When I write new songs there is very often some real world trigger that gets me in the mood, very often that is a new guitar (go figure) but sometimes it can be learning a new technique. I am VERY familiar with those head slapping moments, you know the ones where you say, ahhhhhhhh so that’s how you do that then. This week I was once again humbled by a bit of technique which has again opened the creative pipes for me.
First off let me thank the source of the technical wisdom which started this, for those of you familiar with you tube and good quality guitar tutorials I am sure you must have already heard of the now legendary Justin Sandercoe. If not, I highly recommend you check out his site: http://www.justinguitar.com this guy rocks in terms of the quality of the lessons and the fact that he is an all round decent geezer from the UK who doesn’t suffer from delusions of Grandeur. I have been meaning to sort out one of my weak spots on the guitar for a long time, which is finger picking. I have always been method guitarist and have never had a lesson in my life, this can be useful in that you don’t sound like every other guitarist but there are moments when you really wish that you had had at least a couple of lessons to get the basics.
Recently, I started listening to a bit of Bob Dylan and got really attached to a song called Don’t think twice, the picking style can be found in a bunch of country songs and I had always thought that my fingers just wouldn’t go fast enough to do that. Justin Guitar to the rescue! within about 40 minutes I had the style going and while I did not have all the parts of the song worked out I was well on the way. The following day I applied the technique to some of my favourite alternative tunings and found a really interesting progression or two and today it developed into a new song.
That’s what I love most about the guitar, there is always something new even after 20 years playing!
