[bradpdx]

Boo, you've set your bar kinda high. Relax.

When I used to teach guitar, I'd always ask students what they wanted to play, in their own words. It was very illuminating; most had no idea that guitar is used in many fundamentally different ways and could not tell that a recording they loved in fact had 5 guitar tracks on it - so, which one do you want to learn first? Don't forget, those great leads don't make a lot of sense once the backing tracks are removed! Let's start with the backing tracks...

I started as a fingerpicker. In high school I didn't have any friends who played, but I heard guys like Kottke and Reverend Gary Davis who could do so much with one guitar. It was a practical approach, because I could work on material that was meant to sound good on one guitar from the get-go; I didn't need anyone to back me up. Once that foundation was laid, I used records as my backing track to practice lead guitar and flatpicking.

Solo and band playing are two really different beasts. In a solo setting, you are trying to establish the entire musical framework - rhythm, bass, chords, melody, etc. The most common way to approach this is the classic fingerstyle method, which works very well in acoustic settings and some electric settings. The Tele is a fine guitar for this, but so are many others played clean.

In group settings, you can and in fact should play much, much less. All that busy work required for solo playing just clutters the sound in a group unless everything is specifically organized for that style. Note how a master like Chet Atkins can provide full solo accompaniment for himself, but plays only single note lines in a band setting. Note that Leo Kottke isn't a lead guitarist for anyone, despite his considerable chops as a soloist. Note that Roy Buchanan did not release any albums of him playing by himself - his lead work would make no sense outside of a band context.

I have played both ways extensively for 35 years, and I keep them in separate parts of my brain. Much of the work I do in band settings wouldn't be much fun or make much sense if played solo, and my solo work would sound cluttered and noisy in a band. When I practice, I have to decide what I am working on: stuff that needs to sound complete now, or stuff that works only in band context.

Back to playing solo, since that is really where you are at.

The barriers to sounding good solo are indeed higher for many. While it is great to have players like Kottke, Blake or Atkins as heroes, it isn't realistic to hope for that level of skill in a short period of time. Get there like they did, on step at a time.

I would recommend that you stick with fingerstyle electric guitar covering tunes that actually make sense played that way. Don't expect any arbitrary song to work well, but choose simpler songs that can deliver satisfaction with a reasonable amount of effort. That way, you can get to the point of playing whole pieces that are fun and sound "right" with one guitar.

BTW, I don't care for solo flatpicking on electric guitar - that whole "chord melody" approach that Norman Blake and Doc Watson employ so well just doesn't translate gracefully, especially for a beginner. I'd stick with the acoustic for that.

Whew! Too long.