Fantastic guitar video

As some of you may know, I was a musician in my former life. I went to Berklee and everthing. When I was growing up, and especially now that I’m older, I get very aggervaged when I hear popular musicians say things like, “Man, I never had one lesson! I can’t even read music! I just pick up my axe and wail, man!” This sends a negative message to young students, specifically: You don’t have to practice, or learn your theory, or study songwriting or even interact with other musicians in order to become one yourself. This, as I’m sure you know, is bullshit.

In this fantastic video, guitarist Lorinator at Play Like a Girl demonstrates how she plays a solo from one of her band’s songs. She obviously knows her theory, has a solid musical background to draw from (presumably from years of lessons) and has technical skill. There’s even a tablature provided for the solo at the end of the post. I wish I could make every student rock musician in America watch this.

I gave private drum lessons to middle school aged kids for years once I got out of college. Without fail, they’d all moan when I made them learn to read music, learn their rudiments, enhance their stick control, sight read and play classical snare pieces. All they wanted was “fast and loud.” Fast and loud is fine, once you’re equipped to take that on.

Think of a master chef in a professional kitchen. When creating new recipes, he isn’t thinking “Gee, some cilantro would be good here,” he’s thinking of a type of flavor or texture he’d like to see in his dish, and is able to pull on the wealth of knowledge and experience he has gained over the years to access exactly what he wants. He has such mastery over the basic skill set that he can call upon whatever he wants at will, without thinking. The experience is much the same for a professional drummer. You don’t think, “Maybe a 7 stroke roll followed by sixteenth notes on the tom-toms,” you simply know the sound and feeling you want and you create it. THAT is when you can be “fast and loud.”

Kudos to Lorinator. You made my day.

[Found at David Seah]