[flashlight69]

hi everybody

hmm i was always wondering how thurston learned playing the guitar so well.was he in a conservatory or did he learned it at the university?or did he had a privat guittarteacher?

sure he had a good music education over years.did he also play piano?

same quastion for the other members


i think this is really interesting becaus they all play motherfucking good and you can not teach yourself to this level ,many band members of cult-bands were students-i think of nirvana and r.e.m

so that´s the point.

if you wanna be a rockstar better be a student

but no problem i don´t give a fuck about it

[Danny Himself]

Thurston can't play the guitar

[SYRFox]

Yeah, they're not that good at playing their instruments I think, except for Steve maybe
One more proof that technique does not equal greatness
(Another proof: Dream Theater sucks)

[automatic bzooty]

yeah, i don't think thurston learned in a conventional way... as his playing is definitely unconventional.

in goodbye 20th century, it talks about his brothers playing guitar... i don't know if he learned from them or anything, though. and then his early no-wave style, influenced by playing in glenn branca's group...

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by Danny Himself

Thurston can't play the guitar

yep

[This Is Not Here]

Originally Posted by flashlight69

i think this is really interesting becaus they all play motherfucking good and you can not teach yourself to this level ,many band members of cult-bands were students-i think of nirvana and r.e.m

if you wanna be a rockstar better be a student

This is the biggest lump of rubbish I have ever read.

[flashlight69]

hmm i would say thurston can play guitar i think about all his songs and listen to trees outside the acedamy!i don´t mean his influences like glenn branca i mean if you want play guitar you have to learn guitar.and the next step is write your songs delevope your styl but you can´t play accoustic guitarr like on trees outside the acedamy without some basic education and a bit more.

[RanaldoNecro]

This debate is endless. Technique vs heart. Thurston ways in on this spectrum somewhere. IF anything his playing makes us consider that there are no forms...

[automatic bzooty]

Originally Posted by flashlight69

delevope your styl.

that's exactly it, all there is to it. go forth and develope your styl.

[atsonicpark]

originally, thurston tuned his guitar to open strings so he could play chords with one finger. i don't think he ever had any musical "training" beyond just tuning his guitar differently and playing by himself for hours. unless you're a complete jackass, you're going to "learn" to play guitar, in some way, if you play it as much as he has in over 30 years. I think he doesn't really understand much "theory", but anyone that plays for hours can come up with lots of great riffs if they know a little about what they're doing. Thurston definitely knows some chords but I don't think that really factors into his playing usually, except on Trees. He knows what's he's doing, let's leave it at that.

[deflinus]

he KNOWS how to play guitar. he can definitely play better than most douchebags out there. a lot of the songs he wrote pre-Rather Ripped definitely show his "technique" and understanding of theory. The Empty Page is a good example. that's a well written song.

Trees is a definite improvement over Psychic

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

Originally Posted by flashlight69

hi everybody

hmm i was always wondering how thurston learned playing the guitar so well.was he in a conservatory or did he learned it at the university?or did he had a privat guittarteacher?

sure he had a good music education over years.did he also play piano?

same quastion for the other members


i think this is really interesting becaus they all play motherfucking good and you can not teach yourself to this level ,many band members of cult-bands were students-i think of nirvana and r.e.m

so that´s the point.

if you wanna be a rockstar better be a student

but no problem i don´t give a fuck about it

I've tought myself to Sonic Youth's level of guitar playing ability, perhaps above theirs. Though I can only do one guitar. With other guitarists I've played with, I've never been able to cowrite stuff at their level. Of course usually guitarists I play with don't mesh with me at all.

[flashlight69]

hmm
definitley he had some years of education in primary school high school university however he knows the claviatur ( hmm for the guitar )

nothing special ,like so many other people, and then he moved on

but with absolut nothing youst doit yourself ??i can not imagine that he composed incinerate wihtout any basic background also kurt got teached when he was a kid and his stuff is much more easy to play.but however it´s youst my view hmm i do not know

[gualbert]

Thurston surely knows how to play SY music.
Where did he learn that?
Who teached him??

[flashlight69]

Originally Posted by gualbert

Thurston surely knows how to play SY music.
Where did he learn that?
Who teached him??

come on that´s not fair.nobody learned him how to write his own songs
that´s not the point.
you got me complete wrong.

other example: on *oh you pretty things* david bowie played piano im sure there were a time when he had some piano lessons.that has nothing to do with the fact that he had wrote this song by himself.hmm i am sorry my englisch is not the best cannot discribe it better.

even mozart hade lessons.
but there were this kid in the tv 2 year old plays phantastic never got teached next thurston moore? but ok it´s true guitar is not that difficult to learn (makes me think about the ramones and nirvana)

[gualbert]

Mmh, I don't see your point, I must say.

I did have piano and guitar lessons, and I learned close to nothing (except the chord that is used in 99% of punk songs, and 100% of Ramones songs).

[Alexander]

Thurston never received an institutionalized education in music. If memory serves correctly, he enrolled in University but dropped out soon afterwards to move to New York. He's certainly honed both his knowledge and technical abilities purely on his own, which I'm sure many people do to one extent or another.

[wellcharge]

i'm pretty sure i read that he had help from glenn branca when starting out

i think pretty much the way thurston learned was mostly just fucking around and then practicing the parts that sound good, you can play an instrument without knowing any theory by remembering things like "if i do this, it makes this sound"

i think purely on his own is a huge overstatement, he's played with a shit tonne of other people and i'm sure he's picked stuff up from them, i'd be shocked if he hasn't learned anything from lee after constantly playing together for decades

[Magic Wheel Memory]

It's not uncommon at all for people to develop good playing ability without any formal education, training, lessons, etc.

[exploding plastic candle]

Thurston isn't your conventional "good" guitar player. His ability isn't something that can be taught, because it is directly correlated with his skill as a songwriter and his own style. If there's anyone in the group who probably had formal music education it's Lee.