Spontaneity in guitar playing – Jimi the Master!

This took me a long time to discover. What prompts this musing now is a Times article (10.09.10) by Will Hodgkinson marking the 40th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix. Purely by the by, I saw Hendrix play the Isle of Wight festival just a few weeks before he died – one of those very memorable life moments, like the time I got to shake Pele’s hand at a do in Cannes – only in Jimi’s case I got to share it with 300,000 others. Anyway, in the article Roger Mayer the guitar audio pioneer who invented Hendrix’s Octavia pedal made the observation that Jimi never played a song exactly the same twice – always different, always fresh, always exciting, always innovative – because it was fresh to Jimi every time!… “He played in a free-form, improvisational way….” says Mayer. Yeah there is form and structure to the song but after that, why wouldn’t Jimi keep it fresh every time…….. by surprising himself and us and coming up with new nooks and crannies and twists in the road. This is the key to exciting guitar playing. Know the structure and territory of the song backwards and then start surprising yourself as to what you can come up with “on the fly”. You will surprise yourself. G

So Why Guitar?

So why guitar? Lighter than a piano? Fits handily in places that a piano can’t? Try putting a piano in the overhead. Less conventional, hipper, more individual, perhaps. Some people are guitarists, some people are pianists and some people are saxophonists – there’s no accounting for human nature!
It seems to me that in terms of pure flexibility and versatility, the guitar wins hands down. Maybe that’s why there are more guitars in the world than any other individual musical instrument. No contest.
So if you are a guitarist or someone planning on being a guitarist perhaps you may wish to read on. Pianists and saxophonists may wish to sit this one out! C U soon. www.gerrycott.com

Hello world!