[mritech75]

Hi there everyone-being a newbie I wanted to know everyone's opinion on how difficult it is to play different types of music. Rock vs. Blues vs. Metal vs. Country vs. Jazz. I'm mostly interested in learning classic rock and blues and some hard rock and metal. Do metal players tend to be sloppier players? Or metal just allows you to be sloppier? sorry I may be way off-not intended to offend anyone such as metal players. I just wondered if a particular type of music was easier to learn/play than another. Of course I could probably learn a few chords and play country if I wanted. Thanks guys/gals! Mark

[allthumbs]

Blues can be pretty easy to get into. Metal has to have a fair degree of accuracy to play cleanly and fast. Texas blues could be considered sloppy because it is so laid back but, there really isn't a style where sloppy is more permissible than any other.
A good tune to bridge several styles is Mississippi Queen. Lots of power chords and the lead has some great bends.

[mritech75]

ok, thanks......mississippi queen........good tune......can't think of the artist.........so would you say that metal is harder to play? i guess what it comes down to is you want to play as clean as possible of course. i guess it also depends on the song and solos. i suppose some people start out with power chord songs which is supposedly easier. blues might not be bad but im sure the bends and vibrato takes a lot of practice.

[Stratrat]

My .02.....

I think hard rock / metal tends to be a little easier (especially rhythm guitar) because you can "hide" behind all the distortion and effects. The rhythm guitar is mostly two-finger "power chords", which are very easy to play. The "shredding" stuff takes a lot of speed and dexterity, though.

Classic rock varies in difficulty from very simple to very difficult. There are so many great guitarists in this genre that it's hard to classify a difficulty level.

Blues is easy to get started with and fun to play. Lay down a I-IV-V chord progression and use the minor pentatonic scale to jam over it - probably the easiest of them all at a very basic level. But if you get into stuff like Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Buddy Guy, etc., that's some smokin' stuff....you've left "easy" far behind!

Jazz is very difficult because it uses a lot of extended chords and unusual chord progressions. Improvising is often done using chord tones, which is a whole different world from scales. There are a lot of jazz guitarists who completely blow me away everytime I watch/listen to them.

Originally Posted by mritech75

Of course I could probably learn a few chords and play country if I wanted.

(OK, you're talking to a country music fan here, so my viewpoint may be biased, but.....) Don't fool yourself. If you're talking about old-time "cowboy campfire" songs that may be the case, but more "modern" country (i.e. anything using electric guitars) is a lot more difficult than that. Country guitar uses a lot of hybrid picking, double-stops and other tricks, and you often don't have all the distortion and effects to hide behind. Give a listen to Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Pete Anderson (formerly Dwight Yoakam's guitarist), Redd Volkaert, Brent Mason, etc. and you'll find that they are very skilled and spectacular players. I'd put Brad, Redd or Brent up against any shredder in the world.

Here are a few clips to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

YouTube - Brent Mason and Vince Gill

YouTube - Brad Paisley

YouTube - Pete Anderson with Dwight Yoakam

YouTube - Redd Volkaert and Bill Kirchen

[mritech75]

Awesome.......thanks stratrat............those were the type of answers i was looking for. i just wanted an idea........i know it depends on the song, solos, and such. i had heard that jazz was possibly more difficult because of the extended chords.......i guess i was wanting to know what would be a little easier and within my range since im pretty new still. i like blues and love some of the classic rock songs-didn't know if any blues would be too hard to try. im learning that you pick a song, break it down into bars or riffs and you accomplish them-one thing at a time. i figured some of the newer country would be similar to rock with some electric parts that are more advanced. again-didn't mean to generalize or offend anyone. just trying clear some things up. thanks a lot! mark

[knight46]

Great reply Stratrat and great links.

[mritech75]

Point well taken after watching those videos. Good guitar playin! I'm not a huge country music fan but I do like some and those were right up my alley! They definitely demonstrated good technical ability.. Thanks

[LeeB]

.. not to mention Chet Atkins and Jerrry Reed are considered "country"
- Have you considered trying on some punk power chord infused Rock? some Green Day is not that difficult.
- I think every genre of music can be difficult and complex

[eddiez152]

Good post all.

[Andy S]

Originally Posted by mritech75

ok, thanks......mississippi queen........good tune......can't think of the artist..........

Leslie West on guitar, Felix Papallardi on bass, Corky Laing on drums and Steve Knight on keys. Original line up. For what it's worth.

[mritech75]

what's the name of the group? the song is mississippi queen, correct?

[mritech75]

sorry, i have heard of google. i can look up mississippi queen. And yes, I've considered messing around with some green day for easy fun. I'll have to check it out. I try to stick to my lesson for the week, but there's always a little room for a side project . Thanks guys!

[allthumbs]

Mountain played Mississippi Queen.

[johnnydoxx]

I was waiting at Guitar Center today, as were some young guys. An acoustic and a bunch of keyboards were set around the room. On the overhead music (GC radio) there was a song playing, of the new rock genre, sort of a moody thing, reminiscent of the Doors.
One of the young guys started playing the chords to it on a keyboard. I did the same on the acoustic. We both conquered all two of the chords real quick.
Then the next song came on. It had one chord, Em. We became rock stars right there.
The songs were actually good to listen to and jam with, but simple chord-wise.
Just emphasizes the point made above that all genres have songs and riffs that can range from real easy to real hard.

Great links Stratrat - I'm a big country music fan.

[johnnydoxx]

Also to add to the comment by Stratrat about 'hiding behind the distortion'.
For a while, I played drums in an 'Outlaw Country' band (Waylon, Johnny, Willie, David Allen Coe, etc.). The guitarist was not real good but he set up his sound so it had lots of distortion, echo, who knows what else, so it was tough to exactly hone in on what he really was playing.

But so what? - he sang with an inner fire, from his toes up to his receding hairline, and he entertained the crowd. Our group had a huge following and he filled the beer joints that we set up in.

So, to sort of pertain to the topic of this thread - it's not chicanery to use the effects to make your sound presentable, especially if they let other aspects shine. And you don't need to be Eric Clapton to get in front of the lights.