Despite being a guitarist myself (and someone guilty of many of these points), there are some issues with the community that I don't think are being spoken about enough.
The 3 worst things about the guitar community
1. Everyone is judging one another on the basis of skill.
The first point is that guitarists look at other guitarists in terms of skill level, instead of enjoying our own expressions of music, the guitar is turned competitive. Guitarists make quick judgement whether you are 'better' or 'worse' than they are, and the music is lost beneath the judgement of skill level. When a guitarist sees a guitarist worse than they are, they get an ego boost, and when they see a player better, this turns into bitterness. I can't count the amount of times people have related me to being 'better' or 'worse' than another player. The guitar is meant to be a tool for music, why are we making it a competition?
2. Speed is valued more than melody.
Nothing gets a guitarist to masturbate more than speed. However, this is VERY OFTEN at the cost of melody. Because of this, guitarists are more and more like circus acts who are IMPRESSIVE TO WATCH but not listen to... often when speed is involved, if you close your eyes, it's actually not nice to listen to... Once again, music should be first and foremost, not trying to be impressive. For myself, I've found there's a pressure to play fast, otherwise you don't get anywhere in the market.
3. Complexity is valued more than feeling.
Similar to the above point, guitarists are overly fixated on how complicated and technical a piece is, instead of how much emotion is conveyed, how much storytelling and how nice it is on the ears. Complexity does not mean it is better.
With these 3 points together, the guitar community comes across exclusive and judgemental. Every comment is about technicality, speed or being better than someone; it is my belief that the guitar is primarily a tool for music, not competition, not skill, and I think we've lost that a bit. If you look at the numbers, guitar sales are actually down 50% in the last 10 years, and I think we are in danger of being too cliquey, too much of a niche if we keep going in this technical direction. Beyond the guitar community, music helps connect people to an emotion. I fear that guitar is becoming too 'techy' and isolating itself. Hopefully, in the future we can reconnect to guitar as music, not as a talent show showpiece.
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