Originally Posted by: pstringTechnique is just one part of the puzzle, if a person can express their musical vision and reach their intended audience, they have been successful, audiences don't come to see demonstrations of technique *, they come to hear music that somehow means something to them, Musicians can get so caught up in one aspect of playing that they neglect the other aspects, did Django have perfect technique? For his music and his limitations he had great technique, but he would have probably not been very successful as a chord melody player like Joe Pass. We have seen alot of great technical players in the last 20 years, and if you listen to their music for longer than 5 mins., it starts to all sound like elevator muzak, tehnique is a means to an end, but not the end in itself.

I respect this post more than any in this thread. However, the part about Django...If Django had 4 fingers and a thumb working instead of two being crippled, then we could have made a real comparison to Joe Pass. But since he was only really working with his thumb, index and middle fingers, it's hard to analyze that since Joe was working with all of his fingers. But I do respect your post and you. These are the kinds of discussions that I love.

~Incidents