Crawl before you fly.
 |
Hi all. Been a bit slow getting new articles in here as I’ve been flat out getting a new project together. Check out my web site, blah, blah, blah. OK…down to business. I’ve been frequenting my local guitar shop a fair bit of late. I won’t name it because they don’t give me free stuff. (Meow, Hiss). Anyway, I’ve been catching a lot of the new and unknown talent trying out the guitars etc and something has been catching my attention with a lot of these kids. Essentially they are barely off “L” plates where guitar playing is concerned, and they’re all trying to shred like Steve Vai. |
| Now I dig a bit of Stevie as much as the next guitar player, but come on guys, get your hand off it. I stopped to ask one of these young dudes how he learned to play that stuff. “ I just downloaded the tab off the internet”Ahhhhh…ok. I asked if he would object to me jamming with him for a minute. He didn’t. I grabbed an axe off the wall and just started to vamp on some blues and told the kid to go for it.
Well he looked at me the same way my dog does when I talk to him. Head tilted to one side like he’s trying to understand the noises coming out of my mouth. So I urged him a little more, “Solo dude, let rip”.The poor kid was sweating and his hands were shaking. I think he was trying to transpose the Steve Vai tab on the fly to fit what I was playing, and not very successfully either.My point? Well, it seemed like that was all he had up his sleeve. No ear, no imagination, and very limited reportoir. I didn’t want to discourage the youngster so I said I’d write him a list of artists that it would be in his interests to check out. Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour, Jimmy Page etc. Basically guys who make great guitar music at a very easy pace.Most audiences would enjoy a slower piece executed flawlessly, than a faster piece executed half arsed.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, slow down, get back to basics. Master the fundamentals. They are the foundations upon which your guitar playing house is built. I’ve been playing for 31 years. 24 of those at a professional level, but I still find myself going back to the beginning and re-schooling myself. With my hectic schedule, it’s easy to forget the basics. But in some cases I guess you can’t forget what you never had to begin with. You know who you are. Don’t make me come after you! Technorati Tags: guitar, learning guitar, guitar lessons |
|
September 24th, 2006 at 10:04 am
[...] Crawl before you fly. : par Mark Johnson, daté du samedi 23 septembre 2006 5:36:18. [...]