[Mike Rice]

Like many others, I would guess, I don't try to sort out good guitarists from virtuosos. But I know I'm much like Nick in this area, and that is who's making music with it. Monster technique certainly doesn't mean you're a good guitarist, and sometimes I think it can be an impediment to being a good musician. Haven't we all met people who can play faster than lightning, but the problem is that's all they do.

I think the biggest flaw is in the comment "Yeah, but we can all play like Jimmie". We can probably play most of what EC has done over the years too. So that means we're as good as Clapton? Jeff "Skunk" Baxter had a column years ago in Guitar Player called Eclectic Electric that I used to really enjoy. He once wrote a column about knowing when NOT to play and included a story of being called in on a session, listening to the tracks, not adding a single note, and submitting his bill. The producer paid him and called him back afterward.

Almost every trip to the music store I hear some gonzo teenager ripping up the board with so much distortion that there's no evidence of any pick attack. It's fast, sometimes it's clean, and I can almost never imagine it fitting into the context of a song. Monster, but not musical.

On an old episode of MASH Charles is trying to convince a piano virtuoso not to give up just because he's lost a hand, and sends for pieces of sheet music written for one handed pianists. The pianist initially scoffs but is moved when Charles tells him that he's been playing piano all his life and that "I can play the notes, but I can't make the music".

There are always going to be gray areas, differences of opinions, and just plain subjective tastes. But by and large if you look at the names that we banty about on a regular basis as our heros or influences or whatever, they not only command the instrument, but the song. They make music.