Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Discussion of history's greatest guitar player.

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Ray Bohlken » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:19 pm

Rande, that's what I try to do, too...learn the song in small pieces and then try to play it altogether. I recorded Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish about 10 times and this is the one that was the best...and not all that great. I am the master of the miss hit strings sometimes - thumps and squeaks. It was fun to learn and I still play it when my buddies and I get together. Here is a link to my Youtube version.
Ray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5alhSNW57mY
Ray Bohlken
 
Posts: 942
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:53 am

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Sat Jan 20, 2018 12:01 am

That was nice, Ray. My comment about the reverse rolls applied mostly to the intro and the ending, which you didn't include in this recording.
Rande Dager

We are all capable of doing more than we think we can!
DagerRande
 
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:53 pm
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Ray Bohlken » Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:24 am

I tried to include more of Chet's playing in the other recordings of this song, but they were WAY below par, so I stuck with this abbreviated version. I did the same thing in Copper Kettle when my Super Lick rendition was struck with Kryptonite and was rendered inoperable, so I left it out in the final version. Doomed to mediocrity don't you know. It's still fun to try these things.
Take care, Rande.
Ray
Ray Bohlken
 
Posts: 942
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:53 am

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:31 pm

Ray, I too have trouble with some of Chet's licks such as the "super-lick". I hope I didn't sound critical of your leaving out that intro. I was mainly trying to let you know that the reverse rolls I was referring to were in his intro and ending. By the way, you and Roger Pratt are one of the most kind and supportive "Chet fans" I know!
Rande Dager

We are all capable of doing more than we think we can!
DagerRande
 
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:53 pm
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:37 pm

I envy you guys. All of you. (But in a nice way).
Doug Working
 
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:26 pm

Doug, now you have me curious? What is a bad way to envy us?
Rande Dager

We are all capable of doing more than we think we can!
DagerRande
 
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:53 pm
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Sun Jan 21, 2018 6:59 pm

To answer, as my pastor emphasizes in church, it's a matter of the heart. If I envied you with COVETOUSNESS in my heart, the LORD, would not be pleased.

But I'm not coveting what you guys have as far as chops and talent.

I'm just sort of looking in longing now, because I'm out of the game (learning and mastering Chet's greatest licks) until my injured arm heals, if it ever does. I'm SIDELINED, and my goal was to really hit it HARD this year.

I look at my guitar longingly in the corner of my room. But I can't play for crap, now. A minute or two is all I can go.

I think that I'll push past the pain, but then the thought hits me that I may be aggravating the injury if I do. And aggravating an injury is not wise.

So in that way, I envy you guys as you get to go out and play, while I have to sit in my room. (Harkening back to my boyhood, as an analogy.)

Hope that explains it.
Doug Working
 
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby DagerRande » Mon Jan 22, 2018 12:08 am

Doug, how did I know that you may be involved with a church? I could tell in the way you phrase things. I hope I didn't build up my level of expertise too much in your mind? As I said, my skill is in figuring things out and creating arrangements, much more than it playing them. I imagine a contest that will never occur but that I believe I might win or place well if it did. Here's the scenario....2 people are on stage in front of a panel of judges and they are both presented with a recording of a song. They each have a guitar and they are expected to reproduce the song. The one who does it first is the winner. There is no waiting for written out tab. It is by ear only. It would be very boring for the audience and no panel of judges would have the patience, not to mention that the contestants may have to eat and/or go to the bathroom.......lol. This leads me to another point. I'm sure that you are aware of the fact that nobody knows how a song is learned and mastered. If it is played well, that's all that matters to listeners. A number of years ago I climbed Mt. Whitney by myself because nobody in my group of 20 wanted to join me. There were 3 women in our group who had done it before and were wearing t-shirts printed with with "I Climbed Mt. Whitney". I left at about 5:00 am and returned about 6:00 that evening. Everyone was astounded and the women gasped, not expecting me until evening of the next day! I asked them what all the fuss was about and why wouldn't they expect me to climb it just like they had been able to? That is when I learned that it is generally a 2 day round trip, which I hadn't been told. Then I found out by the others that this is why they didn't want to go with me because they didn't want to exert themselves for 2 days. Well guess what? Those t-shirts were free to anyone who had climbed it. However, there was no special designation for those who had climbed it in ONE DAY! My point is that once a song is mastered, nobody knows the difference between someone having learned it totally from scratch by ear and someone who was shown note for note by someone else or from the tab. I learned "Stars and Stripes" from a cassette tape long before any tab was available. I performed it in 1981 at a faculty talent show at a private school where I taught. Since then I have seen several people perform it and in some cases they did it better than I did. Nobody knows how any of us learn a song and nobody cares! That should be encouraging to anyone who has difficulty learning it "the hard way"and has the materials available to them.
Rande Dager

We are all capable of doing more than we think we can!
DagerRande
 
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:53 pm
Location: Battle Creek, MI

Re: Benefits Of Listening To Chet's Music

Postby Doug Working » Mon Jan 22, 2018 6:43 pm

Good point Rande! Great post! Even with Chet, we really have no idea how he learned or perfected each tune. We only know the end result is incomparably euphonious. End result is only thing that counts! When I'm presenting a magic routine before an audience, they only see a smooth, seemless mystery. They have NO INKLING of the hard work, thought, study, long hours and rehearsal that goes into what amazes their eyes. And as far as that goes, when I watch Chet's hands doing what they do, amazement is all I feel. He is the epitome of guitar "magic" to me.
"
As a side thought, I read that when Chet was still young and learning, he sequestered himself in the back of a radio station with all their archive of dusty vinyl albums back there and just immersed himself in the music till he had mastered a cornucopia of tunes.

But I digress. I'm still not sure how I tipped you off that I attend services, but you are right! Been going for several years. Trying to grow spiritually. Have a looooooooooong way to go.

You know what? I look around like on Y'tube for example, and I hear Chet style players that can literally play the pants off of me, and I can only bow my head as the realization sits in on my "place" in the guitar world. (I really don't have one). I will never, never begin to approach the playing level of these guys. How do I know? Well, having started playing at age 12 or 13 after hearing Chet for the first time, if I'm not there by now, it's obvious I never will be. These guys, (and girls) I'll bet picked up their level in five years. They "have it", whatever "it" is. It's congenital. It's in ther genes. It has GOT to be. I'm sure their love for Chet does not exceed mine, but they have something inside them that allows them to expedite the learning curve. It's intangible. You can't label it or bottle it. Just look at Richard Smith, for instance and that video of him playing "Little Rock Getaway" at such a young age, back when I was struggling just to master the G chord! I guess we can only surmise it's a gift from heaven. Analogous to videos you see of prodigies (a young boy or girl) at the tender age of THREE knocking out a Beethoven piano sonata!! There is just no earthly explanation for that!!

What you said reminded me of a young man I saw on a TV special. I believe he was a savant. He couldn't do much else in life, but you could literally play him ANY piano piano piece, (even intricate jazz compositions) and he could instantly nail it; he could reproduce it perfectly note for note, even though he had never heard it before. Ostrobogulous!!! Just INcredible!

Totally GOBSMACKED me to watch it.

So I know I'll never be great in the guitar world. But that won't stop me from trying because talent or NO talent, I love t. So I'll persist, that is, if my arm ever heals. Wish I could afford to see a doctor. But I can't.

I have to face it, Chet changed my life, from the first day my young ears were blessed by the entrance of his magical sound. While my young friends were out experimenting with dope, my life was preserved because I kept on the straight and narrow, ensconced in my room, guitar in hand, plunking away.

Some things will NEVER change.

I wouldn't want them to.
Doug Working
 
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 9:38 pm

Previous

Return to Mister Guitar, Chet Atkins

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 21 guests