Guitarist as dumbface

Darcy James Argue in a recent post alluded to the the stereotype of pianists being a little more bookish than the musician at large, and I immediately started to think that my instrument might have the exact opposite image.

Think about it, most of the great heroes of the guitar from Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan are renowned for not being able to read music. Why else the joke?

Q: How do you get a guitarist to turn down?
A: Put a chart in front of him.
Q: How do you get a guitarist to stop playing?
A: Put notes on it.

Even those guitarists that clearly have to be able to at least read music (i.e. classical) are led by a man that was ignorant and repulsed by anything that didn't dance in lockstep with his Iberian überwerke that an entire industry is based around the rediscovery and publication of scores he rejected. I've fallen into the trap as well, just a few posts back admitting the guitarist's apathy towards any sort of research. Eh.

As with any rule there are exceptions, Brian May was breaths away from his Ph.D. before leaving to tour with Queen, Julian Bream started the "rummage through Segovia's b-stock" craze, and Steve Vai is....Steve Vai.

This is might be a defensive mechanism to account for the fact that all the Berklee kids have arrived and seem to be having more fun than I. Stupid kids and their Nevermore shirts.

Total topic shift: A new Robot Chicken appears to be displacing Metalocalypse's normal timeslot next Sunday, most likely signaling the end of the first batch of 'toons. It is now up to the insanity and cruelty of the Adult Swim gods to decide when/if I will get to absorp more gospel from new hero Toki Wartooth.