My Networked Community
As someone who has always been enamored by music, I figured at the great age of 21 it was time for me to take a step towards that passion, and I chose the guitar. So, in the first week of January, I did some research and purchased my first axe and gear set – a sunburst Strat knockoff and practice amp. I wanted a setup that I would be excited to play, but one that wouldn’t be extremely expensive – in case I didn’t stick with it. So, as a completely unexperienced player, this assignment posed as a great opportunity for me to delve deeper into the world of guitar – I chose R/Guitar on Reddit, and it has been great!
The main value that this community holds is certainly acceptance. Guitar is an instrument that some people first pick up when they’re 5, and some people when they’re 50. Music appeals to everyone, for all ages and all demographics, music is a part of the culture. R/Guitar is a melting pot of tons of different people from all over the world, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more diverse group of people where arguments and hostile acts are so few and far between.
Another value that is right under acceptance would be individuality. Music is a great way to express oneself, no matter the experience of the musician. Seeing some of the ways in which guitarists create music or put their own spin on pre-existing pieces is always very enjoyable. Every guitar player has a different mind and personality, so they learn the instrument their own way. Players develop tendencies and habits along their journey that contribute to a unique style or sound that is often exclusive to them. Think about Jimi Hendrix’s left-handed upside down technique, or the unique hard-hitting tone of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tracks, which is a result of his choice of guitar, he played very thick ones. There are so many things that go into playing the guitar that no one could possibly do things the same way, which is why individuality is a huge pillar in the community of guitar.
For me, I found that being straightforward with the audience and openly humble (maybe even edging on the side of self-deprecating,) were rhetorical strategies that helped me in terms of audience engagement. I think that this was the case for a few reasons. First and foremost, the vast majority of people using R/Guitar are using it because it’s part of a hobby that they enjoy. No one wants to do something silly in their free time, nor do they wish to waste their time dealing with annoying people or discussions. I browsed the page before I began making my posts and quickly realized how much the tone of the post seemed to influence the feedback, so I was sure to make note of that. By keeping things casual and making it clear that I was welcoming and accepting of any tips/comments, I got quite a few comments on my posts and I came out happy with the results.
Disagreements are somewhat hard to come by on R/Guitar, because individuality is practiced and preached so heavily. Arguments about musical opinions and things of that nature hardly every happen, I don’t even have one example. Obviously there probably are some, but the point is that disagreements of taste don’t occur a lot. More often than not, disagreements come in the form of gear choices, or practice routines. I think that those two things are argued the most for one big reason – post-purchase rationalization. The term “post-purchase” may not seem to directly apply to practice, but the idea itself still stands. Think of someone purchasing a guitar – they make their choice and spend $1000 dollars on Les Paul. Now, we will ignore the fact that guitars are typically good investments and they hold their value well, because most people who argue in favor of the guitar they just bought aren’t thinking of selling it. Ok, so that guitarist now has a brand new guitar, and $1000 less than they had before. Some people may feel the need to validate their purchase to themselves after making an investment like that, so they go online to places like R/Guitar and start conversations about how Les Pauls are better than Stratocasters, and they will argue with people to rationalize their purchase. Like I said, the same concept applies to practice. If someone spends 500 hours practicing a certain routine or drill, they can’t get those 500 hours back, so they may feel the need to rationalize the time spent practicing with that drill by arguing to other people how they should do it too, or how it is superior to another drill. This community is fairly good in terms of keeping unnecessary disagreements to a minimum, but the post-purchase rationalization and ‘brand-war’ reminds me of “Chevy-Ford,” or “Windows-Apple” arguments and other huge brand battles like those.
I think this community’s overall purpose is to provide a place where people interested in guitar can go to nourish and develop that interest. Sometimes, a guitarist may not feel like plugging in the amp and slinging the axe over their shoulder, and that’s fine. However, when times like that arise, the passion and interest for the instrument don’t diminish. R/Guitar provides a great place for people who just want to be a part of fun, interesting, informative, and respectful discussion, be it by posting, commenting, or just reading.
As far as patterns go, there is really only one that’s been completely consistent as far as I can see – and it’s the “Official No Stupid Questions Thread” series. These are megathreads that happen once every four months or so, as they seem to divide the years into quarters, although some of the threads are labled by the season like “Winter 2020” and some are labeled differently, like “Mid 2018.” These threads are one of my favorite things about the page. As a new player, I was able to easily navigate my way through the threads and find a bunch of interesting and usable information. For one of my posts during this project I contributed to the thread and asked about started gear, and I think it was probably my most successful post, I think it garnered around 10 replies!
As far as rules go – there are some that you must keep in mind if you are going to post on R/Guitar. There are eight in writing on the right side of the page as you scroll down a little, there is too much text to provide an image – so if you click this link and scroll down a little, you will see the eight rules to posting on the right margin. There are also a few whimsical unwritten rules. You shouldn’t criticize people’s tastes. You shouldn’t discourage people from playing, and all the convincing or persuasion you do should be in good heart, meaning the purpose of the persuasion is to help the other person become a better musician or enjoy the guitar more.
My Participation
My posts on R/Guitar went well for me, being a small fish in a relatively giant sea. Reply comments were primarily what I received back, because that is pretty much the only thing discussion on Reddit is based around. The most appealing post design to this community seemed to be relatively short-winded, straightforward posts. As I mentioned above, my simple question about gear actually received far more feedback than my longer more in depth post about tips and tricks for beginners.
I had one post that didn’t get any feedback, which I thought wasn’t too bad. If only one failed, I’d say this community is generally good for a decent amount of feedback. I think the post on which I received no feedback was basically my fault as well. It was the first post of the assignment, and I simply just tried too hard on it. I wrote too much, and asked too few questions. After I saw how that style of post flopped, I changed my method, and received more and more feedback each post subsequently.
One interaction I had was very informative, I commented on a guy’s post on how he’s been learning difficult solos, and I asked him for some advice. Turns out, he’s a super experienced player who is relatively well-known on YouTube, and he had a video laying out some answers to questions I had. It was so cool to me that he had a great in depth video already prepared for someone like me, that story shows a lot about what the guitar community is about.
My main takeaway from these posts was that becoming a part of this community is a lot of fun, and it is quite likely that it will be a part of my life for a long time. It became very apparent to me that guitarists love to see other guitarists enjoying music, and that relationship is one of the healthiest relationships that I’ve seen in any community. Enjoyment can be found in other people’s enjoyment, and inspiration can be derived from other people’s passion, and those are my favorite things that I took away from joining this community. I also learned that shared passion can be a great unifier. People that otherwise have little in common can find common ground through a shared passion, in this case, making music with a guitar, and as soon as you share a passion with someone, you have a connection. By becoming a part of this community, the value of connection made itself obvious to me.
The Platform
On Reddit, there are four ways the site influences the conversation – the user may sort posts by “Top,” “Hot,” “New,” and “Rising.” The metadata that influences the success of a post is the upvote and downvote system. Each up or downvote is equal to +1 or -1 ‘point,’ and the posts and comments with the most points are displayed first if the user elects to have Reddit filter the posts by “Top.” The “Hot” option takes the posts that have received the most positive attention in the past few days, or so. The “New” feature simply displays posts in a chronological order – which when dealing with a community like R/Guitar with over 535,000 members, doesn’t always result in the highest quality content. “Rising” is somewhat similar to “Hot,” but it’s time frame deals more in recency. This is the most popular way to sort posts on Reddit, and it’s the one I tend to use the most as well. There is one more way you can sort things, which is “Controversial,” this section shows posts with many upvotes AND downvotes, which usually means instead of interesting, actual ‘controversial’ posts, the section contains bad jokes and edgy memes. I don’t even consider this option a viable way to sort posts on Reddit because you can seldom find a serious post that you can receive something from.
My Thoughts
R/Guitar was a great place to supplement my new hobby. It brought me tips and tricks from experienced guitarists, enjoyment, discussion, and most importantly, it helped to foster a passion for something I had never really considered becoming a part of until recently.
Sources
Hendrix pic
My “No Stupid Questions” Post / Thread
My First Post
The guy’s post with the YouTube videos and my reply (second post) and his subsequent reply
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/euqe85/play_im_in_the_process_of_sequentially_learning/ffs5ic1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x (His reply containing the YouTube video)
Guitar Subreddit Page
My R/Guitar Experience 