Why Every Guitar Player Is Unique

It goes without saying that when assessing something like this, we have to take it all the way back to the beginning: influence. Now I’m not talking about influence of choice, I’m talking about parental and cultural influences - where you’re from and the music culture of where that may be. Musical cultures can drastically determine an individual’s understanding of music and whether that be religious or worship music or historic folk musics such as Celtic or Flamenco; these early influences will sure have a dramatic influence on our musical DNA.

In the same breath, what we grow up with our parents listening to can have a huge impact upon our tastes and what we will inevitably end up being drawn towards musically later in life. For instance, I was brought up in a household that was half Rhythm & Blues and half Progressive Rock, two genres I still magnetise toward to this very day and absolutely make up a huge part of my musical influence. The same is to be said for every single one of us and sometimes, even when we try to fight the music we were brought up with it’s a much bigger part of us than we’d like to think. Don’t fight it, you couldn’t if you tried!

Whilst it might seem like a strange thing to say but despite us sharing the same physical mechanics required to play the instrument, that certainly doesn’t mean we all use them in the same way or deliver the same results.

Physicality really does determine the way in which we all play those ever important expressive techniques. Vibrato, bends, slides: they’re all at the mercy of our physical touch and feel. Hence, why one guitarist will play comfortably with a set of 9-gauge strings, the other a set of 13-gauge strings and if the two were to swap; their playing would surely greatly suffer for the change.

In addition to this, fundamental things such as our pick attack are also physical regulators. Sure, we all use different pick and string gauges, though there is a finite amount of combinations for us to choose from, so why isn’t there also a finite amount of disparity when it comes to our instrumental characteristics? Simply because everyone’s physical approach to the instrument is different, much in the same way the way we walk, talk or dance is different to the next person. The very nature of the instrument forced us to display all of our physical traits and these are huge players in the determination of our individual voice on the guitar.

Though we are sub-consciously influenced by many factors from an early age, we also are driven towards influence that inspires us to progress on the instrument; often with the desire to mimic that of which does so. These conscious influences then begin to accumulate, constructing an ever changing amalgamation of musical significance. What’s important to note here, is that these influences may not necessarily always be from guitar players but from other instruments or even singers. This means that on a individual basis, the combinations of these influences wield endless possibilities.

Influence can be a very powerful thing and with so many guitarists being easily influenced every day by so many different musical components such as social media platforms like YouTube & Instagram; we are influenced every day and may well be influencing others. What a time to be alive in the search for inspiration!

Whilst vibrato obviously falls under physicality, I feel it deserves its own moment in the spotlight here. Vibrato is like every guitar player’s fingerprint, revealing our DNA and the origins of our playing and influence. Though, despite all the influence in the world, every player has their own unique vibrato and it is what makes us all individual voices of the instrument.

Whether it be fast and narrow or slow and wide, it’s never the same as the last player and though it can change over the years, it will forever be your defining quality as an instrumentalist.

It’s safe to say that as guitar players the way in which we theorise, or more importantly, map out our theoretical understand of our instrument is a little different to that of other instrumentalists. However, the same can be said of a player-to-player basis. We all have our go to scales, patterns, chord shapes and rhythms which are going to be centrally different from that of others and this is something that is going to develop and expand over time. What this ends up creating is a unique presentation of theoretical creativity, whether it be improvisational, songwriting or just general practice; we create our own instructional manual that best suits our thought process.

A story that comes to mind here is Steely Dan’s “Peg” - so it goes, the band auditioned 7 top studio session guitarists before finally settling on Jay Graydon’s infamous take, that just had the individual magic and characteristics that fit the song best. Though, every other player was playing the same song in the same key with the same structure, it was this guitar players musical vision that fit the track best at this time. An important reminder that we are all unique.

There are many defining factors in determining a guitar players musical fingerprint but one thing is certain: not one of us is the same. Even when we obsess over trying to sound like our favourite influences, we are bound to sound like ourselves and that is a beautiful thing. It’s something we should all welcome with open arms and hold on to for the ride. We all get one voice, so go use it!