Guitar players are ten a penny these days and finding a good band as a guitarist can be an absolute nightmare. Nights spent trawling listings for musicians, classified ads and even Craigslist (if you're brave) usually bring up no results, with thousands of other guitarists out there looking for bands at the same time, all of them with better gear, better skills - and probably better hair - than you; it's soul destroying. Especially when you find that perfect ad that's just appeared "Lead guitarists wanted for rock band playing originals", it's so promising, it's everything you could have wanted, you fire off a quick email for more information and sit patiently waiting for a response. Your inbox pings, you've got their attention, you read the text "Hey there, we're a 16 year old all girl rock band and we want to rock as hard as Paramore do! If you're our age we'd love to audition you!". And as you read it, you cry into your Slayer tour t-shirt that you bought at a gig in 1994....
14. Staying In A Band
If finding a band to play in is the blight of a guitarist's existence, then keeping your place in the band is purgatory. Dealing with egotistical singers, over-eager bass players and drummers who think they run the band because they have the biggest car is a perpetual juggling act, but the seeping paranoia creeps in when band members fight that they could "easily replace you if they wanted to". Singers, bass players and drummers are rare animals these days, guitarists aren't, and you become fairly sure that they're auditioning new guitarists behind your back. The turncoats that they are!
13. Developing Callouses
This is a problem only the new guitarist really experiences, but like learning to drive, we all have to start somewhere. When you start playing it's a painful experience, from learning barre chords and dealing with that perpetual ache in your hand as you try and stretch your index finger across all the strings properly to sliding your fresh, unblemished and soft fingertips over wound metal strings and effectively tearing the skin off time and time again until it comes back in hard, it's painful and there's no escaping it.
I am a man of many interests. I am a passionate gamer, running my own YouTube channel (The Gadget Addicts) showing off the best of modern gaming in the form of Let's Play videos.
I am an ardent musician, having been a guitarist for the past 13 years. I am also a massive geek, I adore science fiction and fantasy films and TV shows and am trying to work up the courage to start writing a novel. If I can ever think of a good story to tell...
I live with my wife in the North East of England and own a belligerent little black cat.
