Does anyone else have two quite different strands of guitar playing style?

Cirrus

Something I've always struggled to reconcile is that on the one hand, I really like heavier, more modern* styles of guitar - When I was younger, bands like Tool, Incubus, Deftones etc were big influences on my guitar playing, so I enjoy playing through high gain amps, palm muting, dissonance, drop tuning etc.

But on the other, I'm also really into things like Sigur Ros, the Flaming Lips, textural stuff, clean playing, leaving space, funky riffing, effects-driven stuff that is more often done through a clean amp. And I go through phases as to which "kind" of guitarist I am - it influences everything about how I approach the instrument, what gear I lust after, the kind of songs I'm writing at that moment.

It just struck me today that instead of trying and failing to reconcile two different kinds of guitar playing, it might be easier to just think of them as two different instruments - like acoustic guitar and electric guitar are just fundamentally different, or banjo and ukulele - it's just that in this case it's my mindset and not the instrument that changes.


Anyone else have something like that in their music life?

* "modern" being a relative term that grows more tenuous with each passing year

Caffeine_Vampire

I live somewhere between Cliff Gallup and John Sykes.


Never could settle.

viz

Yes, rock and jazz fusion. But I also play a lot of pop when it’s called for. 

Lestratcaster

As a guitar tutor I have to play several styles and 95% its not the music I listen to or play for enjoyment. My "home" style is pop punk and metalcore but very seldom do students want to learn to play this genre. 

I've done country licks, blues and acoustic pop ballad's which make up a portion of some of the styles I have to teach. These require different types of guitar, amps and techniques as opposed to the above. Learner's see several sides to my playing, the heavier drop tuning metalcore side and the softer cleaner effects laden (reverbs, delays) standard tuning side.

Roland

What I listen to, what I choose to play at home, and what I play with the band are all different. The instruments are different too, and that’s without thinking about the acoustics which I use for folk clubs.

Neill

The electric guitar is such a versatile instrument, it can be played in so many different ways, it does beg the question whether you need a different mindset for different genres.

I remember when Top of The Pops was "live", - there was a period when artists had to perform with a band/orchestra in the studio providing the backing, and the result was usually disappointing, frequently embarrassing.  Not because the musicians were incompetent, but because they mostly couldn't adopt the right attitude for the songs.   

It's the reason why session guitarists like Chris Spedding were (are..?) in great demand - it's not just about playing the dots, it's being able to slot into the genre and be totally convincing.

zedhex

I do (or did - thanks to Covid) a solo live set with various backing tracks and toys. It starts all clean jangly-reverby indie, then goes through a bluesy phase, and then finishes up with some driving rock-ish stuff. So I'm basically going from clean, to mild breakup, to full on crunch. I can never work out which of the sections I like playing the most.

timmypix

Yep, massive metalhead but never quite had the discipline to get my metal chops down. I'm capable enough to blag it, but can't downpick at speed and my lead playing will then show my roots in bluesier rock, with the odd fumbled sweep thrown in for good measure.

I love metal music, but if I want to hear the subtleties and nuances of a guitar it's back to a broken clean sound and tired old 12-bar licks that I should really know more of at this point.

Jalapeno

Yep Blues/Rock and Jazz (Gypsy & Swing)

JerkMoans

I tend to vacillate between 'Pre Punk Learner', and 'Anti Music'.

GuyBoden

Imposing restrictions is detrimental to creativity.