Still asked to this day if I play lead or rhythm guitar by non-musos...

CaseOfAce

Yesterday got asked this very question. Must have happened numerous times over the years.

I never know what to respond with other than ...err.. both.?

Such a job description hasn't really been relevant since Malcolm Young went to that great gig in the sky...?
But for some reason joe public has latched on to the 60s / 70s idea that you can only be good at one type of playing?
Maybe some of the older hands on here can attest to where this notion arose from?

jasonbone75

I've always just said "all of them" to any question like that!

merlin

I play a (insert colour of your guitar here) guitar.

Danny1969

Well I started out people did tend to classify themselves as rhythm or lead players, probably because older bands like The Shadows, Ventures and early R&R bands did have players with specific rhythm or lead jobs to do. One of the first bands to buck this trend was the 3rd incarnation of Thin Lizzy, and this continued on with bands like Iron Maiden and onwards into hair metal. 
I do have muso friends who only play rhythm live .... I am lead guitarist in all the bands I play in. They can play lead and I can play rhythm but we tend to stick to our jobs. 

merlin

I prefer it when people refer to the actual instrument as a "lead" or a "rhythm" guitar. 
That's WAY funnier. 

guitarjack66

Neither?

Supportact

They need to learn to ask us what the best low gain overdrive is. 

merlin

"Does your guitar play like butter?"

Jonathangus

"How much does it weigh?"

LastMantra

Butter?

guitarjack66

merlin said:

I prefer it when people refer to the actual instrument as a "lead" or a "rhythm" guitar. 
That's WAY funnier. 

I suppose thats because of how players in the past often used certain models to play certain roles within their band. It's not that daft based on that example. Although it would certainly give away that they were not a guitarist.

springhead

As Keef said, you can't go into a shop and buy a lead guitar.  "You're a guitar player and you play guitar".

maw4neu

I must be the odd one out here . . I'm quite shit at lead guitar for the most part, so I tend to identify as "Rhythm at best" . . . I'd love to be better at lead but I just end up lost !  and at 59 I genuinely think that boat has long since sailed . . . I still love playing guitar though :-) so its not all bad . . . 

Roland

When I was starting out we didn’t have a record player in the house so I couldn’t play along with a song. Instead I learned to play a combination of bass notes, chord stabs, and melodic lines. So when asked that question my answer was “both, sometimes at the same time”.

Whistler

I can picture it now, 50-odd years ago in the class music lesson somewhere in Australia, the teacher says, "You there, the boy at the back, Tommy Emmanuel, yes, you! Either play the melody or strum the rhythm; stop playing around as you will never learn to play guitar that way.

Dominic

I always say ,
'Both ,but it depends which one I've got with me '
They just say 'oh ,right '

SRich

Next time you’re asked, just enquire if they think you are Guitar George……

Blueingreen

Doesn't bother me.  At least not as a description of a role in a particular band. 

Being the lead guitarist doesn't (necessarily) mean you don't play rhythm.  George Harrison was always called the lead guitarist in The Beatles but also played rhythm.  I'd call Mike Campbell's role with Tom Petty lead guitarist, but he still played rhythm.  Lennon and Petty I'd call rhythm players, even though they played the odd solo.

There used to be a strand of thought that rock'n'roll started to go downhill with the demise of the specialist rhythm player.  It's too much of an oversimplification for me to try to defend it as true, but there's maybe a nugget of truth in it.

munckee

maw4neu said:

I must be the odd one out here . . I'm quite shit at lead guitar for the most part, so I tend to identify as "Rhythm at best" . . . I'd love to be better at lead but I just end up lost !  and at 59 I genuinely think that boat has long since sailed . . . I still love playing guitar though :-) so its not all bad . . . 

If asked if I play rhythm or lead I answer “I wish!”

Kilgore

I mainly play fingerpicked acoustic blues, so I'm the bass, rhythm, and lead player.

Sadly, Jack of all trades, master of none. 

Danny1969

Whistler said:

I can picture it now, 50-odd years ago in the class music lesson somewhere in Australia, the teacher says, "You there, the boy at the back, Tommy Emmanuel, yes, you! Either play the melody or strum the rhythm; stop playing around as you will never learn to play guitar that way.

Tommy was the rhythm player, his brother was the lead guitarist. They used to do Shadows covers touring around Australia as a novelty child band with some other siblings. 
Tommy didn't know about bass guitar so he assumed the rhythm guitar was playing that bit as well. I've seen him demonstrate how he used to play The Savage rhythm part and the bass line at the same time