Furthermore, the RGL would revolutionize the music industry’s economy. Imagine a world where Craigslist ads for “Guitarist Wanted” no longer include the phrase “Must have own gear and be able to keep time.” Under the RGL system, your license rating would be a verified credential. “Looking for RGL-3 jazz guitarist for wedding gig” would guarantee that the musician can modulate keys and read a chart. This would increase the baseline quality of live music, raise the wages of competent players (by eliminating the race to the bottom with amateurs), and finally give drummers a legal mechanism to refuse to play with a guitarist who cannot count to four.
The Case for a Real Guitar License: Ending the Tyranny of the Bedroom Shredder real guitar license file
The primary argument for the RGL is the preservation of sonic sanity. Unlike a piano, which requires a bench and a modicum of posture, or a violin, which punishes bad technique with immediate screeching, the guitar is deceptively easy to make loud. Plug an electric guitar into a 100-watt amp, and any clumsy finger becomes a weapon of noise pollution. The Real Guitar License would implement a tiered system: Level 1 (Acoustic Only) for those who can prove they know how to tune a string and play a clean C major chord; Level 2 (Electric/Bedroom) for those who understand muting and volume control; and Level 3 (Live Performance) for artists who have passed a rigorous sight-reading and improvisation test. Without this license, playing an un-muted electric guitar within 500 feet of a coffee shop or open mic night would be a finable offense. This would increase the baseline quality of live