8 responses so far ↓

• 1 Rich Briere // Mar 31, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  Greetings all. May I begin by giving you a bit of background. 12 years with Fender as a DSM, another 6 years as Artist Relations for a number of VERY heavy manufacturers. I was often asked to judge competitions and I’d like to say, in two words, they suck. EVERYONE loses.

  Guitar player Zen, I’d respectfully suggest that you look at your own name..Zen…..in part is all about focusing……but not on competition. When artists must BEAT one another in something as pure as music, we should all stop playing and take up bowling.

  Bass-ically Yours,
  Rich Briere
  http://www.richbriere.com

• 2 anekretia // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:37 pm

  Interesting view Rich, but sometimes, competing is good, it has helped me much over the years to reach that “next plateau” of skills, and without it, especially considering where I live lacks any serious guitarists, I would not have gotten so good at what I do.
  There are other things to consider also, like this Dallas company, happens to be doing the guitar solo contest on a site I am writing a piece about, and that particular site, is based on the concepts of PROMOTION, more than anything, all of us use promotional tools from time to time, some everyday.

• 3 Ben // Apr 1, 2008 at 1:18 am

  Oh man, I couldn’t possibly agree LESS with Rich on this one. Not having competitions is like not having auditions for the Count Basie Big Band, or cancelling the Grammys because we don’t want Kanye and 50 Cent to have hard feelings any more, or not keeping score at a little league baseball game. LIFE is competition. Refusing to have competition in life is basically taking all the meaning and purpose out of it. Winning a guitar playing competition doesn’t mean the winner is necessarily the absolute best, but LOSING a guitar competition clearly states otherwise. It’s a clear indicator that you have room to grow and work to do (from someone else’s point of view). Of course, the opinion of our peers doesn’t matter as much as our opinion of ourselves, but if our self-image isn’t checked every once in a while we become stagnant. The earth naturally tends to reject or consume that which is stagnant.

  There’s another side to competition: I lived with a great guitarist in college, and he and I always ended up competing for the same seats in various bands. When he made the top big band it motivated me to work hard to progress. When I claimed that seat from him it motivated him to do the same, and we would go on this way from semester to semester. Each saw how hard the other worked, and it was one of the healthiest educational situations I’ve ever been in. We both understood that the competition was good for us, and today we’re the best of friends and much better players than we would have been otherwise.

  Zen is the ideal, but isn’t achieving a state of Zen itself a form of competition? The pursuit of oneness is naturally a conflict between consonance and dissonance.

• 4 jimmy mac // Apr 1, 2008 at 8:31 am

  I won some and lost some - they’re nerve racking and tedious. You sit and watch judges who are “signed - artists ” with a shtik that sold for awhile but you know the only reason they’re doing this crap is because the Company ( Taylor Guitars etc ) has fine printed their contract.
  If you go in to it with the right frame of mind
  and believe me i’m not sure what it is but i know what its not ” i’m going to win” then you might meet some pretty cool people and learn a little about yourself.
  Bottomline, its what you make of it. The first comment buy Rich does hold water if you have
  even modest expectations you will be disappointed. Have none, have fun and don’t wait at your mail-box or quick key your e-mail. Keep playing and writing and all that neurotic stuff musicians do when they’re not actually making a decent living playing their music.
  Shalom and remember its only entertainment.
  -jimmy

• 5 Rich Briere // Apr 2, 2008 at 10:12 pm

  Let me add a bit now that others have spoken. At each competition I would sit with a couple of radio guys, others reps, etc. NONE of us wanting to be a Judge,, as 15 guys came up looking identical, sounding identical, playing 37,000 notes a second and “saying” absolutely nothing…. and I must be honest; if I hear Eruption ONE MORE time, I’m going to puke. The tossing of hair does not a guitar player make. :^>)

  I did one at Guitar Center where a 50 year old guy came up, played Greensleeves FLAWLESSLY and we all agreed, HE won!!! There was no contest. The young bucks who LOST went insane. That was my LAST appearance EVER as a judge.

  A much better way to make a statement is through kindness and teaching. At a clinic I did with Robben Ford, Robben invited others to come up and play. He smiled, was genuinely interested and allowed EACH of the participants to “play music”. He never once played over their heads and he offered suggestions on ways to improve.

  Then, with no surprise, one of Albany’s Big Guns came up to sit in. His “intention” from the first note was plain. This was now a competition. To make a long story short, Robben continued to smile and play chord changes as this guy shot his load and then, while never looking at his guitar, totally destroyed the guy in three different styles.

  Ever notice that a lot of the guys who are called as first chair in touring bands are often the SAME guys?? I’ve found one common characteristic. Sure, they can all play……but they’re also really nice guys/gals. :^>)

  Bass-ically Yours,
  Rich

• 6 Ben // Apr 5, 2008 at 1:37 am

  Now, on this note I couldn’t agree MORE with Rich. The kids who shred all day in their cave-like bedrooms and spend their lives listening to all the Liberaces of the guitar without ever hearing Ford and Segovia and other greats would wet their pants if the Petrucci solo they just rocked got spanked by the nerd that played Bach’s Lute Suite in E Minor. These kids need perspective like that. (We all need a daily dose!) They need “judges” to listen with open ears and help them to make small discoveries about their own playing. And as all of us do, they need to be humbled every once in a while. I’m OK with it if all they really want to play is Steve Vai all their lives - That’s their prerogative. They can’t, however, go out into the world and expect every challenger to bow to them because they shred the hardest.

  I recently played in a battle of the bands where twenty nine out of thirty bands were either metal or hardcore, and we were the only dance-rock act. We swept the competition because it was so refreshing to the judges’ ears. I’m absolutely positive that we weren’t the tightest band on stage, or the hardest working, or the easiest on the eyes, but the judges were looking for something that stood out and made a statement.

  When people show up to competitions to prove they’re the best they inevitably go home losers, even if they “win” the competition. Those who have an attitude of learning and progress, however, cannot possibly lose.

  Sorry to be long-winded, but this is an inspiring topic!

• 7 JB // Sep 29, 2008 at 5:50 pm

  If you need to enter a contest to challenge yourself,you better re-consider everything.

  What kind of lazy ass are you to need to know that you have to work your ass off to enter a contest?

  I’m perhaps digressing,but honestly you can challenge yourself each day and learn from others in a friendly way.

  Friendship:a great device to improve.play with somebody else,guitarist or not,and learn from the moment you are playing.
  Think less,feel more.

  Damn,jam with friends,enjoy and keep the good vibes.

• 8 JB // Sep 30, 2008 at 11:58 pm

  Hey dudes wtf is up?
  The topic is stagnating!
  GPZ needs you!
  Your opinion matters!

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