Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Discussion of history's greatest guitar player.

Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Tue Jan 16, 2018 7:30 pm

This is going to sound really weird, but I believe listening to Chet is good for your brain. May even increase your intelligence.

The reason I say that is because I have read studies of how listening to Vivaldi and Mozart speeds up leaning. They have proved it.

But when I think of Chet's music, there really is a LOT to it. Musically, Chet's playing has substance. So it's substantive. it's not "chewing gum for the brain", as a lot of music today is, but Chet's music is chock full of well developed musical ideas and elements, played out superbly on the guitar by the master; the maestro! I mean there is chords, harmonies, wonderful melodies and so much more incorporated into his arrangements. Listening to all that over time has GOT to be good for your brain! I'll bet we Chet fans are among some of the smartest people on the planet!

Most of us here probably not only listen to Chet, but we listen to him REGULARLY and repeatedly. I know a lot of Chet tunes that I have literally listened to hundreds of times. If that is your habit, then you can not HELP but absorb those musical concepts and ideas deep Into your subconscious.

And I think another benefit is that when we are actually playing guitar, a lot of that genius has GOT to make it's way to our fingertips, eh? It's all absorbed, lying latent in our muscal mind just waiting to come out.

At the very least, listening to Chet is a very beneficial way to spend the hours of our life.

I'd write more, but I am just dying to listen again to "Get On With It." from "Hometown Guitar." INCREDIBLE!!
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby LMark » Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:07 pm

I'm not sure if listening to Chet's music makes you smarter, but I'm quite sure that it shows you already are!
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:17 pm

Excellent answer! Most excellent!

Doug
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby bill raymond » Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:30 pm

You're right, it does sound weird.
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:11 pm

Doug, I would add that there are varying degrees of absorption and depth with different listeners of Chet's music. Some people pick up more of the "little things" than others do. I can also tell you that the more Chet's music that the listener can play, the more is identified with and the fewer "mysteries" are left.

"Get On With It" is a difficult song to play but there are a lot of rolls and the left hand can hold certain positions while the right hand plays 4 or 5 notes before moving to a different position. This is much different than playing a more "linear" song like "Dizzy Fingers" where there is a lot of movement up and down the neck and many of the notes are individually picked and fretted simultaneously.
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby LMark » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:33 pm

I can't concentrate on anything else when Chet's music is going. I get caught up wondering "How'd he do that?" Then I start trying to think it through. I can study much better to Bach or Mozart. LMark
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:16 pm

DagerRande wrote:Doug, I would add that there are varying degrees of absorption and depth with different listeners of Chet's music. Some people pick up more of the "little things" than others do. I can also tell you that the more Chet's music that the listener can play, the more is identified with and the fewer "mysteries" are left.

"Get On With It" is a difficult song to play but there are a lot of rolls and the left hand can hold certain positions while the right hand plays 4 or 5 notes before moving to a different position. This is much different than playing a more "linear" song like "Dizzy Fingers" where there is a lot of movement up and down the neck and many of the notes are individually picked and fretted simultaneously.


Rande, you know what? As far as picking up things, for me, I don't see myself as having a lot of raw or natural talent. So that means I need to try way harder than someone with a truckload of congenital talent. So I try to make up for it by listening more. But don't take that wrong. I listen to Chet's music BECAUSE I LOVE IT. Everything. else, including noetic benefits is just icing on the cake. I would listen to Chet no matter WHAT the effects The best effect is pure ear pleasure!

If my left arm doesn't heal, and I can never play guitar again, me as an old codger will STILL find me listening to Chet. Yeah, I'll have the Geritol group in every room in the nursing home all tapping their feet.


Anyway, have you mastered "Get On With It?" Man, highest respect! I don't even know where to start on that one. But it just drops my jaw every time I hear Chet play it. Especially the ending!!

Doug
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:47 pm

Doug, as I've mentioned before, my ability to figure things out greatly exceeds my execution ability. That is another song that I had figured out long ago and showed the first part to Tommy Jones. He picked it up quickly and played what I showed him up to tempo. If by "mastery" you are asking if I play it up to speed just as the recording, then no. However, if you limit it only to knowing how to play it but at a slower speed, then yes. I've always had difficulty with reverse rolls and they are a required skill to play this. By the way, my most recent implementation of reverse rolls is with the intro to "Girlfriend of the Whirling Dirvish". I watched Richard Smith play it and it fell into place.
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Ray Bohlken » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:16 pm

Rande, that Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish got me in trouble right from the first lick. Then that backward roll came up and it's topped off with that great run at the end followed by a "normal" roll. It is a great sounding song, but a real tough one to play for me from start to finish. Chet's songs force you to try for greatness, but I have been playing for over 50 years in my rise to mediocrity and haven't reached the greatness pinnacle yet. Probably won't...don't you know? :D
Take care.
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Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Fri Jan 19, 2018 1:17 pm

Ray, what I do is to isolate a difficult portion of a song and play it over and over until it feels comfortable and then I try and incorporate into the song. I have yet for playing forward and backward rolls back to back to feel comfortable, or just to switch from one to the other without being back to back! Oscar Peterson said it took him 20 years for the ease of his left hand on the piano to equal the right.
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