Are you a guitarist or a songwriter?

I'm a master of neither :rofl

I'm in the same boat of never really getting into learning songs. I would learn a single riff I liked then kind of move on. Still have little to no interest in playing covers to this day.

Historically I would have called myself just a guitar player. I would come up with riffs and stuff but songwriting always seemed too daunting.

That changed in recent years as I feel I just kind of got over myself. Stopped worrying about things so much. Going with the flow and letting it out without overthinking or overanalyzing or sitting on things to much. When the muse comes it cums hard and fast and I've been shitting my songs out to the world ever since. Its been going all right so far, I really like my current band. My bass player writes a bit, but at a dramatically slower pace and lower output than myself so I'd say I'm the primary songwriter
 
spawnofthesith said:
I'm a master of neither :rofl

I'm in the same boat of never really getting into learning songs. I would learn a single riff I liked then kind of move on. Still have little to no interest in playing covers to this day.

Historically I would have called myself just a guitar player. I would come up with riffs and stuff but songwriting always seemed too daunting.

That changed in recent years as I feel I just kind of got over myself. Stopped worrying about things so much. Going with the flow and letting it out without overthinking or overanalyzing or sitting on things to much. When the muse comes it cums hard and fast and I've been shitting my songs out to the world ever since. Its been going all right so far, I really like my current band. My bass player writes a bit, but at a dramatically slower pace and lower output than myself so I'd say I'm the primary songwriter
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I started having the most fun and experienced the most creativity when I ‘got over myself’. I had all these ideas about what I wanted to do, what I thought people would want to hear, blah blah blah, once I just sat down and wrote whatever came out I was able to drop all that stuff and just go for it. My desire to write specific stuff rarely works out in reality. Sometimes I’ll want to write something heavy and something heavy will come out, but more often than not, when I pick up a guitar with the intent of writing something new it’s never what I expect it’ll be.

Perfect example is coming off the last year of playing nothing but my Strats with fuzzes and edge of breakup tones; I wrote one song using those kinds of tones that is not metal in the least bit and everything else has been chugga chugga metal, despite not playing that stuff for a good 9 months.
 
spawnofthesith said:
Still have little to no interest in playing covers to this day.
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Same. First legit band was a cover band in the late 80s. Haven't played a single cover since. I do think about it now and again, then lose interest like a kid that just saw a better looking piece of candy. Or the owner of a week old guitar who saw a brand new one.
 
Iron1 said:
Same. First legit band was a cover band in the late 80s. Haven't played a single cover since. I do think about it now and again, then lose interest like a kid that just saw a better looking piece of candy. Or the owner of a week old guitar who saw a brand new one.
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My drummer has been begging to do a RHCP song. I finally begrudgingly caved and told him I'd learn snow. I didn't realize how fast Frusciante is playing that riff though :ROFLMAO: good pinky work out though
 
DrewJD82 said:
I started having the most fun and experienced the most creativity when I ‘got over myself’. I had all these ideas about what I wanted to do, what I thought people would want to hear, blah blah blah, once I just sat down and wrote whatever came out I was able to drop all that stuff and just go for it. My desire to write specific stuff rarely works out in reality. Sometimes I’ll want to write something heavy and something heavy will come out, but more often than not, when I pick up a guitar with the intent of writing something new it’s never what I expect it’ll be.

Perfect example is coming off the last year of playing nothing but my Strats with fuzzes and edge of breakup tones; I wrote one song using those kinds of tones that is not metal in the least bit and everything else has been chugga chugga metal, despite not playing that stuff for a good 9 months.
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I absolutely hate writing when I don't have an inspiration for something specific. I have done it, and IMO can do it well enough, but when it is not inspired, I just kind of scoff at it. Many talk about how writing is like a muscle and you have to work it for it to be at it's best, but I have personally not found that to be the case, YMMV. When I decided to finally do something with my music (2014), I had no real intention on what to create, but to simply do something with the 1,500 or so songs I had already written at that point. As I started creating, it all came out Funk, which was fine with me, similar to your chugga chugga moment!

I never had interest in playing others songs until I started to realize how much fun I could have with it by creating my own versions. Another big attraction for me is the songs I choose are songs that I love so much, I am honored to deliver those messages to those who are willing to listen!

Looking forward to getting started on the "Do something" challenge. In 2021, I challenged myself to release a song a week for that year, and I did just that for the first 13 weeks of the year. I then took a step back and concluded that I needed to concentrate on working on my live performance skills, so that is what I have been doing for the past 2 years. I am now ready to "take it to the streets" as the Doobie Brothers might say!

Great thread and fun to hear what other creators/players take on the topic is!
 
Guitarist for sure.

write riffs and songs structures but I usually prefer to let the singer write the lyrics and vocal melodies because I feel you get the best out of a singer when they are singing what they wrote and feel completely comfortable with. Well, truth be told not every singer is like that, but most of the good ones I've worked with were. I am currently in a band with my wife (she sings and plays bass) so I record full songs with all the arrangements ready to go, tell her where the verse/chorus are and let her write her parts anyway she wants. Works well for us.

On my other project, I sing so I write everything. But 80% of the time I see myself as a guitarist.
 
Wine Reaction GIF by Married At First Sight
 
Orvillain said:
o what's your history, and how do you describe yourself?
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Started with noodling. Then continued with noodling. And ended up with noodling.
And while I was some kinda "new young hotshot" many years back, these days I can't hold a candle against most younger folks (the overall levels of proficiency have been raised to enormous heights).

Too bad, really, because in fact, when both listening to music and playing myself, I prefer a good song over noodling any day. I also love playing rhythm guitar live, especially as a part of a groovy (preferably somewhat funky) band.
Had to realize that I'm a miserable song writer at one point, too. And in all seriousness, that's a pretty sad thing (and yes, I tried doing some things about it...).

If I was to start out again, I think I'd care most about the song writing aspect straight from the start.
 
My songwriting sucks far more than my guitar playing and my guitar playing is just ok.
 
Definitely a song writer.

I've learned to record and mix music, and later became a professional sound engineer because I needed those skills for my self, for my music.

Guitar is my main instrument and the one I love to play live with a band but I play also piano, bass and used to play drums and record myself.

I've written songs for my bands, soundtracks for shorts and theater, commercials and even a musical.

It's been a long time since I've wrote some music but that's only because life priorities gets in the way.
 
Not a songwriter, but have pieces of songs I put together over the years. Not a great guitar player either, but I decided to buckle down and finally learn what I had been tinkering with for many years.

Unfortunately life gets in the way of a young mans dreams and in the blink of an eye you find yourself on the back side. I wish I had taken guitar more seriously in my youth, but there were bills to pay, and kids to raise so personal things take a backseat sometimes. Fortunately, now I don't have to worry much about those responsibilities any longer so I can get back to things I started earlier in life.

I enjoy playing other's songs. Trying to figure them out and play them as correctly as I can is what I like. Played acoustic for years and gigged various places for about 3 years about 15 years ago. Once I feel I am good enough, now that I am playing electric, I think I would like to play with some other musicians in a cover band and see how I like it.
 
I consider myself an entertainer first and foremost. The instrument I use to help me entertain might vary sometimes but (and I am not bragging here) I have a knack to get at least competent on pretty much any instrument I choose fairly quick. I could gig as a guitarist, bass player, drummer, or lead singer but I choose guitar. Now could I join a Dream Theater Tribute band as any of the aforementioned? No definitely not but I do not aspire to that. Luckily for me the music that excites me to play is generally meat and potatoes rock and roll with a good groove.
 
Im not the best guitarist in the town but I have my own style. I wrote few riffs for my friends during university times and that was all for songwriting. Wish I could also write some catchy solos but I was too lazy and dumb to learn music theory. If there's any young fella here, go and learn the damn theory.

Nowadays I'm just enjoying jamming with the songs from Judas Priest, Megadeth, lamb of god etc. Tone chasing is fun. (And buying gear)
 
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