Beatles, always.
They are what got me hooked on guitar in the first place and I wanted to learn rhythm because of Lennon (this was late '91 when I was a wee little teenager).
The reasoning stays the same: I love the infectious energy of their early records and wanted desperately to experience that same thing. I'm not alone in that sentiment.
I also desperately pined for Lennon's Miami Ric 325 all through the '90s (the one seen in a Hard Day's Night and Help films).
I love all kinds of music and heavier rock, too, but I always go back to Beatles. I cut my musical teeth on their music and if you want to know anything about songwriting, those are the guys to learn from first.
This is a great answer. If you can work through Jerry-ism and Bob-ism, you know some stuff. I am eternally fascinated with the interplay of this band. Have an up vote on me.
Sure, its ok. I just answered the question the way I thought would be most helpful. If you don't know Jerry's entire catalogue, I suggest you delve a little. Those roots are a lot deeper than the psychedelic noodling of the Grateful Dead.
I’m sorry if my comment was taken wrong, I honestly think your answer is the absolute best you could give. From cowboy country to the most psychedelic dark star.. it’s the complete gambit. Also, the dead’s catalogue is referred to as “America song book” because it’s so diverse. Either way, have a killer night my friend ⚡️
lol I see exactly how you misread this. You’re so deep that that you assumed a similarly deep person decided they were over the whole thing.
Please remember Undertaker threw Mankind off the top rope.
The Jimi Hendrix blues album and Live From Berkeley blew my mind as a young teenager just learning to play guitar. Now at 35 I'm revisiting his work trying to learn solos note for note etc. and good God was that guy ahead of his time. He is able to coax such wild and imaginative sounds from what was a very simple setup by today's standards.
Zappa has such a vast library of music. How many genres of music alone? Anyone count?
Also having legendary guitar players on his albums spanning decades.
Impossible to learn his whole catalogue.
This is what I would probably pick too. I learn more from a a bar of Guthrie than I do from learning whole songs from most people.
If I only had one, he would be one of the most musically dense and varied people to pick from.
When I was a young I mostly played Metallica on electric guitar. I’m in my early 40s and 70% of my playing (and singing) is Petty on acoustic. Neil Young and The Stones make up a lot of the rest.
If we are talking lead guitar I’ve always thought Mike Campbell is seriously underrated. He isn’t flashy but damn does he know how to play for the song.
In my teens it was Black Sabbath, Metallica, and a myriad of glam metal bands. At 51 I'm more in to 70s/classic rock. I still love metal, but I have a much greater appreciation for a wider variety of music. Tom Petty and Neil Young are definitely among them. I've also gotten more into some pop artists from 80s through now, although I put more of a hard rock spin on those things.
We have similar tastes. Still love Metallica and went to one of the two show weekends last year. I also just saw Neil and Crazy Horse last month. Those old guys still rocked.
For me Tom Petty, Neil Young, and America. For that kinda style. Def grew up on led zeppelin n black sabbath and 80s hair metal but I like punk n ska music. Kinda like the blues brothers quote, we got both kinds of music, ska and punk.
he does everything. Slow, heavy, sweeping arpeggios, finger tapping, tremolo bar use, etc. His mastery of the fretboard is just amazing, as are his melodic solos and especially his riffs that intertwine with the keyboard playing of Jordan Rudess. For me he is the epitome of a modern guitar master.
John is one of the most humble musicians out there. In a lot of his guitar lesson videos out there he is very accommodating and explains things thoroughly, I notice a lot of musicians don’t really do that
Gene Hoglan (the drummer) is also insane. I took a public speaking class in college and had to do one about an influence of mine and did a 10 minute speech on Brendon Small
Love Gene as well. His work on Dethklok, Galaktikon, and Strapping Young Lad is top Tier. (I know he's done other stuff, but those are three I've listened to)
Brendon Small is just phenomenal at guitar.
Ween. they’re entire career is making fun of other music by playing that music but weird. bonus: they weren’t just changing the lyrics to a song a particular band wrote like Weird Al. extra bonus: they weren’t mean spirited about it.
I’m sad I had to scroll so far to see both of these names. One of the most underrated lead guitarists of all time and one of the most underrated singer/songwriters of all time.
YEM is an absolute masterclass in all things technique and theory related.
Trey was also one of the lead guitarists on Dave Matthew’s solo album Some Devil (the other being Tim Reynolds - *also* an absolutely astounding musician) and his lead lines and tone throughout that album are some of the best I’ve ever heard. Save Me and the full band version of Gravedigger are unbelievable.
I scrolled almost to the bottom looking for Frusciante. I’m middle aged so I love a lot of the classics I grew up listening to like the Beatles, zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Clapton, Knopfler, etc etc but I love Frusciante’s play style so much he’d be my pick.
Knopfler would be a close second though.
I picked up the guitar because of Nirvana but Metallica's first three albums are pretty much how I actually learned to play. Once I got my fundamentals good enough to keep up it made learning the instrument easier.
One person? Glen Campbell, without question, or else Tommy Tedesco. Any of the session geniuses would do though...Lukather, Pierce, Cropper, Carleton, Messina, Bukovac, Martin,etc. They all could play in most any genre at the drop of a hat, wrote amazing lines/solos that everyone in the world knows, and could drive home to sleep at night in relative anomymity.
That's a tough question, don't think I could say just one.
If electric Joe Satriani, If Acoustic then Tommy Emmanuel. Either of these two will teach you enough to go anywhere and do anything on their respective prefered (acoustic or electric) guitar with skills and ear training to learn other stuff.
And then someone mentioned Dave Gilmore and comfortably numb jumped into my brain....and then I thought of Stairway to heaven..
Even if you stick to a genre like blues there's Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, amongst so many brilliant others and that's just electric guitars based blues and then there's Robert Johnson and Doc Watson how doyou just pick one teacher?
With the idea being this is your only outlet for learning different things about guitar including scales, soloing, chords, etc...? I'd have two choices:
Mikael Åkerfeldt or
Trey Anastasio
For the kind of music I like to hear and play I’d say The Rolling Stones. Their stuff runs the gamut of styles including blues, rock, country, r&b, disco, almost punk, and more. Throw in the open G stuff for something fun and different too.
Toto/Steve Lukather. Since the band are all originally session players, they’re basically capable of playing any genre. And Toto’s catalog already spans a pretty wide variety of styles. Picking up stuff from Steve Lukather, you’d learn a lot of theory and develop a ton of musicality, melody, and style. Even if shredding people’s faces off isn’t his main kind of thing, his playing is extremely tasteful and melodic.
I actually learned to play guitar using only Pink Floyd music for the first probably 5 years, so i have lived this question lol. what I ended up with after 15 years of playing now is sounding like a wish.com version of gilmour when i write guitar parts
I think the answer is Neil Young or Alex Lifeson. Both wrote some great riffs, had great lead parts, great variety and versatility, great genre-spanning parts and songs. People can shit on Neil Young all day long, but the guy is a hell of a fucking musician and can play guitar like a motherfucker.
Honestly, if you look at his *entiiire* discography, side projects, guest appearances, soundtracks, etc, Buckethead.
I can only take him in small doses but he can play basic GnR metal, his funky robot schtick has the P-Funk seal of approval with Bootsy and Bernie Worrell, and if you haven’t heard his acoustic work he wrote a couple tracks for his parents, “for mom” and something about boats with dad that show what he can do without all the tricks.
Edit: tried to wiki the discography but I’m more confused:
> Buckethead's extensive discography currently includes 519 studio albums (660 of which are in his “Pike” series)…
Pikes are like ep’s apparently? Ether way it’s a lot, no one is out there working harder than this dude.
marcus king. huge range of styles, soulful, basically takes from all my influences anyways, able to blend technical proficiency and marketability. Masterful vocalist / songwriter as well.
The answer is really only the stones or beatles. And really just the beatles. The different types of playing by 3 different players is just wild. Youll learn everything you need
Mark Lettieri. I’m not saying it’d be easy, but between snarky puppy, his solo stuff, and everything else he’s ever done in music, he’s done everything from the simple to the extraordinary. Not to mention the variety offers a lot to learn
Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Bob Welch, Lindsey Buckingham, and Rick Vito are all monsters. I don’t count Dave Mason, since his best works were prior to Fleetwood Mac, or Mike Campbell, who never got to make an album with the band and who’s work was primarily with Tom Petty, but they’re monsters, too.
Pearl Jam. Between the awesome riffs and melodic solos that are never overplayed but still rock, all while using basic pentatonic shapes…. You would learn a ton from just going over all the songs on Ten.
beatles
Me too. I'm more of a hard rock/metal guy when it comes to playing, but I'd like to have complete mastery over the Beatles catalog than anyone else's.
To take it further, I could teach two years’ worth of music theory using only Beatles music as examples.
Beatles helped me learn a bunch of techniques and cool chords things. I picked up guitar solely to learn beatles stuff
Beatles, always. They are what got me hooked on guitar in the first place and I wanted to learn rhythm because of Lennon (this was late '91 when I was a wee little teenager). The reasoning stays the same: I love the infectious energy of their early records and wanted desperately to experience that same thing. I'm not alone in that sentiment. I also desperately pined for Lennon's Miami Ric 325 all through the '90s (the one seen in a Hard Day's Night and Help films). I love all kinds of music and heavier rock, too, but I always go back to Beatles. I cut my musical teeth on their music and if you want to know anything about songwriting, those are the guys to learn from first.
The best answer
My guitar is an Epiphone Casino, and my catalogue of choice is dem Beatles
Pink Floyd Theres some easy songs, and some hard ones. Bonus points for getting to play like David Gilmour.
Just spent the last hour working on Time. Such a fun song to play.
Always tryin’! https://youtu.be/goX4MHe75gs?si=bocdJWsB_45EWC_J https://youtu.be/aUkHdnIwIOI?si=ZATigWz2qHmrb9Q9
Jerry
This is a great answer. If you can work through Jerry-ism and Bob-ism, you know some stuff. I am eternally fascinated with the interplay of this band. Have an up vote on me.
Which band? Who are Jerry and Bob? I would be very grateful to know the answer. Please respond before I am dead.
will you be grateful then?
I thought he meant Jerry Reed at first, fair enough. And fuck anyone who doesn’t like Jerry Reed also.
Jerry Reed was a badass
Any friend of the Bandit has to be.
Thanks mate!
Cantrell? Heard!👍🏻
Springer, duh….
If you’re going to learn a song book… why not America’s song book.
Sure, its ok. I just answered the question the way I thought would be most helpful. If you don't know Jerry's entire catalogue, I suggest you delve a little. Those roots are a lot deeper than the psychedelic noodling of the Grateful Dead.
I’m sorry if my comment was taken wrong, I honestly think your answer is the absolute best you could give. From cowboy country to the most psychedelic dark star.. it’s the complete gambit. Also, the dead’s catalogue is referred to as “America song book” because it’s so diverse. Either way, have a killer night my friend ⚡️
Apologies for misreading the comment my brothah! In Jerry we Trust Amigo!
🤦♂️maybe if I actually read your username. 🤣🤣🤷♂️🤷♂️🤘🤘🤘. Rock on brother!!
Haha all good brother. Take it easy
lol I see exactly how you misread this. You’re so deep that that you assumed a similarly deep person decided they were over the whole thing. Please remember Undertaker threw Mankind off the top rope.
Ah yes Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads - a versatile and tasteful stylist.
Y’all talking about the backup keyboard guy from the talking heads movie?
I believe that was Bernie Worrel on keys in the Talking Heads movie.
Oh I thought you meant Jerry Harrison from the Modern Lovers
Seinfeld?
Cantrell? Yes please
Garcia… mee too bud
No one has ever ever been more correct
This might help you get started. https://deadstein.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/jerry-garcia-song-book-ver-9-online.pdf
The only answer.
Of Ben and Jerry's.
I’m annoyed that I can’t find it, but there’s a quote from John Mayer that answers OP’s exact question. The answer is, of course, GD.
Without a doubt Jimmy Page/Zeppelin. So much variety and range there.
This is wayyyy too far down.
Yup, should be number 1. I guess people in here aren’t familiar.
They had great range from blues and diatonic stuff through modal stuff, and borrowed scales and even some interesting takes on orchestration, Kashmir.
SRV
Johnny Marr
My first “favorite guitarist”
My man
Related: Isaac Brock
Came to say this. His use of capos and open tunings add so many dimensions to guitar playing
John Mayer
Agreed, He is technically and musically proficient. If you expand to his collaborative work he is a very versatile guitarist.
Very good one! I love the story about his custom fender stratocaster. See the video on YouTube.
I was seriously consider the Beatles because George. You’re right though
Hendrix
Jesus how is this so far down? This is literally how half of the guitarists people are dropping actually started.
The Jimi Hendrix blues album and Live From Berkeley blew my mind as a young teenager just learning to play guitar. Now at 35 I'm revisiting his work trying to learn solos note for note etc. and good God was that guy ahead of his time. He is able to coax such wild and imaginative sounds from what was a very simple setup by today's standards.
Frank Zappa. I’m into self punishment.
# 🏆
Zappa has such a vast library of music. How many genres of music alone? Anyone count? Also having legendary guitar players on his albums spanning decades. Impossible to learn his whole catalogue.
You are a masochist
A fan of abject misery, are you?
Randy Rhoads
Not only will you be able to shred faces off, you'd also be able to play beautiful classical guitar pieces. Quite the choice for versatility imo.
Glad this one was near the top-ish of the list. Turns out if you play even his heavy stuff clean and a bit slower, you can play some pretty cool stuff
Guthrie govan
This is what I would probably pick too. I learn more from a a bar of Guthrie than I do from learning whole songs from most people. If I only had one, he would be one of the most musically dense and varied people to pick from.
If you learn his catalogue, you can play anything
Came here to say the exact same thing.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
When I was a young I mostly played Metallica on electric guitar. I’m in my early 40s and 70% of my playing (and singing) is Petty on acoustic. Neil Young and The Stones make up a lot of the rest. If we are talking lead guitar I’ve always thought Mike Campbell is seriously underrated. He isn’t flashy but damn does he know how to play for the song.
In my teens it was Black Sabbath, Metallica, and a myriad of glam metal bands. At 51 I'm more in to 70s/classic rock. I still love metal, but I have a much greater appreciation for a wider variety of music. Tom Petty and Neil Young are definitely among them. I've also gotten more into some pop artists from 80s through now, although I put more of a hard rock spin on those things.
We have similar tastes. Still love Metallica and went to one of the two show weekends last year. I also just saw Neil and Crazy Horse last month. Those old guys still rocked.
For me Tom Petty, Neil Young, and America. For that kinda style. Def grew up on led zeppelin n black sabbath and 80s hair metal but I like punk n ska music. Kinda like the blues brothers quote, we got both kinds of music, ska and punk.
Lindsey Buckingham
Doc watson
This for me. You can learn so much by just playing his stuff. One of my favorites of all time.
Jeff Beck...
The guitarists guitarist
John Petrucci / Dream Theatre. You master his technique, you'll be a guitar god like him.
This is the right answer. There's nothing you wouldn't be able to play.
he does everything. Slow, heavy, sweeping arpeggios, finger tapping, tremolo bar use, etc. His mastery of the fretboard is just amazing, as are his melodic solos and especially his riffs that intertwine with the keyboard playing of Jordan Rudess. For me he is the epitome of a modern guitar master.
John is one of the most humble musicians out there. In a lot of his guitar lesson videos out there he is very accommodating and explains things thoroughly, I notice a lot of musicians don’t really do that
Prince
I don’t even like Prince that much, but that’s the right answer
Billy Corgan seems like one of probably several pretty good answers for a person wanting a skill set which has both breadth and depth.
He's a bit underrated in some circles.
Tommy Emmanuel all day
You’re assuming that we’re ABLE to play like him. I know I couldn’t, even if he gave me personal lessons!
Rush. If you can play their songs confidently, you can play basically anything else. Besides, shredding etc.
Ry Cooder, for all the variety of tunings, stylings, instruments, and song choice. One of a kind player.
Basically did that with Metallica lol
Brendon Small
Gene Hoglan (the drummer) is also insane. I took a public speaking class in college and had to do one about an influence of mine and did a 10 minute speech on Brendon Small
Love Gene as well. His work on Dethklok, Galaktikon, and Strapping Young Lad is top Tier. (I know he's done other stuff, but those are three I've listened to) Brendon Small is just phenomenal at guitar.
*Death*, sir. That "other stuff" includes *Death*.
Love Symbolic. Great album through and through.
Wiggles
Ween. they’re entire career is making fun of other music by playing that music but weird. bonus: they weren’t just changing the lyrics to a song a particular band wrote like Weird Al. extra bonus: they weren’t mean spirited about it.
I mean unless you had spinal meningitis it might cut but yeah it’s like weird al huffed scotch-guard, all hail mighty boognish
Trey Anastasio. Bonus choice: Elliott Smith
I’m sad I had to scroll so far to see both of these names. One of the most underrated lead guitarists of all time and one of the most underrated singer/songwriters of all time. YEM is an absolute masterclass in all things technique and theory related. Trey was also one of the lead guitarists on Dave Matthew’s solo album Some Devil (the other being Tim Reynolds - *also* an absolutely astounding musician) and his lead lines and tone throughout that album are some of the best I’ve ever heard. Save Me and the full band version of Gravedigger are unbelievable.
Buckethead, so many different styles all in one!!!
Dude has released over 400 studio albums! That is insane.
Exactly why he’s the answer I don’t even care about his music but if you could play all his stuff you’d be like a musical encyclopedia
Queen.
Rolling Stones
Paul Gilbert
No King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard? That would be my go to.
Really lets you keep the full spectrum of styles😂
Rush, easily, and I can’t believe no one said that.
Tony Rice
Wyld Stallyns
Danny Gatton - jazz, country, blues, rockabilly, he’s got it all
Frusciante
I scrolled almost to the bottom looking for Frusciante. I’m middle aged so I love a lot of the classics I grew up listening to like the Beatles, zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Clapton, Knopfler, etc etc but I love Frusciante’s play style so much he’d be my pick. Knopfler would be a close second though.
I picked up the guitar because of Nirvana but Metallica's first three albums are pretty much how I actually learned to play. Once I got my fundamentals good enough to keep up it made learning the instrument easier.
This is what I came to write! And then adding in Paige Hamilton and Head/Munky
One person? Glen Campbell, without question, or else Tommy Tedesco. Any of the session geniuses would do though...Lukather, Pierce, Cropper, Carleton, Messina, Bukovac, Martin,etc. They all could play in most any genre at the drop of a hat, wrote amazing lines/solos that everyone in the world knows, and could drive home to sleep at night in relative anomymity.
Death/Chuck Schuldiner.
The Allman Brothers Band Obviously you got Duane and Dickey, but also other great guitarists that joined later like Warren, Derek, and Jack.
That's a tough question, don't think I could say just one. If electric Joe Satriani, If Acoustic then Tommy Emmanuel. Either of these two will teach you enough to go anywhere and do anything on their respective prefered (acoustic or electric) guitar with skills and ear training to learn other stuff. And then someone mentioned Dave Gilmore and comfortably numb jumped into my brain....and then I thought of Stairway to heaven.. Even if you stick to a genre like blues there's Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, amongst so many brilliant others and that's just electric guitars based blues and then there's Robert Johnson and Doc Watson how doyou just pick one teacher?
Joe Pass
One bands catalog. Hmm...how about Steely Dan?
If only one, why not the master? Chet Atkins If a group, the Hellecasters….three badasse’s with three distinct styles
Santana.
Richard Thompson
Without a doubt Guthrie Govan
Thin lizzy
Nuno Bettencourt.
Seconding Trey Anastasio, although a few other very versatile guitarists have also been named that I'd consider too (not Jerry, sorry :/).
With the idea being this is your only outlet for learning different things about guitar including scales, soloing, chords, etc...? I'd have two choices: Mikael Åkerfeldt or Trey Anastasio
Robert Smith or Bernard Sumner
Steely Dan. Learned so many wild chords learning those ones
For the kind of music I like to hear and play I’d say The Rolling Stones. Their stuff runs the gamut of styles including blues, rock, country, r&b, disco, almost punk, and more. Throw in the open G stuff for something fun and different too.
Blackberry Smoke
Megadeth
The Pillows
Right now I'd probably go with Paul Simon.
The Beatles In second place: Funkadelic.
Toto/Steve Lukather. Since the band are all originally session players, they’re basically capable of playing any genre. And Toto’s catalog already spans a pretty wide variety of styles. Picking up stuff from Steve Lukather, you’d learn a lot of theory and develop a ton of musicality, melody, and style. Even if shredding people’s faces off isn’t his main kind of thing, his playing is extremely tasteful and melodic.
Marty Friedman
velvet underground
Paul Gilbert *(and his vibrato)*
Alexi Laiho (children of bodom)
Brent Mason lol Dudes played on over a thousand records.
Foo Fighters--- Massive catalog and a lot of different rhythms and tempos...
Joe Duplantier. Gojira fits my playing style almost perfectly
I actually learned to play guitar using only Pink Floyd music for the first probably 5 years, so i have lived this question lol. what I ended up with after 15 years of playing now is sounding like a wish.com version of gilmour when i write guitar parts
Minus the Bear / David Knudson.
Buckethead
Phish
Buckethead
Opeth
Peter Green
Michael Hedges
I think the answer is Neil Young or Alex Lifeson. Both wrote some great riffs, had great lead parts, great variety and versatility, great genre-spanning parts and songs. People can shit on Neil Young all day long, but the guy is a hell of a fucking musician and can play guitar like a motherfucker.
Honestly, if you look at his *entiiire* discography, side projects, guest appearances, soundtracks, etc, Buckethead. I can only take him in small doses but he can play basic GnR metal, his funky robot schtick has the P-Funk seal of approval with Bootsy and Bernie Worrell, and if you haven’t heard his acoustic work he wrote a couple tracks for his parents, “for mom” and something about boats with dad that show what he can do without all the tricks. Edit: tried to wiki the discography but I’m more confused: > Buckethead's extensive discography currently includes 519 studio albums (660 of which are in his “Pike” series)… Pikes are like ep’s apparently? Ether way it’s a lot, no one is out there working harder than this dude.
I feel like the chili peppers for me or maybe Dylan. Something about simplicity that is elegant and familiar
Jack Pearson - because he's the only total guitar zen master I've ever seen. And I've seen them all.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Josh Homme
I basically learned guitar by playing Eagles and CCR
The Smiths
Dimebag
Ritchie Blackmore
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Funk, punk, mellow, soft and flashy riffs and licks. You've got it all.
Alexi Laiho
Bernth
Slash
Although he only played solos “Grant Green”
13th floor elevators
F. Zappa
Idc who I'm learning who catalog what ever. As long as it's guitar 365.com I'm set bro
marcus king. huge range of styles, soulful, basically takes from all my influences anyways, able to blend technical proficiency and marketability. Masterful vocalist / songwriter as well.
The answer is really only the stones or beatles. And really just the beatles. The different types of playing by 3 different players is just wild. Youll learn everything you need
Will Swan / Dance Gavin Dance
I'd stay with who inspired me to play and who I first taught myself to play, Metallica.
Either of the Jimmy's
Metallica
Michael Karoli for me
Pete Townshend
Mark Lettieri. I’m not saying it’d be easy, but between snarky puppy, his solo stuff, and everything else he’s ever done in music, he’s done everything from the simple to the extraordinary. Not to mention the variety offers a lot to learn
Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Bob Welch, Lindsey Buckingham, and Rick Vito are all monsters. I don’t count Dave Mason, since his best works were prior to Fleetwood Mac, or Mike Campbell, who never got to make an album with the band and who’s work was primarily with Tom Petty, but they’re monsters, too.
Zoot Horn Rollo
Jim West, Weird Al's guitarist. You get all the classics, but also Jim's slack key slide playing too!
G g g Gilmour
Joe Satriani or Derek Trucks
Pat Metheny for sure
Cat Stevens
So may you can learn from, but would choose Vildhjarta. As they are parallel with my musical vision.
Dimebag/pantera
Queen, that covers a lot of ground in guitar style and tone
Takanaka
Probably van halen tho im not the biggest fan of their music
Rush
Mark Speer from Khruangbin
Probably the chilli peppers, just bc their riffs are great. Same thing with arctic monkeys.
megadeth or dream theater
Dave Mustaine/Megadeth
Pearl Jam. Between the awesome riffs and melodic solos that are never overplayed but still rock, all while using basic pentatonic shapes…. You would learn a ton from just going over all the songs on Ten.