RZA On The Soul Of Music

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones prior to his untimely death in a swimming pool drowning was renowned for being able to pick up any instrument and make music with it

- he had idiosyncratic ways of getting notes from everything and at best could never be described as being able to "play" the instrument;

- however he is credited with playing these instruments on Rolling Stones tunes i.e. he is listed as having played the lines heard in the recordings
 
Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones prior to his untimely death in a swimming pool drowning was renowned for being able to pick up any instrument and make music with it

- he had idiosyncratic ways of getting notes from everything and at best could never be described as being able to "play" the instrument;

- however he is credited with playing these instruments on Rolling Stones tunes i.e. he is listed as having played the lines heard in the recordings
If that's the case, I can play just about any instrument.
 
In that case, then yes, for the both of em. It's evident they have both crossed the threshold from not playing to playing, in this case the guitar. A discussion of skill level is separate. Such as this cat plays the guitar at a mediocre level.
 
Cutting to the chase...Some of yall are out here flexing Sorites paradox and really believing your proposed resolution is somehow more legitimate than others without actually expressing your resolution. "C'mon Son", you tricked me into a situational game of chess, where you made the first move, I countered, the crowd asked their questions and made their comments, and you refuse to play it out to it's logical conclusion.

You take an L for what should have been a stalemate.
 
sorry this is not a Sorites paradox formulation....(when does a heap stop being a heap or when does not being a player turn into being a player in our case)

there are observable traits and objective statements about what makes someone a guitarist.

by all measures adduced here, RZA is not a guitarist; he can make some sounds on one but that does not make him a guitarist by any of the measures I and many other teachers would use to classify an individual as being one
 
All measures here were adduced by you using a measurement system that remains esoteric to the dialogue. You listed two titles and did not include the values. Everything is assertion without evidence up until this point. As a teacher these are your opportunities to give sound guidance on complicated issues.
 
word games at 10 paces huh? not interested - I would point out that I have not actually engaged in the debate of whether rza can play guitar but rather tried to identify what you considered to be someone who could play by using the comparison to Brian Jones ability/skill/"gift" with playing any instrument

- I will accept the observations of others that rza is, at best, a unique (idiosyncratic) player of notes on the instrument called guitar; that he has no facility or fluidity beyond finding something that he likes and then practices until it is smooth by his standards is a statement that others have made (not in so many words) - to me this type of "musician" is a gamer not player, someone who dabbles at many but masters none
 
All measures here were adduced by you using a measurement system that remains esoteric to the dialogue. You listed two titles and did not include the values. Everything is assertion without evidence up until this point. As a teacher these are your opportunities to give sound guidance on complicated issues.

^LMFAO at cats playing word games!

This is what kids in school who were scared to fight used to do. They started talking about all kinds of things. So much verbal firepower, but not a lick of physical action. When 3:00 came, they were either running home or hiding in the bathroom.

Anyway, here is a video:



Hot damn, I cannot stop laughing over here! Dudes used to strum like this trying to impress girls. People would be laughing so hard and would end up doing air guitar riffs teasing these cats. These guys were fun to hang around. But we never took them seriously. Most would stop playing guitar or go to church and learn how to play for real. RZA has a future in comedy.
 
Word games, huh? Requesting the specific criteria used to gauge whether or not a person can be called a "player" is word games?

I appreciate your reply explaining your position bandcoach. In addition to your reply do you know of any sources that compile the different criteria into one source, for easier reference and access for all.

As for you desire, I accept no weak personal shots, swing harder boss.
 
I like the way that riff he's playing sounds. I don't care if it doesn't take skill, it just sounds dope with that beat. I think people make the mistake of thinking that if something is simple and easy to play, it's automatically bad. Bullcrap.

But yeah, RZA does look like a newbie with guitar. lol. Not sure why that became the focus though.
 
Word games, huh? Requesting the specific criteria used to gauge whether or not a person can be called a "player" is word games?

Yes. You are playing word games.

More words will not change his skill level. All you can do is change the definition to fit what he is doing. If he is a guitar player, most people after a few lessons are also guitar players.

To simply hold a guitar and strum a few notes = guitar player. Okay, I get it.

I have come to a few conclusions:

A. You are a huge Rza fan
B. You know absolutely nothing about how to play a guitar
C. You like to argue about stuff
D. All of the above

In any case, don't feel bad. I feel great. I had awesome laughs at that video. Rza has made my day with that style of "playing". That was more entertainment value than any Wu-Tang song I can name. I hope he posts more videos.

Rock on, brother!

 
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so I allowed myself a a minute to watch that video and have to say that that is the playing of a rank beginner

- worse still he is playing major chords when he should be playing minor chords and vice versa

- i.e. he is using the guitar as a very blunt tool to create with mainly because his knowledge of the instrument is severely limited

as for how to categorise the skills and so on look at the absrm guitar exams or any similar - I use the Australian Music Examinations Board's guitar syllabus in both classical and pop/rock/jazz guitar as my standards and this level of playing would barely pass the first exam
 
It's funny how the same cats in here flexin about RZA isn't a "guitarist" because he can't play at whatever skill level they see fit are the same bamas trying to pan fry me a few months ago for saying producers nowadays are trash and not real musicians because they can only "play" a MIDI keyboard with some pirated synths...which one is it?

Are you all really trying to say that Kurt Cobain, Billy Joe Armstrong and 90% of todays teeny bop rock bands can't "play" guitar because all they did were power chords? Their knowledge is "severely limited"????
 
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nope, rza isn't even on the level of the guys you ask about here - he is probably 6 steps below on the ladder compared to them

as for hitting on you for talking about producers not being musicians even if they use a midi keyboard - sorry don't remember it (meaning it had to be pretty forgettable in the first place), got a link?
 
nope, rza isn't even on the level of the guys you ask about here - he is probably 6 steps below on the ladder compared to them

as for hitting on you for talking about producers not being musicians even if they use a midi keyboard - sorry don't remember it (meaning it had to be pretty forgettable in the first place), got a link?

Link to post: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...eal-instruments-your-production-g-o-t-485861/
(mind you I didn't name names on who was arguing with me, but read the posts and you'll quickly see)

I'd love to see this chart that ranks your level as a guitarist in terms of a YouTube video you post - I must be 3 levels below Stevie Ray Vaughan from my video I posted back in '08. How many levels below Santana is Andre 3000? Oh wait, can Andre 3000 or Lil Wayne even "play" guitar??

And, it seems you missed my point: from the video I saw RZA was playing some bar chords which are more difficult power chords - the chord of choice for Kurt Cobain, Billy Joe Armstrong and every bedroom guitarist that thinks they can now play an open mic or join a rock band.
 
as for how to categorise the skills and so on look at the absrm guitar exams or any similar - I use the Australian Music Examinations Board's guitar syllabus in both classical and pop/rock/jazz guitar as my standards and this level of playing would barely pass the first exam

Ok cool. I like the syllabus approach because it can be applied to any instrument. That's valuable right there. I appreciate it.
 
Link to post: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...eal-instruments-your-production-g-o-t-485861/
(mind you I didn't name names on who was arguing with me, but read the posts and you'll quickly see)

I'd love to see this chart that ranks your level as a guitarist in terms of a YouTube video you post - I must be 3 levels below Stevie Ray Vaughan from my video I posted back in '08. How many levels below Santana is Andre 3000? Oh wait, can Andre 3000 or Lil Wayne even "play" guitar??

And, it seems you missed my point: from the video I saw RZA was playing some bar chords which are more difficult power chords - the chord of choice for Kurt Cobain, Billy Joe Armstrong and every bedroom guitarist that thinks they can now play an open mic or join a rock band.

so yeah that was a cluster-f*ck if ever there was one - but it was also a deliberate troll baiting exercise by the op (as were most of their other posts as well)

so I fail to see how it directly relates

my chart for ranking is based on 38 years of playing and 35 years of teaching to an external syllabus (including 20 years of assessing student performances). As for whether these other guys can play I don't know (as yet) as I have not seen them play.

I do not think that I missed your point as I am familiar with what Cobain and Co. can do and they are certainly better at it than rza - playing a barre chord is not that difficult and to suggest it is more complicated than a power chord (root 5th-8ve or 5th-8ve-5th) is really irrelevant - a power chord is always in tune with the surrounding music as long as the chord center does not become diminished or augmented; playing in tune with the surrounding music with barre chords can be if you are not paying attention and adding or removing your 2nd finger
 
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