The Chetboard

About 2 weeks ago I played at an open mic night that my local music store has the first Friday of every month. I thought I would just go and play a couple of tunes for kicks and giggles. It was mostly teenagers and young people in their 20's playing tunes I've never even heard of....new age stuff.
I thought I'd hook a couple of Reed tunes on them. I played: "Don't Think Twice it's Alright", "Last Train to Clarksville", and.."Are You from Dixie". It was funny to look out and see the expression on their faces. They seemed like they have never heard tunes like I played. After it was all over with a couple of the young guys came up to me after the open mic and asked me to show them how I play some of that Reed stuff. Of course they asked "How do you do that?" My answer? Practice ,practice, practice. And I told them not to concentrate on one type of music which is their downfall. I told them to listen to everything. I told them every type of music I listen to: Chet, Jerry, Merle, Lenny Breau, Scotty Anderson, Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Johnny Smith, Hank Garland, Jimmy Bryant...etc.
I told everyone of them....you don't get good by listening to Metallica day in and day out. You gotta be versatile.
If only they could see some of the young pickers that play at CAAS...hoo-wee!! It would make their heads spin! Especially someone like Ben Hall.....now that's a picker right there!!

Very, very cool!

All right, Phil! Man - wish I could have seen that. Were you singing, too, or just instrumentals?

Phil, the neat thing about your advice is that if they want to learn to play that style of guitar, they'll have to listen to the music that utilizes it. Automatically they won't be listening to rap and Lead Zeppelin, etc. if they want to learn that style of guitar playing. It's an automatic filter that keeps them away from things that eat away at brain cells......lol.

Just like Rande say. I remember the day (it was long time ago) my friend lend me an audio cassette with some bluegrass stuff. It was "Will the circle be unbroken" by nitty gritty dirt band. (These days it was almost impossible to hear something like that on the radio in my country, and also there was no internet)...When I heard Doc watson, Merle Travi's and others, everything changed in my musical wiev. I purchased that expensive 3 LP album from USA and I wait few months to receive it. I put away all that rock'n'roll stuff that I learned and begin to explore Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Earl Scruggs. After that I discovered Jerry Reed and that was Pandora's box for me. Figerpicking became most important for me. Back to present days, I hope my little son will soon stop listening that rap and house crap, and also fell in love with that kind of music.