Quote:

regarding the discussion of how guitars "should" be used or learned:

I imagine a scenario in which Jimi Hendrix is taking guitar lessons from Les Paul.

Les Paul scolds Jimi and says "No no no... you're supposed to dampen the strings you aren't plucking to silence them.. the goal is to AVOID feedback and miscellaneous noise..."

all the while Jimi is thinking "that may be YOUR goal, but it isn't mine..."




Or, as actually happened, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was once asked about how and why he played the trumpet so high outside its "normal" range.

He replied that after he had become an adult and famous trumpeter, he was shown "the" book of the trumpet, "Arban's Method" and said that right there in the opening pages was a little chart that had two notes on it, one low and one high, labled, "The Range of the Trumpet".

Satch said, "Its a good thing I didn't have that book to tell me where to stop!"

Indeed, the teaching methods of this world may just be better designed to create cookie-cutter clones, leaving the true innovation to come from other sources.

I don't knock the school methods, though, as I grow older I have come to realize that such only makes the value of the truly creative innovator soar even higher. I think that for every *successful* innovator there are likely many more who tried and for whatever reasons, didn't get the recognition for it. For example, Jimi DID have those who came before him who were already using feedback ala Albert King and a few of his other tricks, including his flashy clothing, which he borrowed from his experience with Little Richard's act.

As with everything else in music performance, the timing -- and the choice of venue -- is everything...


--Mac

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