Just a Guitar Player

Written and Recorded in 1989

In late 1989, I launched to write a series of instrumental tunes mainly focused on displaying my guitar playing. In the beginning, there were ten ideas for prospective compositions and this tune, guitar soloing backed by the harmony of voices, was one of them. Despite the main purpose, to display my guitar playing, ironically I soon discovered that I was rather trapped to certain restrictions set by the initial ideas. For example, in this tune, while I was soloing, I could not enjoy playing guitar at my free will but had to stick to the rule over changing scales in accordance with the chord progression written by myself. In the meantime, while the voice parts gradually join into the ensemble, I had to bear with playing the written glissando section repeatedly in the middle. In summary, I recognise that these were caused by the progress I have made by that time, not only as a guitar player but also as a composer.

From the composer’s viewpoint, I am satisfied with the guitar part that met the requirements of the composition, overall. But from a guitar player’s viewpoint, I know I could play better if I could ignore these self-imposed restrictions and in that meaning, I regret a bit for having made this recording as a whole.