A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing or playing harmonica.
Versatility
The guitarist controls an extremely versatile instrument. By using techniques such as
bending and
vibrato, the guitarist can make the guitar express a near
vocal quality.
While with an ensemble, a guitarist can take the role of rhythm (playing with bass in the ensemble) or lead (playing on top of the bass in the ensemble) guitar.
A guitarist can also play along with a harmonica as a second instrument. Famous examples include Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Techniques
The guitarist has several ways of playing the guitar including the
guitar pick,
fingernail, and/or
fingertip (see
fingerstyle guitar), including
tapping.
Art
The guitarist has long been a popular subject for artists. One of the more famous examples is the painting
Degas's Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar by
Edgar Degas, which was painted sometime between 1869–72 and is currently owned by the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Notable guitarists
There are several lists made by
magazines or
websites with the purpose of finding out who are the greatest guitarists of all time for example
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by
Rolling Stone magazine or
100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by
Guitar World magazine. Based on different criteria, these lists, particularly Rolling Stone polls, often meet with criticism and ridicule by many guitarists but they are also praised by others. A 2009 book,
The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, attempted to define the best players of the heavy metal field and caused much controversy in doing so.
Rolling Stone
In 2003,
Rolling Stone magazine published a list called
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. This list included 100 guitarists which the magazine considered the best with a brief introduction for each of them. The first in this list is the American guitarist
Jimi Hendrix introduced by
Pete Townshend, guitarist for
The Who, who was, in his turn, ranked at #50 on the list. The list is heavily in favor of
blues rock guitarists. The Top Twenty of
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by
Rolling Stone are:
{|class=wikitable
|-
!#
!Guitarist
!Nationality
|-
|01 || Jimi Hendrix ||
|-
|02 || Kirk Hammet ||
|-
|03 || Duane Allman ||
|-
|04 || B.B. King ||
|-
|05 || Eric Clapton ||
|-
|06 || Robert Johnson ||
|-
|07 || Chuck Berry ||
|-
|08 || Stevie Ray Vaughan ||
|-
|09 || Ry Cooder ||
|-
|10 || Jimmy Page ||
|-
|11 || Keith Richards ||
|-
|12 || Kurt Cobain ||
|-
|13 || Jerry Garcia ||
|-
|14 || Jeff Beck ||
|-
|15 || Carlos Santana ||
|-
|16 || Johnny Ramone ||
|-
|17 || Jack White ||
|-
|18 || John Frusciante ||
|-
|19 || Richard Thompson ||
|-
|20 || James Burton ||
|-
In informing the list to readers, Paul MacInnes from British newspaper The Guardian expressed: "Surprisingly enough for an American magazine, the top 10 is fair jam-packed with Yanks", although he also noted three exceptions in the top 10. The online magazine Blogcritics criticized the list for introducing some undeserving guitarists while forgetting some artists perceived being perhaps more worthy, such as Phil Keaggy or John Petrucci.
The list has also been criticized for some questionable placements, such as Randy Rhoads (#85), Angus Young (#96), David Gilmour (#82) and Eddie Van Halen (#70).
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is mentioned in many biographies about artists who appear in the list.
Guitar World
Guitar World, a monthly music magazine devoted to
guitar, also published their list of 100 greatest guitarists in the book
Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time from the Pages of Guitar World Magazine. Different from the list of the
Rolling Stone which was introduced in descending order,
Guitar World preferred dividing the guitarists by
music genre such as "Lords of Hard Rock" for
hard rock artists or "Jazzmen" for
jazz players. Despite the appearance in other magazines like
Billboard, this publication by
Guitar World was criticized for including no female musicians within its selection.
Others
Following the death of
Les Paul,
TIME website presented their list of 10 greatest artists in
Electric guitar. Like the
Rolling Stone's list, Jimi Hendrix was chosen as the greatest guitarist followed by
Slash, B.B. King, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
Gigwise.com, an online music magazine, also ranks Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist ever, followed by Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Keith Richards and Kirk Hammett.
See also
List of guitarists
List of bass guitarists
List of lead guitarists
List of rhythm guitarists
List of slide guitarists
:Category:Lists of guitarists
References
Category:Occupations in music
