-Jake [/quote] Here's how i look att it. There is nothing wrong with thinking you are a great player as long as you dont bust every other players balls about THEIR playing.[/quote]

..................particularly when you think you are and you're not.

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"Another day in paradise!"

There has always been a very competitive nature to playing lead guitar. Have you ever seen bass players or keyboard players act this way.lol As long as I have been playing I just never was a speed demon and it was never important to me to be one. Now when I am talking speed I mean in the Vai, Yngwie, Paul Gilbert way. Now when all these techniques came out-Sweep Picking,Tapping, String Skipping I sat and learned them but never to the point that I could put on an Yngwie song and keep up, but that does not mean I could not incorporate them into my playing which I have. Another thing is I never had hand problems until I got into all these techniques and would practice five hours a night without a break. It is only now I realized a lot of my damage to my hands was because of this. To play like this is very physical and for guys just starting out you have to take a ten minute break for every hour you play and if something hurts STOP.My mind set was that of no pain no gain, and only after the damage was done did I learn I had it wrong.I am a competitive person by nature but when it comes to guitar I am the type of guy that would see a 13 year old kid on a stoop trying to learn a song and would sit with him to help him learn it right. Nothing is worse than an arrogant player, and there are a lot of them. Always strive to improve and push yourself to be the best player you can, but always play within your ability. You are in this to make music that you enjoy, and if someone else likes it well thats a bonus.

[quote="straycat113"]

The phenomenon you describe has a lot to do with the inherent structure of the music, the bands, and who is carrying the ball so to speak.

The 'battery'[/i rarely gets the spotlight. Unless the band is unique to the extent of bands such as [i]The Stones. Kiss. Metallica and others like them where individual members stand out, in their own right, theirs a heirarchy. One could hardly argue that each member of the Allman Brothers had not achieved star quality in their own right.

In addition, the phallic analogy of the lead guitar out front, cannot be ignored.

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"Another day in paradise!"