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November 2011
Posts: 741
Location: Fort Worth, TX | I've been working on Morning Has Broken for a few weeks and couldn't wait to go show my buddy Stan my progress. When I was practicing it at home, after a few run throughs I could play it perfectly. When I played it for Stan, I flubbed a few times and had to start over... and missed a few notes glaringly in the middle. I said I didn't know why I played it perfectly at home, but struggled with it before Stan, who is Texas' answer to Chet Atkins. I'm good enough friends with him that there was no intimidation factor playing for him. He said "Dave, don't ever play a song for anyone until you can play it on auto pilot. You should be able to play the song entirely while thinking about something else at the same time". That really resonated with me and I began practicing while thinking about another song at the same time and realized he was telling me I had to be able to play the song entirely from muscle memory. He told me he was working on some new licks for a concert recently and he was still at a point where he had to think about them as he was playing them. He said when he got to the point in the song during the concert where the new licks were to come in he had to skip them on the fly and play familiar licks instead. I couldn't believe a picker of his stature struggled with incorporating ANYTHING into what he was playing. I took the advice to heart and have begun playing my repertoire of finger picked songs over and over on a daily basis. It reminds me of Tiger Woods dad teaching Tiger to golf. He would bang on pans while Tiger was getting ready to hit a ball to teach him to overlook distractions. Okay, maybe it isn't the same thing, but you get my point. I have a new discipline for practicing I didn't have before and won't ever rush out again to show anyone a new song prematurely. |
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January 2009
Posts: 1249
Location: Texas | "Stan, who is Texas' answer to Chet Atkins?"
Really? John Knowles is from Texas. I won't go into his impressive resume, but all I really have to say is that Chet awarded John HIS CGP award. |
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Joined:
November 2011
Posts: 741
Location: Fort Worth, TX | amosmoses - 2012-03-05 9:38 AM
"Stan, who is Texas' answer to Chet Atkins?"
Really? John Knowles is from Texas. I won't go into his impressive resume, but all I really have to say is that Chet awarded John HIS CGP award.
This is only my opinion. Stan is sought after by many recording artists for studio work on their productions. I never knew how many lps's (remember those?) Chet recorded until I saw Stans's collection of every one of them ever produced. Stan taught himself to play from those lp's and can play every song on every one of them, just as good as Chet did. I can back that up if you ever come to Texas and want to meet him. I've heard him play a few certain songs where I swear it sounds like 3 guitars being played at once. Stan is a shy person who has never promoted himself to any extent... he doen't have to though - those who know him and have heard him play do it for him. He may never be "certified" as Texas' answer to Chet Atkins with any official awarding of anything, but like I said - all ya have to do is hear him play. A few years ago he began learning to play steel guitar and is as sought after already for that as a studio musician as well. Quite an accomplishment in so little time for a difficult instrument to master. Sorry, I didn't mean to step on the toes of any of YOUR heroes. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | DaveKell - 2012-03-05 9:16 AM
It reminds me of Tiger Woods dad teaching Tiger to golf. He would bang on pans while Tiger was getting ready to hit a ball to teach him to overlook distractions.
It's odd that, NOW, Tiger has to back away from his shot 'cos he heard a fly crawling on the porta john 300 yards away.... |
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Joined:
September 2011
Posts: 260
Location: Spain | Anyone who can play as good as (or arguably better than?) Chet Atkins must be amazing, full respect due, so I choose my words carefully here...I would never ever give anyone this advice "don't ever play a song for anyone until you can play it on auto pilot"....in my opinion that would shatter the confidence of anyone. I have done loads of gigs, and I'm no player AT ALL, but I've done them with heart, soul, balls, and have loved every one, plenty of times I turn up at a pub with a couple of new songs under the belt that I really haven't learned properly, but hey, have a go...it's all part of music..passion for the music is far more important than the acceptance of other people....(IMO)..
Hope that comes across ok, don't mean no disrespect to your friend. |
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Fingerpicking performance advice from a master
