by Scott Kolecki

Created on: February 18, 2009

To lead or to follow, that is the question. Well, really, the question is "to lead or to rhythm." For me, as this is a "what do I want to be" topic, is a rhythm player. My reasoning is really pretty straight forward. I don't possess the talent to move my fingers quick enough to be an effective lead player. I am also very much a fan of the acoustic guitar, which I play almost exclusively whenever I perform publicly and, while an acoustic could be used as a lead guitar, it's generally not. That is not to say that I don't occasionally throw in a solo guitar riff here and there, and certainly when I play some of the slower, ballad type music I tend to do some lead fills, but my lead playing is a far cry from the qualifications that make a lead guitar player great.

So why not try harder you ask? I can answer that too. The short, simple answer is that I also really enjoy being a front man when I sing with a band. I am a country music singer/songwriter, so my particular flavor of music tends to lend itself to the acoustic guitar anyway, but beyond my inabilities to play the lead guitar as listed above, I take great pleasure in being a rhythm guitar player and vocalist whenever I play with a band. Further, when I do songwriter rounds, it's very useful to be an effective rhythm player as I get to accompany myself, which is what I actually spend most of my time doing these days.

So you decide, is this simply an excuse for a lack of talent or a reasonable reason for choosing to do what I do rhythmically? I will disclose these little additional details-being a strong rhythm player takes a good amount of talent too. I am not saying this to try and bolster my own image as a guitarist, but there is a lot more to playing rhythm guitar than just banging out chords in a straight rhythm. An effective rhythm player understands structure and mood, can utilize silence as well as sound to create certain effects within the music. He or she can also arpeggiate the rhythm, giving it a very smooth, flowing feel that can greatly enhance the piece of music being performed. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, a good rhythm player can also add the occassional riff or solo lead where appropriate, fleshing out what the true lead player is doing (in the instance of performing as a band) and can equally flesh out a solo performance when the musician in question is the rhythm, lead and vocals all in one.

I hope that does not sound like I am trying to take anything away from lead guitar players, because

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