My inspiration for wanting to play a guitar came from seeing a documentary about John Williams playing at the Seville concert, what got me really hooked was Joaquin Rodrigo.
From then on I wanted to make music but lacked the patience and dedication to play classical to any great degree. I remember telling my teacher that all though I knew where my fingers should be and my brain was telling them what to do, they would not obey me. I think this was the last lesson that I had with my teacher !.
I became motivated again when one day at a friend’s house I noticed that he had a guitar in his study, I hadn’t noticed before. And after some drinks I asked him to play it, and expecting not much more than the twangs I was able to get out of the guitar, suddenly there was music Dylan, some blues even a bit of classical.
A natural I thought, that was the answer, how can someone have all this in thier head and be able to pull it out of thin air and play like that. How did he know where the chords were, at the drop of a hat.
This was the way forward for me, improvisation. The term ‘improvisation’ usually implies taking a solo. In fact, when you do arrive at the stage of being fluent with music and your instrument, the whole piece of music becomes improvised, except perhaps for a phrase that’s played together with others. Every part of the tune — rhythm in the verses or choruses, turnarounds, licks between vocal lines, solos, intros, outros — everything becomes an improvisation. When you learn how, you can play everything different every night, every performance. Indeed, you strive for this freedom. It’s what keeps it fun. You find that after experimentation, your part does settle into an almost set format, but the details are always changing. You’re always looking for that slightly better adaptation.
