Quote:

I love to visit music stores and ask the guitar people to show me a, "Lead Guitar" and then show me a "Rhythm Guitar"...

Then I try to show them why they are all just "Guitars" - and the difference lies in what the player has learned how to do with it.

It is an interesting phenomena to me.

I mean, nobody uses the term, "Rhythm Piano" or "Lead Vibraphone" - although among certain horn players there is the distinction of the "Lead Player" every once in awhile.

Carry on,


--Mac



Excellant observation, I for one would get tired of the question . . . you play guitar, do you play lead? Trying my hardest not to come of as a smart ass, my response was a repeated, "I play guitar". However with age and experience my answer to questions of this sort nowdays is, "I am now and have been a student of the guitar for many years". I still won't answer the "lead question" as I figured with age I have earned the right to be a bit of that aforementioned smart ass I tried to avoid in my younger days.

But to your point Mac I have never heard the "lead" term associated with any other instrument. I am guessing the "lead guitar term" was something that came into being with some the rock players as maybe some of them could only play single string solos or melodies and knew nothing about chord structure. As with the old jazz cats who simply played guitar, and when called upon could solo on any song in the book and even swap fours and eights with the rest of the band. Those cats played guitar!

Later,

Danny C.
www.dannycampo.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Danny-Campo/379776252109306?skip_nax_wizard=true

The More You Drink The Better I Sound