Brian May on the guitarist who proved that it’s “not about technique”
What makes a great guitarist? Some would say innovation, an effort to push the limitations of the instrument, an attempt to create something entirely new with those trusty six strings. Maybe it’s practice, players who spend years getting to know the instrument so that every strum sounds flawless. Or perhaps it’s the songwriting ideas that can be executed through the guitar, enhanced and expanded with each chord or each additional pedal. According to Brian May, if there’s one thing that certainly doesn’t define great guitarists, it’s technical skill.
May is pretty well-placed to dictate what we should and shouldn’t factor into our estimations of guitarists. The artist and astrophysicist earned his own place as one of the greats in the 1970s, playing lead guitar for glam rockers Queen. From the dramatic, drawn-out solo in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to the aptly titled ‘Killer Queen’, he created and played some truly killer guitar riffs, carving out a legacy for himself as the best of the best.
This legacy partly stems from May’s technical skill, his ability to play quickly yet faultlessly, and his imaginative approach to the instrument. He wasn’t just a masterful player, he brought a sense of curiosity and creativity to his playing style, blending genre influences and concocting guitar lines that have been stuck in audiences heads for decades now.
Despite his own indisputable technical skill with the instrument, May doesn’t believe that this should be used to praise or critique guitarists. During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM, the Queen guitarist asserted that playing is not a competition, declaring, “I don’t think any guitarist should feel like they have anything to prove.”
He used Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain as an example, suggesting that while there’s “not a lot of technical stuff there,” he earned his place as one of the most iconic and influential guitarists of all time. “He didn’t work that hard at being technical,” May commented, “And yet he gives us a legacy of some of the greatest guitar music of all time.”
Cobain certainly wasn’t focused on perfecting his scales or being the most accurate player. He took a creative approach to the instrument instead, plunging it into new, sludgy realms and becoming a leading figure in the grunge movement in the process. He penned impossibly catchy riffs that would win over audiences, but he was much more focused on expression and entertainment than technical prowess.
Despite this, as May rightly asserted, Cobain is one of the most revered and referenced guitar players in music history. Nirvana’s riffs are truly iconic, recreated by budding players on the daily and extending their influence far beyond the realm of grunge. “So it’s not about technique,” May concluded, “It’s about what you put into it and what you feel and how that feeling gets across in your guitar playing.”
It’s true that the players who dominate the top ten lists of the greatest guitarists of all time will, generally, possess a certain level of technical skill. But this alone is not enough to make a great guitarist. It must be accompanied by a sense of creativity and feeling, a desire to convey emotion or to entertain through manipulating those six strings. May and Cobain are both prime examples of this.
