He never learned the first thing about music

[lumberjim]

I've been trying to tell you and flint that for a while. feel it, motherfucker.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

I've been trying to tell you and flint that for a while. feel it, motherfucker.

But what if you "feel it" but you can't play it. A lack of technique can prevent you from following your creative urges. You end up only playing the things you already know how to play, forcing you down the same pathways your hands are familiar with, reinforcing the same boring patterns ad nauseum. Which, if you have cool ideas and are fine with what you already know, is fine, and to be fair is vastly preferable to the alternative, which is simply playing scales and rudiments like a robot.

What I advocate is somewhere in the middle; to use moderation. Play what you enjoy playing, explore in the direction that interests you. But, when you come up against something you don't know how to do, you have two choices: #1 spend some time learning the mechanics of what makes that thing work, or #2 just give up, and settle for having that limitation. If you're ever at a gig that calls for that, you'll just have to do something else.

The entire reason for drilling yourself on different techniques is to give yourself the freedom to be able to just "feel it" - and when you do "feel it" you will be able to actually PLAY IT. It's better to know more than you need to know than it is to know less than you need to know.

Having less technique makes you less creative. You're not "feeling" it, you're just doing the only couple of things you know how to do.