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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
How To Find Your Guitar Influences
Guitar influences are all around us and consistently personal. What makes YOU want to play guitar? This is a big question and can have a long list of answers. The reason I chose to write on this subject was to get you to "think outside the box" to find influences for your guitar playing. I've put together a series of articles that dive into musical roots, guitar influences of some of the greats, a different perspective on "guitar shredders," tips on listening to other guitarists, and something guitarists can learn from drummers. After all, influences can be found in all types of instruments besides guitar. Use these articles to open your mind to musical research and explore new areas of guitar influences.
This is my first blog for Guitar World, and I thought we could kill two birds with one stone if we focused on recalling our earliest musical influences. This way, I can give you a feeling of where I’m coming from and will encourage you to dig into your own early musical influences and possibly have a clearer idea of where your musical voice was first formed.
First impressions are very powerful and are deeply etched within our subconscious. These early imprints are worth retracing because you can have a wide angle/evolutionary perspective of your tastes and approaches in exploring and composing for the guitar.
I love the mechanics of the guitar. The directness of being able to manipulate the strings with my hands. As my collection of guitars expands, it's like a painter seeking new colors for his palette.
Some sounds can only come from a nylon string, others from that perfectly beat-up acoustic guitar from my childhood. Then there’s active vs. passive pickups, and on and on ... I try to give each piece a signature sound that’s beyond the techniques I’ve cultivated so that something beyond the guitar can appear. After all, no one remembers great technicians, only great musicians!
My earliest musical memories are of my father playing piano underneath my bedroom every morning from the time I was very young up until I left to study at Berklee College of Music. He played Gershwin, Bach, Beethoven, Granados, Debussy and Dave Brubeck.
I hadn’t really thought about how formative it was to be a sleeping child with a live pianist playing underneath my bedroom every morning for years. I see now how passing from dreaming to waking with some of the best compositions in the world as my alarm clock planted seeds in my subconscious.
Another recovered memory was how every year my parents would take a two-day road trip to visit family in the deep South. When I was 5, "Star Wars" had come out for the first time, and I insisted that we listen to the soundtrack [on eight track!] all the way there and back.
There was something mesmerizing about John Williams’ film score and incredible orchestration. I could see the scenes in my mind when the characters' themes came up, and this gradually spread to other film scores being cycled again and again on the car stereo.
Now when I look at my approach to composing a new piece for guitar, I’m thinking how I can make the guitar sound totally unlike a guitar. Use of volume pedals to fade in sheets of sounds like a string section, ebows on acoustic guitar with reverb to make a voice, shaking notes into existence with the fretting hand to evoke a sense of tension, not to mention the non-ordinary chords available in alternate tunings. All of these tools I’ve been attracted to I see now as trying to become the conductor at the helm of a powerful and sensitive orchestra.
Your history of influences is unique, like your fingerprints. Your influences are also right under your nose and dictate your actions more than your conscious mind can fathom. They are your musical roots. Take some time to think about them and be open to what they have to communicate!
Electric guitar
Electric guitar had a huge impact on rock music in the 1960s. Many guitarists today recall their guitar influences from this era of music. Find a detailed take on a guitarist that remembers his early guitar influences, examines how they influenced his style of playing, and provides some cool videos at http://www.guitarworld.com/godfrey-townsend-early-influences-and-developing-playing-style.
This week, I’m shifting gears and talking about some different topics than the past few weeks, which mostly dealt with some of the rock legends I’ve played with and how I got there.
I’m out on the road at the moment and will be mostly working “off the cuff” with the next few blog entries. When attempting to come up with an interesting and informative topic for other guitarists (young and old), I thought that certain players' influences would be cool to talk about.
For me, the ultimate guitar heroes back when I started bending strings were British guitarists Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck (who I refer to as the “holy trinity”) as well as America’s own Jimi Hendrix. (Notice that I’ve separated them by countries or origin; more on that later).
So, although at 10 years old, I was already listening to The Beatles and other AM radio “pop” music of the early '60s, the “real” influences for playing “lead” guitar didn’t come until I was about 13 and had been turned on to bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin and Cream.
Earlier on I was learning how to play chords and strum rhythm patterns by following along with my favorite “pop” singles of the day. My friend’s dad was in a wedding band and used to get us “fake” books for $5. For those of you who don’t know what it is, a “fake” book is basically a bootlegged (illegal) book of up to 100 pages of photocopied song sheets with words and music for all the standard pop songs. So, instead of purchasing each song separately (at about $1 each), you would get them all in one book for just $5.
So yes, although I wasn’t even a teenager yet, I was already breaking the law. Now that’s rock 'n' roll, baby (Just kidding, of course; crime doesn’t pay, kids). ANYWAY, some of the songs would have the little chord grids above the words and staves with the name of the chord (C, Am, G7, etc.) and little dots showing where to put your fingers.
Even though some the other song sheets only had the chord names, I had already memorized a lot of the chord positions. Of course, this took care of my rhythm skills and taught me how to play a whole bunch of songs.
I was also fortunate enough to be born with a good “ear” for picking out melodies and solo lines at an early age. Since I was the one in the band able to do that, I became the “lead” guitarist in our little combo that played Girl Scout dances and other cornball functions at the time. I was also simultaneously taking piano lessons at a local music school which gave me a huge advantage with music theory.
OKAY. Let’s forge ahead to that topic of developing style and how influences of other players can contribute to that. Let’s start with the British guys or “holy trinity” (as mentioned above).
John Entwistle always told me that blues albums and 45’s were like “gold” to a British teen in the '60s. The reason I’ve segregated them as being from another country across the ocean is because it’s always been an enigma to me that a bunch of “white” English schoolboys (most of whom studied art in college) in the late 1950s, would be hankering after and mimicking the playing styles of a handful of old “black” guys from the Mississippi “Delta” and Chicago that originated from slavery and in the cotton fields in the late 1920s and 1930s.
Quite a difference of ethnic, cultural and social classes and influences, I would say, no? But somehow or other, these guys were attracted to learning and playing this style of music. It’s interesting to me to see how each one of these artists (both as individual guitarists and as entire bands) perceived and evolved with their own “spin” on this early blues influence.
When you think about it, bands like Cream, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd all have a very different “versions” of so-called “blues-rock” that they have contributed to the world. Pete Townshend, Martin Barre, Ritchie Blackmore and David Gilmour have all been huge influences on me for the past 40 years.
So, back to the “holy trinity”…
Jimmy Page
Influences: Rockabilly and “skiffle” music. Check out Jimmy playing “Skiffle” music on TV at 13 years old here:
... Scotty Moore and James Burton (both of whom played with Elvis), acoustic folk a la Bert Jansche (See the youtube clip of Bert performing “Black Waterside”):
Influences: Chicago blues, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, B.B. King (Chicago blues was basically the same as Delta blues, except electric guitars replaced acoustic ones and the harmonica was amplified by means of a microphone). Jeez, Albert King even played a Gibson Flying V.
Jeff Beck
Influences: Rockabilly a la Cliff Gallup and Gene Vincent; the legendary Les Paul (lending to Beck’s “playful” and “bag of tricks” style); B.B King
Jimi Hendrix
Influences: B.B King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Wes Montgomery (Notice this influence in Hendrix’s slightly “jazzy” style and fluid playing of octaves in solos), Little Richard (adding to Jimi’s driving rock 'n' roll style and flamboyant stage antics).
Notice that there’s a “common” ground with B.B. King having influenced all of them. Those basic pentatonic blues licks were definitely common among all the British (and American) blues players. But each one of them had specifically different inflections and nuances that were their own.
I compare it to learning a language. First you learn a few key words like, “you, me, I, cat, dog, door, car, etc.” Then you learn phrases or complete sentences and you begin speaking the language. I began to understand that each one of these artists used a lot of the same phrases of this “language” with slightly different nuances and that, if I learned a few of the basic phrases, I could begin to play in the style of that particular guitar player. It got to the point where I could just listen to a solo and hear a particular riff and say to myself, “Oh, I know that one…it’s like this,” and I would be able to play it immediately.
When I bring myself back across the ocean to America, another style of blues that comes to mind that has been a huge influence on my playing is Texas blues, starting with Johnny Winter and the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Other great players from the Texas area are Chris Duarte, Billy Gibbons, Doyle Bramhall and Charlie Sexton (Check out the Arc Angels CD from 1992; there's tons of great guitar music on that). There’s also Eric Johnson, but he’s in a whole 'nother genre that’s out of this world.
Texas blues is definitely different from Delta blues. For one thing, a lot of Texas blues is more up-tempo with mostly shuffle beats as opposed to the slow tempo of most Delta blues. As a matter of fact, most Delta blues was unaccompanied by drums.
Other players in general who I’ve taken a lot of my style from are Leslie West, Robin Trower, Gary Moore and Steve Morse.
I’ve definitely been influenced by a wide range of players, and I listen to a lot of different types of music. I was raised on opera and classical music, which makes me greatly appreciate guitarists like Brian May and groups like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes and Genesis.
I remember reading an article/interview with Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore that was in a '70s guitar mag; when asked about developing a style, he said, “Just STEAL from everybody.” It sort of makes sense that if you copy from one guy, people are going to accuse you of being a “clone.” But if you take from MANY different players, you will create your own style.
Bluegrass pedal steel
guitar
For most guitar players, when they hear the term "guitar shredders," they don't think about bluegrass players. I've enjoyed listening to bluegrass players and have noticed the great dynamic that groups have. I think there is a lot to take away from bluegrass players. Check out this feature on some outstanding bluegrass players here at http://www.guitarworld.com/5-shredding-bluegrass-songs.
Contrary to what you may have seen in the film Deliverance, bluegrass music is more than a bunch of good ol' boys picking banjos and clogging on the porch.
It’s a style that boasts some of the most impressive instrumental musicians and guitarists of any genre.
Here’s a list of five songs to introduce you to the world of bluegrass shred.
Tony Rice, "Freeborn Man," Guitar
Any list of bluegrass guitar songs must begin with a selection by Tony Rice, the godfather of modern flatpicking. Rice has not only been an inspiration for virtually every bluegrass guitar player over the past three decades, but also one of the first to bring outside musical influences into the bluegrass world. On his interpretation of Jimmy Martin’s “Freeborn Man,” Tony lays down his signature quicksilver G runs as well as some bluesy gutbucket bends.
In this video, Tony performs with an all-star band, including fiddle player Mark O’Conner, mandolinist Sam Bush, dobro player Jerry Douglas and banjo player Bela Fleck. Be sure to check out Sam Bush’s reaction to Tony’s nasty diminished lick at 4:10, and then Tony’s smug “Yeah, I just played that” grin as he cues the next soloist.
Josh Williams, "Cherokee Shuffle," Down Home
On this old-time fiddle tune, guitarist Josh Williams (pictured above) shows why he’s truly a “picker’s picker.” His flawless technique, pure acoustic tone and perfect melodic sensibility are all on display, examples of why he has been honored as Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Association from 2008 to 2010.
An impressive multi-instrumentalist, he currently tours with his own group, The Josh Williams Band, and also is the mandolin player for The Tony Rice Unit.
Check out this video of Williams performing the tune at the Station Inn in Nashville with Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge and The Infamous String Dusters’ Andy Falco.
Bryan Sutton, "Decision At Glady Fork," Ready To Go
Bryan Sutton’s "Decision At Glady Fork” highlights some of the fastest picking from one of bluegrass’ speediest and most fluent guitar players. On this original track, from his excellent guitar album Ready To Go, Sutton mixes fiery G runs along with cascading single-note lines into a serious display of virtuosity.
In addition to being a renowned Nashville session ace, Sutton has performed with bluegrass icon Ricky Skaggs and currently tours with Tim O’Brien’s popular bluegrass act, Hot Rize.
Check out Sutton performing the song as a duo with Chris Thile of Punch Brothers:
Chris Thile, "Song For A Young Queen," Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Though not necessarily a guitar song, the instrumental “Song For A Young Queen” by former Nickel Creek mandolinist Chris Thile is definitely worth checking out. The floating baroque-esque melodies and contrapuntal harmony of the piece underscore Thile’s compositional prowess, as well as his stunning improvisational and technical abilities.
Originally recorded with an all-star bluegrass lineup, Thile now performs the song with his band Punch Brothers, which includes stellar guitarist Chris Eldridge (See the Josh Williams video).
Here’s Thile performing the piece with Punch Brothers:
David Grier, "Wheeling," Wheeling
David Grier is a master of the perfectly stated bluegrass melody. Think of him as the Jeff Beck of flat-picking.
Grier’s original composition “Wheeling” exemplifies his ability to improvise seemingly endless variations on a melodic theme, as well as his advanced crosspicking technique, a flatpicking style that imitates a banjo roll. Grier tours as a solo act as well as with his group Psychograss.
Here’s Grier performing Wheeling with fellow guitarist Wyatt Rice:
I’m sick of practicing. I’m in a rut. Nothing I do is original. I’ve played this a million times already. I don’t seem to be getting better. Where do “THEY” get all those good ideas, anyway?
Welcome to part 2 in my “The Art of the Practice” series of articles. This is where we seek to interject your practice with some much needy variety, novelty and fun. Which is exactly the way it should be. In this post, I’m going to take a two-pronged tact. Here we go:
First: The Benefits of Listening to other Guitar Players
Naturally you already listen to other guitar players. That’s probably what caused you to pick up the instrument in the first place. You’re a guitar player, after all. Like all of us, you aspire to a level on par with your most rockin’ of influences, snake the occasional lick, and bash out your favorites in cover bands.
How about looking at it a different way, though? Have you ever considered focusing on what your go-to players aren’t doing? Seriously. It goes something like:
1. Does that guy ever play a solo where he doesn’t use the wah? I wonder what it would sound like with out that over-used effect?
2. This band plays everything at 100000 bpm. I wonder what some of their riffs would sound like slower, more plodding …
3. On a similar note as No. 2: This guitar player plays like a math book -– what would some of his licks sound like slower, with more passion, more melody.
4. I hate that tone! What about …
5. What if I switched this song to another genre entirely? Think about how Johnny Cash covered Soundgarden, for example, or how Soundgarden covered the Doors ...
You get the idea. Seeing music through this prism may have occurred to you before, in passing. But it’s a whole other thing entirely when it’s top of mind as you listen. Keep your ears and your mind focused on what’s not happening and what blanks you can fill in and you’ll come up with some good stuff.
Second: The Benefits of Not Listening to other Guitar Players
From the most straight-up 12-bar blues guy to your most deadly shredder, players tend to forget what an unbelievable versatile instrument the guitar is. The ways in which one can manipulate the sound coming from the guitar are limited only by imagination. Its power makes the Green Lantern’s ring pale in comparison.
By absorbing non-guitar noise, you are going to be building a whole new repertoire of ideas to bring back to your instrument. It’s a fantastic exercise for building your chops and your technical vocabulary. It’s important to point out that this isn’t necessarily just about effects -– just think about the alternate sounds that could be produced on a naked guitar.
1. Vocal Music. Especially artists outside of your genre of choice. Ever try to mimic the vocal stylizations of Josh Groban or Katy Perry on your axe? Focus on the differences in tone, speech pattern, timbre, etc. Women’s voices are very different from that of men; how would you highlight those differences on your guitar? What about Frank Sinatra? Phil Anselmo? Hank Williams? Aretha Franklin? Chris Cornell? Chanting Monks? The list is massive.
2. World Music. Pick a country or continent that you don’t live in or on obviously. Personally, I’ve had a great time trying to figure out Eastern Indian music. Usually I have no idea what the heck is going on, but once in a great while I find a little lick or riff or an odd time and it kicks my ass. Tunes heavy on the drums and percussion can also lead to some cool stuff.
3. Nothing. That’s right. Don’t listen to anything. No sound, you sonic junkie. No radios, computer, TV, car. Listen only to the SOUND OF THE WORLD. This exercise is like a variation on the old “vow of silence” -– except it’s more about you not hearing outside sounds than not making them. This can be one of the more challenging ones because most of us are sound addicts to one degree or another, and we figure that the only treatment is noise-making.
4. This is an extension of No. 3, but it warrants its own space. We tend to be largely acclimated to the auditory world around us -- that everyday collage of sounds we bathe in daily. Natural rhythm and melody abound. Think consciously about: traffic, the weather, kids playing, birds, dogs. Consider also how sound changes during the course of a day and again into the night …
5. Put it down. Your instrument. Do it. Clear the chamber -– rest it in a safe and secure place. Back away slowly. It’s okay. No guilt, brothers and sisters. No judgment here. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? It also can make your riffs, overall playing and especially your enthusiasm do the same. Sit back, close your eyes, and listen to the radio play in your head!
Though his resume includes touring with classic rock legends The Allman Brothers Band, fusion icons Lenny White and Billy Cobham, and jam staples The Dead and Widespread Panic, he has remained relatively unknown within the guitar community.
Herring’s mix of fluid fusion runs and blistering rock licks are worth checking out for any fan of guitar music.
I got a chance to talk with Herring about getting his start with Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit, incorporating outside sounds into his playing and why he can’t stand being a bandleader.
GUITAR WORLD: One of my favorite aspects of your playing is your ability to apply jazz harmony into an aggressive blues/rock approach. To me your playing sounds unique when compared to a lot of fusion guitarists in the way you incorporate a real soulful blues feel into your sound. Can you describe how you cultivated that style?
Well, thank you. I was playing with Bruce Hampton, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Sipe and Matt Mundy in a band (Aquarium Rescue Unit) years ago, and I was really into bands like The Dixie Dregs, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Allan Holdsworth. I couldn’t play like those players, but that’s what I wanted to do and that’s the music I was into at that particular time.
But Bruce, being the bandleader, was really into to deep blues. And so I got a huge lesson in deep blues. Sure, I’d heard Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan and was really into all that stuff and loved how they played, but Bruce went way further back. We were listening to Son House, Albert King, Freddie King, B.B. King, Bobby Bland and all that stuff.
Hubert Sumlin was huge; his style just blows me away when I hear those old records. And though I already loved blues, I guess being with that bunch of guys, that style just stuck. The music we played was really simple and that gave us a chance to try new things because we weren’t playing songs with a lot of chord changes.
Soon we started to discover the half-step-whole-step diminished scale, and we started messing with that as a group. I knew what that scale was, but I never really used it because there weren’t really chord progressions in the music I was playing that called for it. So when I heard Oteil start to use it a little bit, I was like, “Wow.” And then we started researching some of the chordal possibilities with that scale. Before I knew it, we could be playing blues and sounding really “in,” and then I could go into that diminished scale and Oteil, our bass player, would immediately start playing chords that fit that scale. So my style was able to go that way because of who I was playing with.
I know for a lot of guitar players, myself included, it can be difficult to make that whole-step-half-step scale sound natural during a solo. Can you go into more detail about how you are able to utilize the diminished scale in your playing without it sounding forced?
Well, I think it has to do with the fact that if you take a half step-whole step diminished scale (1, flat 2, flat 3, 3, sharp 4, 5, 6, flat 7) and then remove certain notes (flat 2, 3, 6,) there’s almost a blues scale in there (1, flat 3, sharp 4, 5, flat 7). I’ve been messing with that for years and that’s probably how it’s able to sound semi-natural. I wrote the tune “Scapegoat Blues” for an album I did a few years ago, and the idea was to mix the blues with that tonality. That’s when I discovered, “Wow, it’s already in there.”
There are other things too. You can break up that scale into fragments and pieces and get a lot of mileage out of it. One way would be if you took a dominant seventh arpeggio and you put in a sharped 4, (1, 3, sharped 4, 5, and flat 7). So that is a fragment from the diminished scale and it’s also got blues scale notes in it. It can also be thought of as a modified mixolydian thing, a mixolydian scale with a sharp 4 (1, 2, 3, sharp 4, 5, 6, flat 7), which is a really a melodic minor mode. Coltrane was really into doing things in diminished motion. For example, if you have a pentatonic idea you can move it up a minor third, and then move it up another minor third and then another, and then after that if you move it up again you’re just up an octave from where you started. He was an absolute master of that tonality and a good place to look to for inspiration.
Another pattern-based approach I hear a lot in your playing is the rolling repeated triplet patterns you move up and down the neck. Can you describe this technique?
Well, I loved guitarists who could play legato lines really well, so naturally that led to me Allan Holdsworth. His thing is just indescribable. He’s on a whole other level, one of my favorites on any instrument. Trying to emulate him in a very limited fashion is where that must have come from. It’s basically just four notes. So say if you’re in a G blues position, you can play the sixth fret on the second string and then pull off down to third fret, and then move to the third string and pull off from the fifth fret to the third fret. To move back up the pattern you play hammer-ons from the third fret to the fifth on the third string, and then the third fret to the sixth fret on the second string, and you can repeat the fragment starting with the pull of again.
But you can also change a note or two and play it another scale. The string grouping doesn’t matter, and you can change the notes to fit any scale or chord. But I’ve actually been trying to stop doing it because I’ve been doing it too much. A little bit goes a long way and I guess sometimes I go too far with it. If the tempo is fast, then it’s cool to do it in triplets, but I’ve found a lot of ways to add another note into the pattern so it doesn’t sound like straight triplets. We laugh about it all the time. I get called out by some of my friends, they’re like, “You’re doing that again huh?” And I’m like, “Well, I ran out of ideas!”
You’ve toured with a lot of legendary musicians including The Allman Brothers Band, The Dead and Lenny White, as well as with Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit and now with Widespread Panic. Can you describe what it’s been like to find your role in all these different groups?
You have to kind of throw yourself into it. That’s another great plus from playing with Bruce; in that band you had to be ready for anything. There weren’t complicated arrangements, but the idea was for you to keep the music super simple and then when you’d improvise you could do anything. I was playing with people who were going to listen to you and react to what you were playing, and you were expected to do the same whenever someone else was soloing. It was a great lesson and it kind of prepared me for playing with all of these different groups.
Then Jazz is Dead happened and it forced me to play things out of my comfort zone, namely learning a bunch of Dead tunes. Soon after I started playing with The Allman Brothers and Phil Lesh. I was an Allman Brothers fan as kid, and though I had never really played that music, it was in my subconscious. The Grateful Dead was too, but not quite on the same level. You just kind of do what you have to do. It’s a scary thing to get a call from someone and feel like, “Oh man, I’m not ready,” but my method is to listen to the music a lot before I even try to play it. I try to get the music in my head before I make the transition to being in the band.
With Widespread Panic, I had known these guys for 20 years before they called about playing, so it helped that they were they were my friends and that I didn’t feel the same kind of pressure as with The Allman Brothers or The Dead. Each of these bands has a different language that they speak, and it’s helpful if you take a little time to listen to the music beforehand so you’re not trying to learn the music the first time you’re hearing it.
Is touring with the Jimmy Herring Band as bandleader a very different experience?
Oh, god yes. It’s really different and not something I’ve ever really wanted to do. With the first band I had when I was young, I realized if it’s your band and you’re trying to be the leader and the other guys in the band don’t dig it then you can look like a real jerk. So I did that and then I realized that I just want to be a sideman. I’d rather just be responsible for my own adequacy. If I show up to the gig and someone doesn’t know the song then it’s not my concern and I don’t have to be the one to yell at him. So for my entire music life, I didn’t do it again, until about three years ago. I didn’t even really do it then; I just wanted to get together with my friends and play some music. There wasn’t that much band leading involved. The guys I picked to play with I’d known forever so it was easy to tour with them. But being the bandleader means being the first one to get the call if something goes wrong and that’s tough.
The Jimmy Herring Band is featured on The New Universe Music Festival DVD/CD along with a number of fusion legends. What was playing that show like?
That was a lot of fun, but it was also nerve-racking to have these masters hanging around. But they were all so cool. Wayne Krantz, John McLaughlin and Alex Machaceck were all there along with so many other great musicians. It was incredible.
I got the chance to see you play at The Comes A Time Tribute to Jerry Garcia at the Greek Theater in Berkeley in 2005 with a bunch of great musicians including Warren Haynes, Trey Anastasio and members of The Grateful Dead. Do you remember anything about that show?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. That was fun. I got to play with Trey, whom I hadn’t played with in a while. The Aquarium Rescue Unit and Phish used to play together quite a bit back in the old days. We were coming up at the same time and you knew those guys were going to be huge. They were really cool to us. We would go up to the Northeast and open for Phish and then they would come down south and open for us in places like Atlanta and Tuscaloosa. And we would be laughing like, “Phish is opening for us, what a joke!” because we knew they were going to take over the world. You could see it coming and eventually they did. But yeah that was a really fun night.
The standard street definition of recovery is gaining possession of something that, for one reason or another, you've lost. It can be anything: your health, money, love, etc. The idea of recovery is the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
I'd like to break it down a little further, as it seems even success requires recovery.
I started out as a drummer. I've played the drums since I was 11 and still play often today, although the guitar has certainly become a huge part of my life. However, the physical concepts I learned as a drummer -- when I apply them to other instruments -- point to having a great concept of "recovery."
It all comes down to one day at band camp; really -- high school marching band -- band camp. I was in the drum line, and we were learning "upstrokes." Many guitarists may not know what an upstroke is, but it's simple; it's where you focus on the most efficient way to simply get the drumstick away from the drumhead so you can hit it again. It's all wrists and forearms, and it takes some time to get the hang of.
Usually when drummers are learning upstrokes, they will practice it with a metronome, say, 10 minutes a day for a week straight, and then you've got it and it's part of the way you operate drumsticks. So my question was, why don't guitarists do this? As a drummer, I would learn to practice every move in time with a metronome, whether it was hitting the drum or getting away from the drum to hit it again. Why didn't guitarists do this?
Let's say you're practicing something -- say, the solo to your favorite song -- and there's a part that's too advanced for you. Everyone says, "Slow it down, blah blah blah." It's totally true; however, in my mind, that's only part of the answer. The reason you're slowing it down is to practice the way you recover. One's focus is often on the next note -- "Gotta get there!" But how often do you practice how you get there? One note is success, but how are you holding that note and getting to the next one, changing positions, etc.?
Let's use the most basic picking exercise as an example -- alternate picking on a single open string. Regular old up-down, up-down stuff. Turn that metronome on; slow, of course, and play along with it until you are so locked in that you cannot hear the clicks.
Now stop focusing on getting to the note on time, and start focusing on how smoothly your motions are in between the notes.
When you are done with that downstroke, are you turning around for the upstroke exactly halfway through the beat? When you get this far, speed up a little and repeat. Once you get there at a slightly faster tempo, your recovery has to happen at a slightly faster place.
Recovery: It's not just a Monster drink anymore!
Have a great week of music!
That's it for now. This is a bit of a longer post, but it resembles the fact that guitar influences are endless. Examine the world around you and find your next guitar lesson in it.
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