Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Clever Comment Proves Nothing

Marty Stuart has a show on RFD-TV, which you might not be sure you have. I wasn't aware I had it until I did a search for Mister Marty Party himself, after which I said "Well ain't that a humdinger". Brother Kenny is one good picker, and while I can listen and watch and say "this is good music", I could imagine my wife and two of three kids watching and just enjoying the fun. My eldest would just consider it to be corny and stupid.

Ever really listen to James Brown? I mean, hard? I drove the two big kids to a church-sponsored New Years' thing, and on the way back, I started counting measures on "Get Up (I Feel Like Bein' a ) Sex Machine". Count the times you hear "Get on up!". If I recall correctly, he goes 13 times the first time, five times the second, and four times the third. That is so interesting. He's putting it together as he goes along, assembling pieces of song. No overriding structure, except what he calls for. Or negotiates with his band. "Can we take it to the bridge?"

I got a video from Netflix a while ago. Monster Licks and Speed Picking. There's stuff to consider and stuff to learn, and there's enough bad video from good guitarists that a video that isn't great still passes on the curve. But I have to say, if you aren't learning, if you have an arm used to alternate picking, learning sweep picking is tough. You almost have to relearn everything. Tough.

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