Ok, I wanna know what knowledge and abilities make a guitarist a novice, amatuer, good, great, and Awesome.?

Question

Where is the line between novice and amatuer. What general guitar skills make you great rather than good once learned. Cause I dunno where I am ranked.

Answer 1

Do you use the entire fretboard when you play or do you stick to the first three frets? Do you know all the movable chords and apply them at an instant's thought? Can you read music and write for the guitar? Can you pick up a melody in your head and instantly play it?

Can you perform as a lead guitarist as easily as a rhythm man? Can you teach and show others what you do and how it's done? Are you willing to share your knowledge with others not as proficient as you?

These are just some of the questions, that if answered yes, would label you as a great guitarist. One doesn't have to earn a lot of money at doing it to be most proficient.

Don't worry about some of these attributes if you haven't yet reached them. It takes years to be an accomplished guitarist unless you're another Chet Atkins.

Just keep learning and playing. That's what is important.

Answer 2

Novice- just a beginner learning his way around the instrument.

Amateur- can play. Doesn't get paid.

Intermediate player- one that is grounded on their instrument and musical concepts but still has some work to do. Mainly scales and modes.

A good player should be able to pick up new songs with little difficulty. Not to say that they won't have to work on the details of them later.

A great player is someone that is one with the instrument, can improvise and hold their own right up front.

An awesome player is great player that'll knock your socks off.

Answer 3

Every guitar book teaches the different skills at different times, so it's hard to figure out what "knowledge and abilities" you need. I just say that if the audience honestly likes what you're playing for the genre it is*, you're a good guitarist.

*An example of this: I learned from a folk guitar book, I play folk guitar, and that's all I really want to do. For an audience that expects to hear folk music, I'm probably a good guitarist. But if all they expect to hear is some head-banging solos, I'm probably not that good to them.