Feel or technique is there a right or wrong?

koneguitarist

Often I hear people say about someone with incredible technique and then someone says yes but no feel, or so much feel in that song but terrible crack handed playing. 

I’m probably more in the first category but not always.
I love good technique and I love to hear a musicians feel for the song. 

What side are you generally on? 

The Virtuoso or the all about feel? 

And how about some examples! Rock, blues, country, Jazz, Classical whatever. 
this clip typifies different approaches even in the same song from 3 different players.
https://youtu.be/Fzppllg_CDI

Roland

It’s about the music, how it sounds and feels. I’m only worried about technique if it gets in the way. Yes, good technique allows you to do more, but not if it’s at the expense of the emotion which the music is trying to convey.

PhilW1

Feel every time. That’s what music is about.

Rowby1

They’re two different things. It’s possible to have lots of one and little of the other. Also possible to have lots or little of both. 

For me, technique is the about having the tools, feel is about what you make with the tools you’ve got.

Fuengi

Both my feel and my technique sound awful. 

Neill

There's a story about the first time Stevie Ray Vaughan played alongside BB King.  When it came to the guitar break Stevie went first and just tore it up and we all know how terrifying SRV was when he really went for it.  When it came to BB's turn he just played one note, bent it and sustained it with his unique vibrato, and Stevie just collapsed - he knew he's been beat.

Very few guitar players apart from BB can just play one note and you instantly know who it is.  Ironically Stevie Ray Vaughan is probably one of them, Albert King, perhaps, Carlos Santana certainly, Albert Collins, Richard Thompson maybe.   Some of these guys have great all round technical ability as well, but if push comes to shove I'd rather spend an hour listening to, for example,  Dave Gilmour rather than Guthrie Govan.    

viz

Neill said:

There's a story about the first time Stevie Ray Vaughan played alongside BB King.  When it came to the guitar break Stevie went first and just tore it up and we all know how terrifying SRV was when he really went for it.  When it came to BB's turn he just played one note, bent it and sustained it with his unique vibrato, and Stevie just collapsed - he knew he's been beat.

Very few guitar players apart from BB can just play one note and you instantly know who it is.  Ironically Stevie Ray Vaughan is probably one of them, Albert King, perhaps, Carlos Santana certainly, Albert Collins, Richard Thompson maybe.   Some of these guys have great all round technical ability as well, but if push comes to shove I'd rather spend an hour listening to, for example,  Dave Gilmour rather than Guthrie Govan.    

Agreed, but then DG does have both. 

I also think “feel” is in the ear of the beholder, as well as being rather a broad term. I often hear people saying Steve Vai lacks feel, but to my ear his compositions and his playing have immense feel, his music’s absolutely brimming with personality and deep meaning. It might be harder for some people to tap into, because it takes work on the part of the listener, but to my mind it would be pretty nonsensical to say that as an artist, Vai lacks feel.

Rowby1

Fuengi said:

Both my feel and my technique sound awful. 

What I meant to say in my first post is no matter how much I have of either I really need more of both!

stickyfiddle

Melody is what matters.

It doesn't matter where it comes from - I'm sure there are as many more pentatonic-based "feel" players who can't come up with  tune to save their lives than there are theory-nerds who write by deciding what mode to use and running scales up and down the neck but both are horrible to listen to. 

You have to come up with a melody. I don't enjoy either of them but it's where Vai and Satriani are clearly leagues ahead of almost all the other widdly guitar guys. And it's why John Mayer is uber famous and Joe Bonamassa and Derek Trucks aren't. 

scrumhalf

Technique is a means to an end - sounding good. There are other means to that end, too.

Danny1969

Players like BB King and Gilmour have incredible technique but it's in the area of expression rather than speed. BB's bending and vibrato technique is about as good as it gets, likewise Gilmours and it's takes many years to hone that technique. 

One of the reasons EVH was so good was he was mega expressive as well being very fast. Plus he had an ear for a melody. Just a completely gifted player all round. 

I like a bit of everything myself. 

Nitefly

I think there is also a crossover point, where you can use a "technique" to enhance the "feel".

I was in Bristol a few years ago, down by the Floating Dock.  There were a couple of kids busking.  One of them had clearly just learned about the pentatonic scale, and was just playing notes from it.  He had no idea what else to do - no concept of sliding up to a note, hammer-ons or pull-offs, no bends or other expressive devices.

All in all, pretty horrible to listen to, yet he thought he had it made!

So, for me it's not "either/or", you need some of both.

Barney

I think a lot of people think of technique as the speed side of it...for me technique covers it all whether bending a string...executing a note ..fast ..slow ..the lot ...having a good technique makes anything you play sound good ...then it's just having the ability of making good music out of it all.....imo this is what is the difference we hear with all these guitarists we love but are also not flash 

koneguitarist

Some interesting comments, artists like Steve Vai I think have feel, but it’s not what some people think of as feel, I hear a lot of humour in his playing and although it’s not my taste, he makes me smile in same way as Brad Paisley does. 

Watching some artists that leave me cold, doesn’t mean they have no feel, just it doesn’t move me that’s all. But some I really don’t get at all, like they are playing for other musicians not the song or melody. 

ICBM

viz said:

I also think “feel” is in the ear of the beholder, as well as being rather a broad term. I often hear people saying Steve Vai lacks feel, but to my ear his compositions and his playing have immense feel, his music’s absolutely brimming with personality and deep meaning. It might be harder for some people to tap into, because it takes work on the part of the listener, but to my mind it would be pretty nonsensical to say that as an artist, Vai lacks feel.

Exactly. The main reason I like Vai almost alone among the 'shreddy' guitarists is because he always sounds so musical - it's the feel, not just the note choice (although some of that is very unusual too). He can play bafflingly fast as well, but then I do start to glaze over a bit.

Satriani quite a bit too, but for me he has less of a range of feel and style, and I lose interest.

I have no interest at all in technique *without* feel - or which doesn't communicate it to me, which is probably more accurate -but the other way round is usually fine.

Redlester

Both. I like players with superb technique but who use that as the basis for adding their own emotional twist or ‘feel’. 

Check out a musician giving a masterclass, whoever it is. There’s no question that they or the student can’t play something, or it’s giving them technical difficulty- the discussion is way beyond that. It’s more a question of how they’re playing it and how they’re expressing themselves. That’s where the magic is. 

AK99

Redlester said:

Both. I like players with superb technique but who use that as the basis for adding their own emotional twist or ‘feel’. 

Check out a musician giving a masterclass, whoever it is. There’s no question that they or the student can’t play something, or it’s giving them technical difficulty- the discussion is way beyond that. It’s more a question of how they’re playing it and how they’re expressing themselves. That’s where the magic is. 

That's a good point. It's like photography in a way - not just about capturing what's there, but how the photographer sees it differently.

axisus

PhilW1 said:

Feel every time. That’s what music is about.

Sorry, but that sounds rather narrow minded. I like all sorts of music and it isn't all about feel.

Everything has its place. 



The irony for me is that often (in guitar playing) people dismiss something 'technical' as having no feeling. Some of it has amazing feel/feeling, it is just that the listener is blind to it.

koneguitarist

Technique is something we can all see and relate to, but the feel aspect is difficult to quantify as it means different things to different people.
The only thing further I can say is, how so many people say they are often moved by a song, whereas with technique they are amazed by a particular player.
To me music should move people, whether that's to tears or grins is up to the listener.