It's been a few years since I felt this motivated to play, and to write. Finding out who you are can be a lifelong journey of discovery generally and, for any player, discovering your own voice and emotional expression is part of that equation. We are all individuals, and we bring unique relationships to the instruments we play.
What I've managed to find more recently, I think, is a more tuned-in intuitive sense of emotional expression, translated and transformed through my own particular sense of rhythm, groove, melody and song.
I dunno what to call it. Sure, I could deconstruct tunings, chord voicings, and rhythm maybe, and point to influences under the covers, but I'd like to think that those sounds and feelings I've experienced along the way have now been indelibly imprinted in my memory and become part of who I am, not just as a player but as a human being.
That separation of "who I am" from "what I do" has been a refreshing new sense of self awareness for me. We've all got that I think, we just need to find out where it is, and tease it out into the open.
I've been kicking ideas around for a while now, little seeds that are finally starting to bloom. Around about 10 years ago I shifted, unconsciously really, from electric prog and blues with some tasteful arpeggio shenanigans chucked in here and there, into the world of organic material and tone. No electricity required for this gig.
It all came by way of catching a few things by chance on TV and radio, most notably an old Super 8 film docu that Channel 4 put out in the 80s I think about one Englishman's 11 year journey through the States. The soundtrack was roots, folk, blues, and extrapolations of everything in-between, epitomised by the machine gun bullet slide and mammoth 12 string tone of the one and only Leo Kottke.
That sound and feeling must have sunk in deep. It was resurrected 10 years ago in my "shift" (nae, a "new direction" as The Tap might say...).
I bought a Taylor 355 12 and persevered, cobbling together my own picking action and chord voicings over a number of years. It didn't seem that long, but as we all know, time flies...
I'm still growing, we all are hopefully. Part of that growth for me has been a move away from pre-calculating options in terms of keys, chords and scales, and being more in touch with listening to the sound of the instrument and what it's telling me. I read an interview with David Wilcox years ago and it really put the hairs on the back of my neck into action. He advocated listening to the sound of the guitar in any particular tuning and figuring out what it's trying to tell you. Finding songs is a like treasure hunt - they're hiding somewhere, you just need to find them and coax them out into the open.
I guess I've been quite pro-active in that recently and have found new homes for old tunes along the way. Like the tunes, the stories write themselves too once you've gotten a foot on the path.
So, enough airy fairyness you're thinking. Tell me something musical I can use! Well, all I'll offer here is this - try experimenting with open tunings and chord voicings - all fingerings are up to you! Sorry, but you'll need I.E. to view this legacy javascript page!
http://gxb.150m.com/fretnotes/
Time for tea now.
Cheers.
gxb
Tune in next time:- Lowden Territory
- From 12 to 6 and back again
