Learning From Other People

Pay attention, you just might learn something.

Over the years I've learned lots of licks, songs and tricks to enhance my guitar playing. The sources I learned them from are as varied as the techniques. Playing with others, whether they were better than me or not, reading guitar magazines, interviews, and ads, listening to recordings and watching live performances all contributed to my education. Yes, I took guitar lessons, had a great guitar teacher and learned a lot from him. At the same time I learned from the above sources. Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, and Paul Stookey were just a few of the many guitar players I liked, listened to and learned from.

Each style of music has an element you can add to what you like.

My guitar teacher questioned what I was trying to do, since there were many times when I'd hear something I liked and it was a different style. One week I wanted to play classical guitar, a couple weeks later it was Chet Atkins style, then country or maybe blues. When he asked me about it my reply was that I just wanted to play what sounded good on the guitar regardless of what kind of music they called it.

After saying all that, you still need to focus.

Even though it seemed like I had no sense of direction, I wasn't looking to be a virtuoso in those styles, but rather looking for something that would improve my sound and my playing. My main focus was on the folk and acoustic music of the day, but I never had that as my only interest. So map out a plan, listen to lots of different kinds of music and see if there's a way to work it into the music you like best.