Dang it, I couldn’t find the video I was looking for.
Where was I? So in 1996 or so, I was working at the aforementioned movie theater and The Great White Hype was playing. This was a bad movie. Just overall bad. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY came to see it. The theater that it was playing in was consistently empty so I’d wander in there from time to time to see if anyone was actually watching it.
I walked in one time and Brian Setzer had a cameo appearance playing “Danny Boy” all Brian Setzer styled, and things are starting to percolate in my brain. A bartender at one of the poolhalls I frequented said, “Dude, I just saw this movie that is so YOU.”
That movie was Swingers.
So I’m really getting it all together, and realizing that this kind of music is what I should be playing on guitar. The whole vibe and scene was just too cool – it was what I dug all along. Hot rods, low-brow, twangy guitars…..the works. I picked up the guitar again. It had been a few (ahem) years since I played it with any regularity in high school and many MANY years since the time I played it seriously. So I set to work. It sounds stupid to “realize” it, but a lot of my guitar playing years were stunted because of my ear.
I’ve got a good ear. I can hear something, match the key and then usually fake along (depending on how much I’ve been practicing lately). In elementary school, I played cornet. I couldn’t read music so they just sang the note to me and I played it. While it’s nice to have a good ear, ultimately I think it made me lazier. Especially on guitar. While it makes it easier to jump in, you don’t work as hard so you don’t retain as much information.
But my daughter was born in 1997 so while she was a baby I actually had PLENTY of time to practice. And practice I did. I tracked my original guitar teacher (in Houston) and started meeting up with him to start getting this rockabilly stuff down. I learned a lot of finger picking. I spent a lot of time running scales and learning songs. I was using my long-time guitar my Ibanez Destroyer (!).
Found a pic of one (although mine didn’t have the cherries).
Since I was familiar with the wide fretboard it was great to be pushing through on, but I ended up pickup up my first “rockabilly machine” Gretsch in 1997. It was a factory second out at Parker Music on I-45 (Houston).
After a while, I felt pretty confident in my playing. Over confident really. I set up to meet with this guy who played stand up bass. What a disaster. The guy was what I/we call a “purist“. He played the rockabilly records on a turntable (only). He preached the rockabilly superior. Original rockabilly artists only, etc, etc. He turned his nose up at my Gretsch (not a rockabilly guitar?!?) but oddly enough approved of the leopard print strap I had on it? He knocked me off-balance so badly that I couldn’t remember the chords to Blue Suede shoes (!) It was bad. It knocked me back for quite a while. Such a defeat. Now I realize he was just a…..jerk…..but back then I really took it to heart that I wasn’t a good guitar player.
–to be continued–
I took guitar lessons from a guy named Dave Malachowski, who at the time was playing in Shania Twain’s touring band. He was (and I’m sure still is) a terrific guitar player, but sort of a lazy teacher. I’d come in with my guitar, and he’d just say “What do you want to learn, man?” So I started bringing him recordings of guitar solos that I liked, and he’d transcribe them for me on the spot and show me how to play them. I learned both solos for Stray Cat Strut from him! I also learned the balls-out awesome Skunk Baxter guitar solo for “The Boston Rag” by Steely Dan, which became the blueprint for almost every guitar solo I ever played for the next five years.
My guitar teacher was (and is) still great. He tried to get me started on the basics and theory, but I kind of was more in the mode of your teacher. I’d bring him things and say, “I want to play this”. I’ve taken music theory classes somewhere around three times, and that stuff does just NOT stick in my brain.
I guess I’ll go YouTube that Boston Rag, my solos have been stuck all around “You Shook Me All Night Long” for years now. Thank goodness I found Rockabilly.
I’ve never had much use for theory when it comes to playing rock guitar. “Hey, I learned the Mixolydian Mode! Now, what can I use this for….?” I’ve always gotten a lot more benefit out of copying licks that I liked, and then finding ways to shoehorn them into whatever I’m playing.
The Boston Rag solo is one of my all time favorite guitar solos, on one of my favorite Steely Dan songs, which is on their best album (Countdown to Ecstasy). It’s actually not that hard to play, but his phrasing and sense of when, where and what to play, are as good as it gets.
Yeah, I’d like to know SOME theory though. Being an “all ear” player is great, but knowing your I-IV-V patterns (etc,etc) comes in handy sometimes.
Been too slammed at home/work – will check out Boston Rag soon.