The only antagonism I’ve seen towards CTC is that some people think that CTC is overcomplicating things. If you want to be a great guitarist you have to be able to figure out how to play things by having some sense of feel as to figuring out how to do things on your own. Possibly the detractors see it as something for players with no natural sense of feel (talent) and therefore need to be spoonfed information on every step of the way to learning how to play well.
Nah, we fly our nerd flags high here. It’s definitely used in a positive way.
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Why is a derogatory term positive in your eyes? I gave my generation’s definition of “nerd.” Did you just decide to change the definition and if so, why?
Why not choose words that don’t run the risk of offending a guy who is from a generation that considered “nerd” to be derogatory? The English language gives you so many better options that “nerd’! I’d put it this way: Steve Morse is an airplane aficinado, an electronics enthusiast, and a devotee to understanding exactly how he picks the way he does. Right there that’s three nouns I’m using to replace this odd usage of “nerd” in a way that can’t be misunderstood as an insult. To my way of thinking, that’s just so much better, for several reasons, that I just don’t understand what the insistence on trying to make 'nerd” a positive thing when you run this risk of seriously offending a guy you like!
No, I just decided to adhere to the other dictionary definition.
“a single-minded expert in a particular technical field”.
Besides, as Huey Lewis sang, it’s hip to be square.
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As a non-native speaker, I got the impression that “nerd” means someone with an intellectual/scientific/analytic attitude towards things (in particular towards one’s passions) - and I am pretty sure we are using the word in this way in the forum.
From various American tv shows and movies I also got the impression that “nerd” is used as an insult only within “macho” cultures/groups that consider intellectuals lame (e.g. the stereotypical bullies at school).
PS: I know, I should check the dictionary etc., but I am lazy 
PPS: I checked the dictionary and the first definition - “a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious” - is indeed an offense. We are definitely using the second definition here!
Hi all,
A non-native speaker here as well!
I have always assumed that the term “nerd” is derogatory. But I also think that people often use it in a figurative or sarcastic way but rarely with the goal of offending someone.
As an example, if one describes himself or somebody as a “guitar nerd”, the goal is to accentuate the fact that he so interested in the topic that it almost became an obsession.
I think this applies to so many other designations and adjectives. I can think of the word “freak” for example. I would use the word to underline somebody’s amazing capabilities at doing something often by using unconventional techniques but with astonishing results.
I hope this makes sense to you guys. Again, I am not a native English speaker and all of the above is my personal opinion.
cheers \m/
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Kounistou, I appreciate you replying to this, being a non-native speaker. There was another non-native speaker who posted right before you and this is a reply to him as well.
The first of you two guys said he always got the impression it was a compliment. Then he checked the dictionary and the first definition listed (the most used/ most widespread definition is the first one listed) and he indeed found it was derogatory in the way it is most often used.
Then you posted and wrote that you always assumed it was a derogatory word. That’s interesting. For people who graduated high school in the 1980’s and earlier than that, it was exclusively derogatory. Now it can be positive or derogatory but the derogatory definition is still the first one listed in the dictionary.
For those reasons, why not avoid any possible disrespect and say something along the lines of “guitar enthusiast”, “guitar afficiionado”, “guitarist extraordinaire”, or “guitar virtuoso” instead of “guitar nerd”? The English language has so many words that can be used to avoid making that statement ambiguous, Why play with fire when there are so many other ways to say it without confusion or controversy?
“Nerd” as an insult was deconstructed in the 1984 comedy film “Revenge of the Nerds”, and it’s non-ironic use has been in decline ever since. It’s valid to consider that some CTC subjects might be offended by it, as you would, but in general use today the connotation is more of obsessiveness and capability rather than social awkwardness. To the extent that any connotation of social awkwardness is still entailed, it’s more often a matter of implicit self-deprecation and apology when a person describes themselves as a “nerd”. Contemporary usage of the word “nerd” in popular culture is typically playful or alludes to narratives where the nerd “has the last laugh” regarding the fruits of nerd-dom with respect to achievement in some field, especially entrepreneurship.
So yeah, we should be sensitive to the possibility that some folks may be out of the loop on contemporary usage of the word “nerd”, but if you think the most common use today is still literally derogatory, you haven’t been paying attention. The only place it might still be commonly used as an insult is by low-achieving school-age kids lashing out at higher-achieving peers.
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If we start taking our lessons on how to properly use the English language on cheap comedy movies then we’re all in big trouble.
You mentioned some folks possibly being “out of the loop” on how the kids or young adults are using a word, but people tend to use the language the way they learned when they were growing up. By the time I’d earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, I had already formed my style of using English as well as my understanding of the definitions of words.
Would you consider “nerd” to be slang? I’d classify it as informal. The Merriam-Webter dictionary defines nerd as : an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits such as computer nerds
It’s not too flattering is it? I consider it derogatory. You say the definition of the words has changed but even if it has, the first definition listed in 2018 in Merriam Webster is extremely similar to the way I described my generation used the word. Since so many rock legends are of my generation and Steve Morse.like many others, is actually of the generation before mine, it’s a safe bet that he also grew up with the word in question having a meaning to him awfully similar to what it means to me rather than what it means the generations that followed mine.
There are plenty of words and expressions to choose from; so what this really comes down to, is why choose a word that has a good possibility of offending this man that we all respect when instead of, for example, calling him a guitar nerd ( a phrase I consider an oxymoron) we have so many non-potentially offensive options in our language such as “guitar enthusiast”, guitar aficionado", “guitar wizard”, or my personal favorite - “guitar virtuoso.” That last phrase has the class a player of Morse’s stature deserves, it describes a player of his tremendous abilities, and there is no chance of it unintentionally offending the man. We have tens of thousands of words in the English language so why not choose the word or words that best describe the meaning we’re trying to impart while also minimizing the chance of it being taken the wrong way and offending the man? Can you justify taking that risk when it’s so unnecessary?
I’m 46 and you are correct! The term has been retooled with positive connotations in recent years to mean someone who is generally technically minded. There is no word from our time to reflect this so I use the new meaning.
Yep we are truly old when our language no longer exists!
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So Troy, were you class of '89? I was class of '86. So I would say we are the same generation Honestly, if somebody had called you a nerd in high school would you have taken it as flattery or an insult? In my high school if you called someone a nerd, those were fighting words!
As for the “new meaning” Merrian-Webster makes no to of the word having a “new meaning.” They could have said something along the lines of “The word which formerly meant…” but they didn’t. So that makes a pretty good case for our language still existing, don’t you agree? We’re not in our prime as far as the major record labels would be concerned if they still existed (this troubles me FAR more than our language changing because we haven’t had one band that has made it’s debut in the last 15 years, meaning a band that released their debut album in 2003 or later!
So while the major record labels wouldn’t have seriously considered signing us after we left our twenties behind, and while my long hair ( which is a sign that I am still a Defender Of The Faith (the heavy metal faith), which reminds me of my first concert. It was in 1984 and Judas Priest was touring for their Defenders Of The Faith album which had hits such as “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll” and “Freewheel Burning” is certainly not the very thick head of hair it was on the night of that concert which hanged my life forever, you and I aren’t senior citizens yet either!
Frankly, form the way you want to use the word nerd to describe Steve Morse (and he’s someone we both have a ton of respect for), if I were trying to get across what you’re trying to get across, I would find the following terms far classier and much more respectful: “Guitar virtuoso”, “technology enthusiast”, “technique afficionado”, “renaissance man”, etc.
Typo corrections: "Merrian-Webster makes no mention of the word (nerd) having a new meaning…
“it was on the night of that concert which changed my life forever”
This isn’t an “if” type of scenario - it’s a “did”. They did call me a nerd, and guess what… I was one! I wasn’t super duper awkward, but I had awkward tendencies. I would have denied being a nerd at the time, because of course, nobody wanted to be that. But I was probably closer to that than any other existing clique we had.
You have to remember, a lot of Cracking the Code fans were the alphas of their day. The guys in the bands with the hair who drank and partied and got the girls. I was in honors classes and the track team. I liked Van Halen but I spent at least as much time playing Billy Joel songs on piano. My best friend liked weird-ass shit like the Dead Milkmen and wore Fluvog and Stussy years before anyone thought that was cool. We played sampling keyboards and drum machines and wrote dopey Beastie Boys style raps in our bedroom. We were totally not cool.
Times have changed. Music has changed. There is a shit ton of really cool stuff happening out there now for anyone who cares to poke around on Spotify. So, so many more interesting bands and artists now than back when MTV was the only way you could find anything. I’m not going to name them all because everyone’s tastes are different but I can tell you this. There is no way in hell I would have had any sort of job in music in the '80s. Times were super restrictive and there was only room for people who looked like Jani Lane or Mike Tramp. I’m glad those times are gone.
The nerds are dead. Long live the nerds.
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“I think a good example of what happens when the “just do what feels right” perspective meets the CTC perspective occurs in Troy’s interview of crosspicker David Grier. I’m not sure how many have seen the interview, but if you have, maybe you’re like me and you got a little uncomfortable after about 10 minutes when Grier curtly rejects the entire premise of CTC. I thought it was going to be a rough final 50 minutes to watch.”
This post made me watch the David Grier interview and I just finished watching it. It’s interesting to me that at the same time you said you got a little uncomfortable when David Grier sort of rejected the premise of what Troyis doing, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. As soon as it happened my reaction was: This is about to get fun! I noticed he doesn’t need to use a downward pick slant when doing an upstroke on the high E string to a note on a lower string. His pick is still upward slanted when doing that.
My favorite part of the interview was when Troy asked “How big can you make that motion without hitting the next string.” That was a great question to ask. It turned out he wouldn’t hit the next string because of his pick motion which is what I’d call a pendulum motion. I don’t know if a “pendulum picking motion” is part of the CTC lexicon yet but to me it perfectly describes Grier’s picking motion.
I think I worried Grier wasn’t going to be a cooperative interview subject. Turns out I was very wrong!
“Times have changed. Music has changed. There is a shit ton of really cool stuff happening out there now for anyone who cares to poke around on Spotify. So, so many more interesting bands and artists now than back when MTV was the only way you could find anything. I’m not going to name them all because everyone’s tastes are different but I can tell you this. There is no way in hell I would have had any sort of job in music in the '80s. Times were super restrictive and there was only room for people who looked like Jani Lane or Mike Tramp. I’m glad those times are gone.”
Times sure have changed. The USA isn’t making rock stars anymore. Nobody is… I loved how in the 80s and the early 90s if you lived in a good sized city like Tampa, which is where I was, we had great nightclubs where you could see all the up and coming rock and metal bands in the area as well as national bands. The Rock-IT Club in Tampa would have one of the best local bands one night and then maybe Steelheart or L.A. Guns or Nitro the next night. It was a big enough club that they could have all but the biggest national bands there. Those clubs went out of business in the 90s, they haven’t come back, and there’s no reason to believe they ever will.
I don’t know if you’ve tried to find that caliber of rock nightclub in a big city in your area, but from what people from all over the country tell me, they’re gone. There are still some small nightclubs but nothing like the legendary nightclubs like The Rock-It Ciub, the clubs on the Sunset Strip in L.A…, Hammerjacks in Baltimore, etc. Those were the best places to discover new bands - not MTV. Apparently the reason they’re all out of business is that they can’t get a club that size and quality that is able to make enough money to stay in business because the clientele has dropped off so much since then. There literally aren’t as many people willing to pay cover charge to check out the up and coming bands in their local music scene. That’s bad. It’s bad for the fans and it’s bad for the musicians trying to make a living. If you had to name an iconic band that made its debut in the last 15 years, could you? Excluding supergroups comprised of rock stars who have already made it in the music industry, I doubt it. Not in hard rock or metal anyway. That was a time when a good band could actually make a living being musicians. Bands who were already established before the demise of the major label system are the only bands now making decent money.
I was mainly into bands like Judas Priest, Queensryche, Fates Warning, Savatage, etc. so looks weren’t the main selling point of a band as they might have been in the type of music the guys you named were playing.
I didn’t have the opportunity have a music job in the 80s because I graduated from USF in 1991. Just as I was ready to to try to make a living, the industry was about to go on a downhill turn it never recovered from. I believe The Rock-It Cub went out of business in '93 or '94. They stopped playing heavy metal bands on MTV in the early 90s because they just wanted to push the grunge bands. It was a horrible time for rock musicians with actual musical ability. Most of the bands being signed didn’t even have a guitarist able to play lead guitar. Then the file sharing, or more aptly put, the infringement of the copyright laws began while our government sat back and did nothing to enforce the laws. If file sharing wasn’t “unauthorized distribution” I don’t know what would be.
No industry could have survived what the music industry went through in the 2000s. In any industry the whole thing that makes it work is that the people who do the work are being paid for their work. When the government refused to enforce the copyright laws, so many people started stealing music from the internet via illegal downloading that you had an industry where the workers weren’t being paid for the fruits of their labor anymore. It was being stolen from them. Any other industry which had to contend with people stealing their product and not being punished for it would have been destroyed as well.
I’d give anything to be able to go back to the 80s and the way the music industry was not just succeeding then, but succeeding on an amazing level. The good nightclubs which were the breeding grounds for future rock stars are gone, the record stores are gone, the major record labels are almost all gone. Nobody is able to become a rock star anymore and with no financial incentive anymore, fewer people than ever are even dedicating their lives to trying to be professional musicians.
As long as the government refuses to go after the people breaking the copyright laws, I don’t see how the music industry can ever become a healthy industry again. Music will be something to do as a hobby but as far as people dedicating their lives to becoming professional musicians anymore, the current conditions make it not economically viable to do so. I had a few years when I was able to go to The Rock-It Club and see all these great regional and national bands any night I wanted. I thought, now that I’m an adult, I’ll be able to go to places like this anytime I want for the rest of my life. It was an incredible thing to witness live and be a part of, and for young people today, it’s just something they heard about but never got to experience just how great of a thing it really was.
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I guess I am one of these people then. I’ve been studying Japanese for over 20 years. I know people who studied far less than I have and are more fluent in it than I am. That’s not to say that hard work is not important…of course it is, it’s what got me to the level I am, but it’s a combination of innate ability AND hard work. I guarantee that if you go back in time and I practice the same amount of hours with the exact same technique as Michael Jordan, he would still be a better basketball player than me.
I’d say there are different reasons for those guys:
There are always people that negate information cause they fear that the ‘teacher’ is trying to form them - I personally call that neagive confidence.
Probably there are a lot of people being tired o all the online-teaching ads that promise you to play whatever you want without spending time to practice.
I can imagine that some people think that they HAVE to figure it out themself cause they only know what works for them - this might be correct for a small percentage.
I’m not sure what in detail is meant by spreading the word, giving people an option to get informed or give a hand when they feel stuck yes. Telling people thats what they NEED to look at no.
The reason for no has nothing to do with quality, its just think that we need people that try to figure out their own solutions that’s the way how technique evolves over time.
Anyway i hope that this project grows and succeeds in more than just helping some players/teachers.
We got so many great things from this project, and probably the most important is that we have proper and precise naming and notations. I saw the first tabs with slant direction in it - this might be something that’d give Troy an alltime appearance in future music and imo he deserves it.
It seems general that teaching moves away from telling HOW to do things to WHY things could be done in certain ways which makes a lot of sense - at least to me.
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People figuring out their own solutions has led to the brilliant playing of players as diverse as Al DiMeola, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson, John McLaughlin, Paul Gilbert, James Hetfield, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, and Shawn Lane. Clearly there is tremendous merit in in a guitarist figuring out the best way to pick,
Not only has the “figure it out for yourself” method produced all the greatest rock and jazz legends, but figuring out for oneself the best way he can possibly pick provides an enormous amount of pride and contentment for having approached a difficult problem and then through one’s own thinking and hard work, successfully developing a technique that works extremely well for playing the music he plays and accomplishing all this by relying on one’s own mental and physical abilities. Having proven to oneself that he had the determination, the tenacity and the talent to see this goal through to its end is incredibly rewarding!