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I've come to the conclusion over the years that they don't, they just see a "guitar" and just see 2 guitars in a band and think one is Rhythm (Bass) and the other is Lead.
That's how I see it anyway...
It's a role. I've played both. I feel more comfortable playing rhythm. In my current band I sing (?) and so I tend to let the other guitarist take the solos as he's better at it. However I do like playing slde and written solos or lead parts. It's probably a 25/75 split. On one song I take the simple lead part for the intro and let him go for the proper one.
On accoustic I tend to play root position but throw in some melody or fills to give the illusion that I can play better than I can.
I think it was Danny Kortchmar who told Guitar Player mag that he could teach his grandmother to play ‘lead guitar’, but ‘rhythm guitar’ required special skill that not everyone had.
This is derived from Baroque Music where ornamentation was encouraged to be played at the musicians discretion and was sometimes just a simple trill.
When you play rythm you could just play the basic chords (harmony) of a tune so long as you play it to the correct tempo .This could mean interesting time structures that work in conjunction with the bpm .On top of this you need to make it interesting and use different voicings , registers ......it gets more interesting still when you add different voicings or extensions and even more interesting when you can use substitutions and flesh things out with compatible passing chords ,notes or arpeggiated richness.
This is when playing any instrument gets a bit more technical and musically skilled .If you reach a level of chord chemistry ( see what I did there ) that this flows freely and falls satisfyingly upon the ear then you are truly a guitarist.
When you can do both at once and arrange those shapes/patterns in such manner as to keep the melody woven through it either on top or weaved in and out you are a Certified Guitar Player and probably called Chet or Tommy etc .
Back in my bass playing days, we played cabaret: weddings, 21sts, functions. Good money but not exactly rock star heart-throb stuff. One night we were taking a short break and a good-looking girl came up to the band table round the side of the stage and said she wanted to meet the bass player. She had that glint of intention in her eye. Whoopee! thinks I. Some fun times ahead!
Modestly, I admitted to being the bass player (handsome devil that I am).
"No, not you, the bass player" she said, pointing at the lead guitarist.
Sigh.
I would say I'm mostly a rhythm player, have played in the last few bands I've been in but have done lead too. So its both, but I just say I play guitar in general, don't really think about roles.
I really cannot sing to save my life.
I also get 'do you play the mouth-organ '
I always so No .....'.I fucking hate the things and my name isn't Bob Dylan either '
Invariably later that night the other party goers saw it and said ...ooh play us a song... at which point I strummed a few chords, half-a*rsed played a fingerpicking tune I knew... and it suddenly dawned on me that I really should learn to sing as well as play guitar.
Lesson learnt. I wasn't the first guitarist to learn this the hard way - and I won't be the last.