At 08:59 AM 1999/11/19 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Who in music has influenced or inspired your playing throughout the years?
>In my case, I have been playing the piano since I was 5, and the historical
>person who has inspired me the most in my playing is Mozart. In modern
music,
>our own Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Keb' Mo, Eric Clapton, and Bruce
>Hornsby.
What a great question! And I *really* can relate to your influences.
Here's a lengthy account of my musical influences, if anyone cares to read
it...
I started playing guitar at about age 14, maybe 15. One of the biggest
reasons for me wanting to play guitar is so that I could play Doobie
Brothers tunes. I bought a Yamaki acoustic guitar for $230 (a fortune for
me at the time) as well as the Doobies brown book which had just come out.
For several years I played Doobs and other stuff, but the truth is, I had
no talent. I couldn't play for beans. At least that's how I felt. At about
age 19 I decided that in order to improve my musicianship I had to learn
how to read music. This may not be the route for everybody but I decided
that this had to be done. So, I studied the Aaron Shearer methodology and
became heavily involved in classical guitar. Fernando Sor, Isaac Albeniz,
Antonio Lauro and J.S. Bach became my heroes and biggest influences.
You mentioned Mozart ... although there's not a lot of his stuff
transcribed for guitar, he, too, became an influence around this time. I
think the movie Amadeus had something to do with that (I've watched that
movie at least 40 times - no exaggeration!).
Anyway ... the classical studies dramatically improved my guitar playing
and I revisited the Doobies material in my early twenties. I guess Pat
Simmons became hugely influential as I worked at mastering tunes such as
Larry the Logger, Slack Key and other gems.
Chet Atkins then became a huge influence. I worked at many of his tunes,
including a really fun one to play - Yankee Doodle Dixie in which the
melody is Yankee Doodle Dandie and the bass is Dixie played all at the same
time! Two songs in one!
I think that by far, the biggest influence on me as a musician so far has
been Eric Clapton. When he came out with the Unplugged album, I was
determined to learn this stuff. Tears in Heaven was definitely a panty
remover (I was single at the time, so this came in handy), but I was also
very interested in the other stuff, especially the old acoustic blues
material. And it is this old country blues stuff that has me totally
memerized to this day. I have pretty well stopped playing the classical
material that I had worked so hard at for all those years. I mght return
to it one day, but at the moment, I'm heavily, heavily into Mississippi
John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Tampa Red, and several other early players.
Currently, there are a handful of acoustic blues players who I love,
including Keb' Mo'. who you mentioned, John Hammond, Guy Davis, John
Cephas, and Woody Mann. All of these players are big influences, and of
course, there's Mr. Clapton who turned me on to all this stuff.
Finally, in the last couple of months, I have been listening to a lot of
Django Reinhardt, a phenomenal guitarist who is noted for, among other
things, the work he did with violinist Stephan Grappelli in the 1930s and
40s. You *have* to listen to some of this stuff. And so I am now venturing
into a bid of jazz guitar thanks to Django. I'm sure its going to be fun!
And now that I've totally bored you all to tears, I'll close now ...
Regards,
Kevin M.
