have.

Anyways, to the point;

"Who are some great musicians that I haven't named?"

I've been listening to Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy a bit lately as well, and find their music fascinating, too.

I'm looking for more guys (non-shredders, non-flashy guitarists, if possible) to listen to.


Also, do you think it's possible to reach a point where your right hand technique needs to improve in order for your playing to improve? my right hand technique is pretty good, but i can see some flaws in it (for example, i don't use 'perfect' alternative picking, just alot of it).

Thoughts appreciated

~Incidents