Archives for 2007

If your a guitar player who thinks that he or she knows it all, then you should just skip this post! Also, this post is VERY LONG as well!

Every once in a long while I come across a guitar player who thinks that they know it all. I think that we’ve all met a person like this who fits the category? I understand that in order to be a great player you have to have this invincible attitude or ego to obtain these lofty goals but come on, you can’t know everything. There is always someone out there that knows something that you don’t.

In my younger days, there were moments when I had this type of footprint attached to my persona. Sometimes upon entering a Brantford music store some musicians put down what ever they were playing and looked at it as if they didn’t know what this thing was that they had in their hands. Sometimes at a party or other social event guitarists would not play while I was playing or afterwards for that matter. This I thought was good for my ego, but later on I realized that we all were doing was just cheating ourselves out of a learning experience. After not playing for many years, I started to understand this problem.

While living in a dorm/frat house I started to play with many levels of musicians. I realized that some had these guitarists were playing these great little progressions that I had never heard of before and it spurred on my thirst for more musical knowledge. I made great efforts to stunt my level of playing and let other people shine. This approach made others relax and play without intimidation.

Fast forward to today, I think that it is time for me to take lessons again, not to figure out songs/styles but for technique. I know proper positioning, how to change chords efficiently, but I could use some work on understanding progressions better.

Another area is finger picking.

My classical picking is now at the level of a hack, but I can achieve the action and dexterity that I need to pull off a song or style without any noticeable problems. The classical stance is something that I do not use to any great extent but it does come in handy once in a long while.The real problem is with my thumb drone or an alternating bass picking style. The easiest way to understand this is to imagine a piano. You have the left hand working the bass or lower notes and the right hand doing the phrasing/melody. In guitar, your thumb is the bass and the rest of your fingers are the right hand playing the phrasing/melody.

Bruce Cockburn is the master of this in my eyes! It’s almost impossible to pigeon toe his style into one word but this is one of his many fortes. The best example of this is one Going to the Country which I have been trying to finger out or master for many years. I wish that the intro to the song was there to introduce to you to what I mean about his playing ability.

So now I am toying with the idea of taking lessons at the 12th Fret by a gentleman call Dave Martin. He specializes in picking, he loves the some style of picking that I do and best of all he has the same length of fingers that I have. While talking to him, he told me that he has come up against the same playing/technique problems that I have so it would be nice to have someone who has similar issues in this area.

They charge around $22.50 a 1/2 hour so I’ll try him out for a bit and see how it works out! I’ll get back to you later on the results and besides, he probably knows something that I don’t!