WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL?

Discussion of history's greatest guitar player.

WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL?

Postby DagerRande » Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:14 pm

WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL?

OK, since I got such a good response from my last philosophical question, both here and on the “Chet Board”, here is another one. This is actually related more to fans of Chet Atkins.

Everyone trying to learn and play Chet’s music has to deal with a steep learning curve, which is steeper for some than it is for others. Some never really get the hang of it and others go far with it because it comes much easier to them.
Since he was never mainstream, you would have been surrounded by people who preferred the popular music of the time. This is about their effect upon you?

I’m imagining 4 groups of people:

1) Those who never really caught on to how to play Chet’s music or style and eventually moved on to something else.

Did you truly believe that you’d never be able to learn his style anyway? Have you lived with regret and have wondered if you might have gone further if you had stuck with it?



2) Those who never really caught on but were hopeful and stuck with it anyway because they loved it enough and managed to eventually be able to play a few of his more basic tunes.

During your learning process, did you ever feel like just giving up and switching to something more popular and easier to play in order to feel more like you fit in?

3) Those who caught on quickly and easily but for some reason never stuck with it due to circumstances and moved on and left it behind.

Are you haunted with the thought of how good you could have been if you had stayed with it?


4) Those who caught on quickly and easily and were passionate and always excited to learn the next song and have reached a high level of expertise.

Did your passion and excitement of learning a new Chet tune keep you focused on continuing to learn more of them, at the expense of never being part of the “cool group”, because you simply weren’t attracted to the popular music?

So I guess I’m asking if your decision to continue or to give up trying to learn to play Chet’s music was ever influenced by the preferences in the music that most of your friends and family were into?

I can tell you that I was so excited to the point of tears every time I heard and learned a new Chet tune that NOTHING was ever going to get in my way! So I knew that most people weren’t into it and I always envied the guys who played their single string rock music with a flat pick and were seen as being the “cool guys” but I never once thought I’d go that direction just to gain their level of popularity.

The result is that these days, my biggest “fans” are other guitarists and musicians who understand what’s involved and the general public will always look elsewhere, which is fine because I never aspired to become a “star” anyway but have only wanted to get as good as I could!
Rande Dager

We are all capable of doing more than we think we can!
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Re: WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL

Postby rhirvine » Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:03 pm

I'm more like number 3. I eventually wanted to be able to improvise and/or be able to sight read music. I wasn't able to do either so I stopped trying to learn Chet arrangements and just strummed backup for christian music. And that's what I mainly do to this day. I just led with my favorite hymn "How firm a foundation" which I intro with Merle Travis sounding licks but then go on to strumming it and singing.
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Re: WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL

Postby Spadaro Paolo » Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:54 pm

Rande, I'll give you my reading key:

Chet is my biggest source of inspiration.
But I also like jazz and bossa nova, I like smooth sounds.
In general, however, what all has in common is style: fingerstyle.
So fingerstyle alla Chet, or fingerstyle Brasilian (bossa, etc) or jazz fingerstyle (joe pass, etc).

So for me, the right thing is to associate Chet with the music we like best;
thus obtaining a vast musical and cultural horizon.
then in the end what matters are emotions!!!!

Paolo.
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Re: WAS YOUR LIFE PERMANENTLY EFFECTED BY WANTING TO BE COOL

Postby Jim Jarrell » Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:40 pm

Rande,

Again, more great questions that aren't simple to answer, at least for me. But here goes,

You say,

Everyone trying to learn and play Chet’s music has to deal with a steep learning curve, which is steeper for some than it is for others. Some never really get the hang of it and others go far with it because it comes much easier to them.
Since he was never mainstream, you would have been surrounded by people who preferred the popular music of the time. This is about their effect upon you?


Being 73 and a "child of the 50s and 60s" I was "subjected" to my parents music preference at home in the 50s. Typical music popular to them from 40s into 50s. Perry Como, Henry Mancini, Les Paul & Mary Ford (ah!), etc. Had to watch and hear tunes like "Mr. Sandman" and "Wheels" on only TV in the house on "Your Hit Parade." But, like my friends, preferred current pop music, Elvis, Buddy Holly, etc. In the early 60s, The Ventures "Walk Don't Run" and Duane Eddy tunes got me into electric guitar instrumentals. Mid to late 60s in college...it was rock. The Beatles, Stones, Creedance Clearwater, et al. While aware of Chet's music, he was off on the sidelines. Likely had his Beatles lp but it wasn't at the top of the list. And virtually no country music.

But...fingerstyle acoustic guitar music started to creep into play via the folk music of the 60s... Dylan, Baez, Kingston Trio, etc. Then more pop fingerstyle stuff like Paul Simon playing the instrumental "Anji" (Bert Jansch and/or Davey Graham tune) on "Sounds of Silence." Then on TV, Glen Campbell and his acoustic Ovation. Mason Williams and "Classical Gas." etc. But still, the car radio stations was on rock stations. My playing was purely on an old Fender and still doing Ventures type stuff. But, the Fender had to go away when I went into the Navy in '69. Now with a new Gibson J-45 I learned basic fingerstyle "pattern picking" from a squadron mate, the T, I, T, M, T stuff. And that's of course *not* Travis picking and is too often called such.

Travis picking came next and in an indirect fashion and....bare with me on this...pretty much kinda like how Chet got into it if I have the story right. How so? For me, a Stephan Grossman or Happy Traum tab book with Mississippi John Hurt tab for "Spike Drivers Blues." I got the lp and memorized the tab *not* realizing it was pure Travis picking, alternating bass with the thumb. See Hurt play it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx29hxvjPfk

From there I got into other old acoustic blues tunes, then John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Renbourn, Jansch, on and on.

So, how did Chet get there. As I understand, and not with tab books, but with the progression of black blues player Arnold Shulz to Kennedy Jones to Mose Rager and Ike Everly to Merle Travis. Chet then took it to another level with his alternating bass and using it on non-country tunes, "Mr. Sandman," "How High the Moon," etc. And bingo, I discover all that in the early 2000's as a CAAS attendee listing to Moseley, Kirtley, Dobbins, Pennington, et al and I'm hooked. A "nostalgia trip" to my youth combined with style of Travis picking I learned indirectly via old tab books. Add to that my really short fingers, slight arthritis and ergo easier to play electric Gretsch and I am where I am. As mentioned, a pure bedroom player who virtually *never* plays a tune start to finish and only the alternating bass portions using *tons* of tabs from Craig Dobbins, Pat Kirtley, Tommy Flint, John McCellan et al

In short, I've "returned to my roots" ...literally. Apologies for the long reply. Partly due to being able to type "faster than a speedin' " bullet. Took typing in HS only cause all the hot chicks were in the class. Was the only boy..me no fool. But typing the most valuable thing I learned in HS given the computer age.

Would be interesting to know if any other forum members got into Chet's music in any similar manner (??).

Jim Jarrell
www.tabpigs.org
DeLand, FL
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