Guitar
In every player's life there are times of creative plateaux: boring, insipid, frustrating periods of limited growth and discovery, usually accompanied by crippling self doubt. You've been there, dear reader? Aw yes, I see that knowing, slightly terrified look in your eye; you've been there...
An acquaintance from years ago had a tendency to harp on about how he'd learned all the theory there was to know, practiced his scales and chops, so there was nothing left for him to do but wait for the inspiration to do something truly great to magically show up one day and make him deservingly famous. Well, he hadn't quite been as diligent in any of those areas (theory, scales, chops) as he claimed. He almost never improvised anything. He did not embrace new challenges. He never shook up anything in his musical world and as a result that inspiration never arrived.
Inspiration can be generated with effort; our practising, writing, improvising and composing can all intersect in a productive cycle. It really comes down to work ethic: the serious player is always in music school, striving to interpret the larger world in a deeply personal, coherent musical language.
Even the most disciplined students of music will run into brick walls now and then: our newly discovered chops soon get played out and trite to our own ears. Our theoretical concept becomes ingrained and safe. Our fingers start dancing on their own. What do we do?
I recommend throwing a big old wrench in the works. Mess up the machinery good. Change the parameters. Do something different.
This can be as simple as twisting some tuning pegs and dealing with a new tuning. Or perhaps you decide to study a genre you've never worked in before, or take up an instrument you've never played. The idea is to get out of those comfort zones and open up new possibilities. Whatever you choose to do, your overall concept of music will widen.
Lately I've taken up playing banjo (or something like it), changed the tuning on my acoustic guitar and reacquainted myself with my double necked 8-string steel guitar in an effort to shake things up a bit. I would like to add a baritone guitar to my list of problems to solve. I will almost certainly learn some mandolin and pedal-steel before I croak. I don't have to be great at any of these things, I just have to stay interested and engaged.
I watch my not-quite-three-year-old boy maneuvering around the world and I'm struck by the combination of fearlessness and playfulness that fuels his explorations and imagination. We, as adults, have a greater challenge maintaining that childlike sense of wonder, that openness to learning play. As artists, it's essential to our continued growth that we stay fascinated and fearless.
- Peavey T-40 And T-60 Users And Literature. .
Peavey were keen to let it be known that their guitars were being used by major artists, at the time - perhaps the most famous, was Ross Valory of the band, Journey. There was also Leon Medica of Le Roux and Banner Thomas from Molly...
- Comfortably Numb
Into the great wide-open, a rebel without a clue... I had an interesting revelation last night: I played better (more dynamically and sensitively) when I had had no idea what was going on than when I did. As regular readers know, I host a...
- Chords And Grooves
...and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.... Often I hear less experienced guitarists who have reasonably good meter, but have a hard time coming up with good chord voicings or compelling rhythm grooves. Some players have a tendency to push forward...
- Scat Your Way To Freedom!
"Skippidy-zee-baa-bebop-a-diddily..." Finding our voices as musicians is one of the greatest challenges we face. Its easy to find ourselves slavishly regurgitating the work of others in an incoherent jumble of stock licks we lifted off records,...
- Native Tongues
Uh, oh. Time for some philosophical mumbo jumbo One of the great challenges of being a musician is worrying less about how you'd like to sound, and concentrating on how you do sound. We spend years as intense listeners, trying...
Guitar
Toss a Wrench in the Works
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| Taking up lap-steel was both edifying and terrifying. Perfect! |
An acquaintance from years ago had a tendency to harp on about how he'd learned all the theory there was to know, practiced his scales and chops, so there was nothing left for him to do but wait for the inspiration to do something truly great to magically show up one day and make him deservingly famous. Well, he hadn't quite been as diligent in any of those areas (theory, scales, chops) as he claimed. He almost never improvised anything. He did not embrace new challenges. He never shook up anything in his musical world and as a result that inspiration never arrived.
Inspiration can be generated with effort; our practising, writing, improvising and composing can all intersect in a productive cycle. It really comes down to work ethic: the serious player is always in music school, striving to interpret the larger world in a deeply personal, coherent musical language.
Even the most disciplined students of music will run into brick walls now and then: our newly discovered chops soon get played out and trite to our own ears. Our theoretical concept becomes ingrained and safe. Our fingers start dancing on their own. What do we do?
I recommend throwing a big old wrench in the works. Mess up the machinery good. Change the parameters. Do something different.
This can be as simple as twisting some tuning pegs and dealing with a new tuning. Or perhaps you decide to study a genre you've never worked in before, or take up an instrument you've never played. The idea is to get out of those comfort zones and open up new possibilities. Whatever you choose to do, your overall concept of music will widen.
Lately I've taken up playing banjo (or something like it), changed the tuning on my acoustic guitar and reacquainted myself with my double necked 8-string steel guitar in an effort to shake things up a bit. I would like to add a baritone guitar to my list of problems to solve. I will almost certainly learn some mandolin and pedal-steel before I croak. I don't have to be great at any of these things, I just have to stay interested and engaged.
I watch my not-quite-three-year-old boy maneuvering around the world and I'm struck by the combination of fearlessness and playfulness that fuels his explorations and imagination. We, as adults, have a greater challenge maintaining that childlike sense of wonder, that openness to learning play. As artists, it's essential to our continued growth that we stay fascinated and fearless.
- Peavey T-40 And T-60 Users And Literature. .
Peavey were keen to let it be known that their guitars were being used by major artists, at the time - perhaps the most famous, was Ross Valory of the band, Journey. There was also Leon Medica of Le Roux and Banner Thomas from Molly...
- Comfortably Numb
Into the great wide-open, a rebel without a clue... I had an interesting revelation last night: I played better (more dynamically and sensitively) when I had had no idea what was going on than when I did. As regular readers know, I host a...
- Chords And Grooves
...and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.... Often I hear less experienced guitarists who have reasonably good meter, but have a hard time coming up with good chord voicings or compelling rhythm grooves. Some players have a tendency to push forward...
- Scat Your Way To Freedom!
"Skippidy-zee-baa-bebop-a-diddily..." Finding our voices as musicians is one of the greatest challenges we face. Its easy to find ourselves slavishly regurgitating the work of others in an incoherent jumble of stock licks we lifted off records,...
- Native Tongues
Uh, oh. Time for some philosophical mumbo jumbo One of the great challenges of being a musician is worrying less about how you'd like to sound, and concentrating on how you do sound. We spend years as intense listeners, trying...