[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by Jason

My approach has always been to milk everything for what it's worth as well... I am still blown away with how many new sounds can be squeezed out of three chords and a single box. A couple of my good friends took up guitar shortly after I and they've since "blown past" me.

They're into metal, so they hammer out blisteringly fast licks with tons of distortion. I really think what they do is great. I get true enjoyment out of hearing my friends rock out like that, but my personality is different. I'm more the guy who wanders around town or the woods just observing things. I might see a leaf or a spiderweb and get to thinking about the meaning of life... Similarly, I get mesmerized by the very limited things I know on the fretboard. Even if a guitar had just one string there would be no limit to what you could do with it.

I guess you could say that, even with only knowing a couple of scales and fewer than 10 open chords, I am thoroughly overwhelmed by my musical options when I play. Sure, sometimes I feel like I'm in a rut, but if I can just skew my perspective a tad... Bam! I find another little treasure on the fretboard. Can anybody else relate?

That's what I always tell pupils Jason. It's not what you can play but how you play it. The simplest song can mezmerize an audience if delivered correctly.
All that million mile an hour stuff should really fall into some sort of new Olympic sport category , because 99% of it certainly doesn't do anything for me musically.