PRESENCE - Volume 70
Inspiration For Guitarists
Seeing the big Picture
Where I now live in the NC mountains winters can be a little harsh but summers are glorious. As a musician up here the difference between the winter and summer in terms of gigs is drastic. We are entering gig season and it is looking to be a busy one.
I had four gigs with three different groups in the last eight days. Add three four-hour road trips this week to see my ailing mom, plus the usual business of being a husband, parenting an 11 year old, etc…my time has been stretched thin. That meant almost no time to prepare and having to rely on the basics to get me through.
One of the gigs was a benefit concert where I was one of the musicians in the “house band”. There were so many musicians rotating in for a song or two. We had 2 drummers, 3 bass players, 2 keyboard players, 5 guitarists, a pedal steel player, 4 singers…a roomful of good musicians figuring it out in real time.
The thing I have been reflecting on about that experience (which isn’t that unusual) is the benefit of simplicity. How learning the basic framework of a song and not getting too locked into the details made the night so much more musical. The musicians who played at this benefit were top notch but there was no big rehearsal to go through the songs and assign parts. It was mostly just a bunch of musical folks winging it.
If I had been locked in to the idea of playing a specific part on a tune I might have been thrown off when someone else grabbed that part. By seeing the big picture - the basic chord progression, how to play those chords in different places on the neck, where the pentatonic scale was all over the neck, I was able to find a lane in the moment and just make music rather than only knowing my “part”.
This is what I want for you when you learn a song.
Before you chase the cool chord voicing or learn the solo note-for-note, ask yourself the simple questions: What key is the song in? What is the basic chord progression (not the fancy chords or shapes that they might have played on the record)? Where are the main scale shapes for that song?
If you know these you can add something to the music, you can be yourself, you can inject your creativity into the song rather than being stuck parroting what you learned from the record or from a tab.
The details are fun. But the details only serve you once you can see the whole picture.
Always zoom out first.
Keep at it - Dustin
P.S. - If any of this resonated, the Essential Skills Course is where I teach all three frameworks in depth. It's the same stuff I've been doing with students for years — just without the hourly rate.