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December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | Saw Richard Thompson in a solo performance this past Wednesday evening. Great show. If you ever get a chance to see him solo or with a band live go it is worth it. The man can play. he makes me want to give up the guitar. I think he performs with a Lowden.
Opening for him was Julian Coryell, son of Larry. He is more of a singer songwriter type then a jazzer. He gave a good performance, I liked some of his tunes very much. Julian plays Ovations he used an elite T and a UKE. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Thompson is spectacular, his guitar guitar playing is amazing. Your're right he plays a Lowden, with a Sunrise pickup. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Al
I haven't heard Richard Thompson but I'll take your's and Paul's opinion and look for his work. One thing that bothered me is your statement that he "makes you want to give up the guitar". Playing guitar is not a competition where only the best get to play, hearing somebody who is good should be an inspiration even if you can only steal one or two licks or sounds. Find something he does that you can steal, steal it and say thanks Richard, I'm a better player because of that, and it's perfectly legal.
Bailey |
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May 2003
Posts: 69
Location: UK | Alex
You've certainly hit one of my hot buttons - Richard Thompson is one of my all-time favourites and imho one of the greatest living guitarists.
He has a signature style which is immediately recognisable and he is equally at home on both the acoustic and electric guitar. There was a great documentary shown on BBC4 recently, here in the UK, which I'm sure will surface over the other side of the pond, if it has not already. He now lives pretty much permanently in the US, so you guys are really lucky.
I've seen him countless times both playing solo and in his band. In fact, one of my all time favourite concerts was seeing him complete with a few buddies from his Fairport Convention days, plus Shawn Colvin at the London Palladium, a good 10 years ago. A magical and inspiring concert.
Like all wannabees I checked out Lowden guitars when I first saw him playing one but in truth I was a bit dissapointed. Then, recently, I actually found one I liked, a Rosewood O32, which is a fantastic guitar. A bit like a distorted (in shape) J200 - only better sounding! My Ovations however are far more practical for live work, though - not that I'll get much chance to prove that anytime in the near future.
Hearing a good guitarist should never make you feel like giving up guitar, it should inspire us to enjoy playing even more. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | Richard Thompson is fantastic.
Unfortunately watching musicians has one of two effects on me. I either want to give up or it inspires me.
when I am in complete awe of someone it makes me want to give up. Sorry but that is just what happens.
I can steal some of his licks and have done that with many of my idols but the hard part is incorporating them effectively into your arsenal of playing tricks.
Fortunately I grew up in a time where I was able to "jam" and experiment with music. There were constant get togethers fueled by alcohol and things that just made you expand as a player. It also got me up in front of people playing and realizing that if I bombed it was not the end of the world.
Being from the philly area, there are musicians that throw around the names gamble and huff and sun ra. Because there are so many people that played with these guys you can sorta affiliate yourself and not get caught. when you know the score you just start naming studios and names to see if you can trip them up.
the sun ra guy played keys, and well I can also hit the sustain pedal and play all the black notes too and sound good. He told me that sun ra said that after 12 bars there is no longer any key signature of meter they all go away. Interesting concept. horrible jam.
The gamble and huff guy did not care what you played as long as you were in the groove. Two very different approaches.
For me guitar is a lifelong journey. I am NEVER satisfied with how I play, I always want to improve and learn more and most importantly, I know I will never master ever style on the instrument.
At one point I owned all sorts of stringed instruments hell bent on learning them all. After I came to the realization that I would never even master the guitar, I decided that I should stick to sucking on one instrument and that is the guitar. |
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July 2002
Posts: 1900
| al, speaking of "stealing some licks" from a favorite guitarist; have you managed to steal any from glen campbell? i (think i) have learned an ascending arpeggio from his live bransom album; the tune was an instrumental from'gentle on my mind; anyway, it took a while; when i was a kid i used to listen to his 45rpms at 33rpms just to hear the intervals played slower.... |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Yes, seeing a great player does have the two results.
Sonetimes it makes you want to just go take up tennis or llama raising. But you get over it and pick up the guitar again.
Sometimes it makes you want to play and play and be like you just heard. But you get over that and go back to the heard of llamas. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | I have never considered music to be competitive. (Apart from maybe bluegrass banjo, for which there should be an Olympic category) I hear lots of guitar playing which is beyond my technical capability, but nevertheless manages to influence my playing, even if what I come up with is a completely bastardised version of the original. Sonny Landreth developed his playing-behind-the-slide technique after hearing Clarence White with a B-bender. Landreth had no idea that Clarence was using a mechanical device, he just heard intervals moving within chords and tried to emulate it. As a result he became one of the most unique & identifiable slide players ever. Some of Richard Thompson's electric guitar playing is heavily influenced by Scottish & Irish bagpipes. Try doing Van Halen licks on those. |
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Posts: 7210
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | The technical aspects of guitar playing never impressed me. I truly believe it's just six strings and that with time, effort, practice and most of all interest, anyone can play some pretty amazing licks. I added "interest" because along with interest comes feel, heart and soul, and that is a little more difficult to play or to emulate from someone else, and why would you want to.
A guitarist that isn't mentioned much on these threads is good 'ol SRV. Well I had the oportunity to watch a few concert video's recently, and really couldn't figure out the fuss. The guy enjoyed to play and put his whole body into it, and actually seemed to listen to what he was playing. I thought that was the point, and they way it supposed to be done. I didn't see the fuss. Same with Hendrix and Clapton for that matter. I guess maybe they are great, because they played pationately (like many others) and didn't just play notes.
To some extent I feel like I'm missing something. I've tried to steal a few licks here and there from my favorite artists, but I don't think I've ever tried to cover a whole a song really from anyone. The reason I feel I may be missing something is that I never had the motivation to try and copy someone.
Seeing someone play live almost always motivates me to pick up the guitar. After seeing Kaki King on Conan I ran down and picked up my Elite-T and started strumming. I would have no reason to play like Kaki, no desire to. She does what she does just fine. Same thing happened when I came home from a BOC concert recently. I love watching Buck Dharma play, but I don't even play the BOC songs that I cover like he does. I never really even thought to try. I guess the chords and such are similar, but my leads are played how I hear the song, Donald plays them the way he hears them and wrote them. I see no reason I couldn't play them the same with the same 40+ years of practice at least 4 hours every single day. But I lack that motivation to just come up with a copy of something. I'd rather hear something, let it inspire me, than play it.
A friend of mine LOVES to play live as I know many people do. He loves the audience reaction and such. That is the other part of the equation that I think I am missing sometimes. When I played live, the audience reation never really mattered as much as how I felt I did. If I played what I thought was good show, and they audience didn't really like it, I just chalked it up to they didn't like it. IF they did, of course that was nice. Several times I didn't play that well in my eyes and ears (translation = I sucked) and the audience went nuts. Didn't make me feel any better to know that not only did I suck, but the people listening didn't know the difference. My reaction at that point is to de-tune the guitar and see how long I can get away with it. When I bombed and the audience knew it, it was almost a relief. They were at least listening and that always gave me motivation to play better and recover the gig, so I guess that's the only time audience input makes any difference to me. |
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Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Miles:
I think I defy that "anybody can" comment. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Moodypi
Spend a weekend jamming with a good player or two, playing songs you like on your favorite instrument, getting down and relaxed and into the music, Somewhere along the line, you will get in an amazing lick or two as you forget the competition and succumb to the music. I wouldn't reccomend taping it as there may be a lot of not so good pickin' leading up to that one or two great breaks. Well, tape it anyway, you can delete the bad stuff. Better yet don't delete anything, years later you will be able to hear those friends that you miss so much, with all their comments and jokes.
Bailey |
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Richard Thompson
