“It’s harder to play country than jazz,” “Guitarists should pay more attention to pop,” “Bro country is bad for music”: YouTubers share their most controversial guitar opinions

Just as everyone has their own favorite guitarists, albums and solos, we all have a controversial guitar hot take that would, by their very definition, either split opinion or alienate our playing peers entirely.

In a new video posted to his YouTube channel, the Samurai Guitarist (AKA Steve Onotera) goes on the hunt for some of YouTube’s most divisive guitar opinions – and it’s safe to say the answers he got will certainly ruffle some feathers.

17 players, including Samurai Guitarist himself, took part in the hot take round table, but potentially the most controversial of them all comes from Phillip McKnight, who risks inciting the wrath of jazzers the world over by declaring: “I think it’s harder to play country than jazz.”

“I think country players, especially the ones that do the bends, especially bend to pitch… I think having that ear and technique is harder than playing jazz chords,” he argues.

Jazz chords we can certainly understand – fretting an extended chord is tricky, but not as tricky as nailing those country bends – but is it genuinely harder than playing jazz à la Julian Lage, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery and George Benson?

Of course, both disciplines are difficult in their own right – bepop, for example, requires a mastery of scale knowledge and supreme command over right- and left-hand technique, while country requires fingerpicking and slide proficiency, and a well-trained ear to hit those bends.

We imagine it will prove to be a particularly touchy sticking point for players, but hey – that's the whole point of controversial guitar opinions.

While on the topic of country music, session ace Rhett Shull has some choice words for the genre’s pop offshoot, arguing that “most pop country and ‘bro country’ is bad for music in general.”

“I think it’s bad for musicianship, I think it’s bad for the general music listening public, and I think the industry behind it, in the long run, is just a detriment to music,” he argues. “They’re writing garbage, disposable, throwaway music that says nothing, it means nothing… I hate bro country, I hate most pop country for that reason.”

Elsewhere, yet more guitar-centric hot takes arrived from Dovydas and Ryan Burke: The former weighs-in on the 'gear versus player' debate, which – while by no means offering internet-breaking levels of controversy – is still a point of contention among players today.

“You know how everyone thinks that as soon as they get this pedal, it’s going to sound better?” he says, “and they’re going to finish that song that they’ve been working on? And they’re going to get more streams on Spotify? And a music video with that one pedal, that one piece of gear, is going to get more views? It will never happen.”

Burke, meanwhile, takes aim at guitarists who believe themselves to be above popular music, and suggests they should pay more attention to mainstream music to better themselves as musicians.

“It would be very smart for [guitarists] to pay attention to what’s happening in very popular music – music that they might normally look down on – and figure out why that music is so popular, why so many people like that music that they think isn’t worth their time. It’s good music.”

Other highlights from the video include takes from Sean Daniel, Tilly Shull, Corey Congilio, Mike Cole and more, whose opinions range from “Nickelback is underrated” and “Beach Boys suck” to “The Doors are overrated.”

Watch the full clip above and, if you like what you see, head over to Samurai Guitarist to subscribe to Onotera’s YouTube channel.