For me the guitar is very three dimensional. I tell my guitar students this all the time (yes some people are silly enough to take lessons from me!) However the more I think about this the more it rings true. This might be one of the reasons people find it hard to become really good at playing this instrument. Although you wouldn’t know with so many talented players out there.
What helped about seeing the guitar like this was it also opened my playing up and how taking one the aspects can create a genre or style of music.
First let me explain what I mean by three dimensional. This might not fit your description and I am not a professor in the subject nor do I attempt to try and understand quantum physics, rocket science or brain surgery! This is how I view it, hope I just didn’t build up a whole lotof false expectation then. Basically and its very basic you can view the guitar these ways:
1. Horizontally
2. Vertically
3. Diagonally
O.K this may not qualify as being three dimensions but for me it does because you also need to consider how playing each way impacts the sound and the music it produces. Try it out. Focus your playing in one direction and then another!
In my opinion and very generally speaking Jazz players play very Vertically i.e top to bottom. Depending on skill level rock players are a bit of both vertical and horizontal. Heavy Metal, Neo Classical are very much diagonal and horizontal.
Anyway something to think about!
Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com
