Jeff Beck: I've been so impressed by Eastern music and John McLaughlin. Guys like that are sent here for a purpose – besides to piss you off – as the standard that you have to look at. They exist – they're not figments of your dreams. You can go out and buy the records, listen to them, and learn from them. That's exactly what I did. I got the Bulgarian Women's Choir CD and I thought, "Well, maybe I should just sit and listen to this for about ten years." That CD is the most agonizingly wonderful thing. It had nothing to do with rock and roll, but it impressed me just as much – a part of my psyche moves into tears every time I hear it.
From a technical standpoint, I inadvertently discovered a way of getting microtones and such out of the Strat and making music out of them. Up to that point, the Strat was Buddy Holly's guitar – and Cliff Gallup's of the Blue Caps – and was played very conventionally.
You've been playing without a pick for many years now. Who did you listen to while developing your fingerpicking technique?
I listened to the 50s Merle Travis and Chet Atkins records, and although I loved that style, I never wanted to have a career where I sit on a stool and play. I just did it because I wanted to know how it was done, but I never thought I'd ever put that style into practice. I simply couldn't see the sense of wasting all of the other fingers by holding a pick between your thumb and first finger. The loss of the pick was a blessing in disguise, really.
By Lisa Sharken / Guitar Player
Photo: Robert Knight Archive
No comments:
Post a Comment