You've Got To Be More Than A Genius! (or 'Be Different')

This is a thought regarding something that happened at a gig last night. In preparation for a forthcoming solo 'variety-guitar' concert (where I play many different guitars in contrasting genres), I took out a guitar that seldom sees the light of day (as I prefer playing classical guitars). I decided to play three guitar pieces and one requires hundreds of tuning peg pitch changes. This achieves an effect similar to the pedal-steel or Hawaiian guitar. I got the feeling that most people hadn't seen this (trick) before. The guitarists in the audience were busy figuring out what was going on whilst the lay-men were just staring. Some people laughed, and the die-hard inbred types, well, god knows what they thought (they probably wanted more Elvis Presley or something old and well-known).

The 'trick', like most magic, isn't new. A well-known guitarist whom I saw play many times used to tour round the UK in the 1980's doing the same trick, and he used to get much a very similar reaction. His time in the U.K. was much less-successful than his later reception in the U.S.A.

These days, as I practice mostly classical and reserve the other styles for just airing at concerts so I don't take playing non-classical music that seriously. It's a bit of fun and hopefully injects some much needed variety. Now, I still see and read about many very clever solo musicians (especially guitarists) and they seem to fall into the same trap. Do one thing, stick to that one style and hope for the best. That approach might just work if you are in Nashville although the competition is stiff but it generally does not work. Take classical guitar concerts; very clever, great music, complex, beautiful and artistic but it does not attract the masses (half-masses would do!). I always wanted to be a classical guitar performer and the recitals I've done have reinforced my present view that too much of one thing (for entertainment, not intellectual purposes) is a bad idea. I wasn't under illusions in my experience taking just the one unusual guitar to perform with in a short three-song show and performing my allotted pieces in that style and sound. For me, it was practicing an aspect for my solo show. Certainly being an instrumentalist in London and performing in one style only just isn't enough.

Funnily enough, Ive taken that annoying blue guitar to many of my serious classical recitals.

DH





What counts is not shock-value or cleverness,