This may sound strange and maybe a little perverse, but when you’re improvising a solo, or playing a written solo; imagine you’re metaphysically making love to your instrument. As Miles Davis said “You can tell who’s a great musician by the way they pick up their instrument, as if its an extension of their self.”
Don’t get me wrong Miles is a genius and I’m obsessed with his work but i like to think of it a little differently.
I like to see the instrument as a bridge between the self and the unknown possibilities of what is to be; not so much just an extension. I think that’s where some shred-wankers are going wrong. They seem to be ‘masturbating;’ too absorbed in the self and their playing sounds like mindless noodling.
As i said earlier, if you’re spiritually f*%king your guitar the music that comes out is like a bunch of beautiful children; not just a bunch of lost sperm.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Ryan // Dec 17, 2007 at 1:04 am
Ha ha. I really like this article. So very true, yet so hard to teach people. Its something you really have to mature into.
2 jacob // Dec 29, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Not all who shred, however, are “wanking”. It’s when we use technique for the sake of technique that this is true; if we only use the techniques that are necessary to convey the emotion we want to communicate, it’s more of a communion.
I disagree with the author… the guitar should not even be in your mind when you are playing. To truly play from the heart, you have to commune deeply with your own soul, and be honest in the feelings that are seated there. This honesty about ourself can of course only be conveyed when we have done the woodshedding necessary to allow us to forget guitar and audience, but if we are that honest, anyone who hears us will feel that they are privy to something incredible, in an almost voyeuristic way.
3 carlito // Dec 30, 2007 at 4:12 am
very true jacob, thanks for the comment but ill put in the words of Pat Metheny, “the guitar is nothing more than a means to an end” i guess i should have written it in there but i thought i was self-evident. its absolutely true it must be communion with the soul. The guitar is merely my weapon of choice
4 Hero // Jan 15, 2008 at 6:53 am
There’s alot of truth in what everyone is saying. A guitar, or any instrument (for those of us who play more), is not necessarily an extension of the musician, but a part of them. The vessel within that allows us to express what we feel. To convey the deepest emotions to who ever will listen, or maybe just yourself. Now, I give props to shredders. You guys have talent. Jacob is right. That ability gives you a gateway to express what you feel in a far more complex manner. But, most shredders (from my experience), are very arrogant. Doing it just because they can, supposedly making the rest of us look like we can’t play at all. But there are those few. That attain that ability, and are modest. That use it as it should be used. That can play with any musician. Their skill level or not. And having that type of mind set. Is what will make a truly, great, musician.
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