How good of a musician do you need to be in order to make it big?

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to share with you all how great of a musician you need to be in order to be a rockstar, 

Let’s get into it

Not that good

LOL, this might come as a shock to you, but in all reality, you really don’t need to be a musician that knows absolutely everything that there is to know about music. 

In all reality, if you’re trying your best, you could really get signed to a major record label if you know how to strum a few chords in each key and sing. 

The reality is this, Guitar is a rhythm instrument. 

That means that it’s meant more so to accompany the voices than it is to take the lead. 

And I know what you’re saying, you’re probably saying to yourself, “But German, what about Heavy metal and what about Led Zeppelin and all them other dudes who rocked the 60s, 70s, and 80s?

I know this is going to sound hard to believe but in all reality, even those guys were playing rhythm guitar for most of the time. 

Take for example Stairway to heaven, now I’m not saying to listen to music that blasphemes, but I remember this song because I used to study it a lot as a guitarist. 

And what happens is that you should know that, the very first riff that the guitar plays in the beginning is a chord. 

And a chord is almost always meant to accompany the voice, which is what that same riff does in the verses. 

And then in the build up, it literally just switches to full blown strumming so that it can accompany like how a regular rhythm rock guitarist would accompany. 

In case you’re wondering it’s an Am that it’s playing. 

So if you really study what those dudes were doing way back then, you’ll find out that they were playing a lot of chords and using different techniques from jazz to make it sound like it’s a lot more than just chords being used. 

Don’t get me wrong!

Don’t get me wrong, you still have to be in your prime as a musician in order to make it big as a musician. 

But if I’m honest with you, I have also heard of really big musician, I’m talking about chart topping artists who had no idea what music theory was. 

And music theory is the creation of music. 

Music theory studies the creation of music. 

The Beatles

I one time heard a story of a guitarist who went to go and work with the Beatles for a little bit and try and make a few songs with them for an album or a project or something like that. 

And you know what happened? 

The guitarist went in and said, “I think we could start with a I-IV-vi-V Chord progression in the Key of B-flat at a tempo of 98 bpm and give it a swing feeling.” 

And if I remember this correctly, the Beatles just looked at him and said, “What is that?” 

If you guys don’t know that’s just a formation of a really basic pop song. 

And that’s not the only Artist that I heard that really didn’t know much about music theory. 

Jimi Hendrix, who was among the greatest guitarist to have ever lived, said that he would just hear the song and play what sounded good. 

He did not have any technical knowledge of scales or music theory and yet he made innovations with the guitar. 

And yet if you study his guitar solos, they really follow the rules of music theory, he was that good and not good at the same time. 

So what I’m trying to say is, work with what you’ve got, cause sometimes more isn’t always better. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!