Here's a pretty cool video on Chet Atkins that Gretsch posted the other day. I thought there might be some Chet obsessed folks here that would appreciate it.
Hi Jim, Thank you for posting this great insightful and inspiring tribute to Chet Atkins. It was nice to hear all the great guitarist interviewed empisize how much Chet practiced. Some time that gets lost when great artist are being talked about. Its easy to say he or she “was a genius” however fellow artist know there is endless practice that goes along with it. You cannot have one with out the other.
One guitarist talked about a pivotal point in his career when he finally saw Chet play and realized it was possible to play what he was playing but it would be really, really hard.
Hearing great musicians talk like that make a big impact on me and I’m sure other non-professional guitar players. I practice everyday and I can see and hear my playing improve vastly, however, it’s easy to forget where you started and become frustrated.
I have a morning practice routine. I play with a metronome slowly in time making sure every finger is hitting the fret with the thick flesh of the finger and as you said in one of the lessons “make sure every note has its chance in the spot light”. I have learned to play the scale in six positions on the neck and play them in major minor and dominant. Another great exercise I found was playing a scale ascending on one string as far as you can go then descending on the next string and so on until you play all six strings. Some time I question all this practice but then I play one of my lessons and it seems like my fingers know where to go with out thinking!
I recently went back to some old lessons. I hadn’t played “Stella” and “Panhandel Rag” in years. Playing them again was so much fun. My playing on Stella was so clean and moving from one double stop to the next seemed effortless. That’s such a great composition. When I tried to learn Panhandle eight years ago I could play it but I didn’t understand all those cool movements (maybe turnarounds) you were teaching. But now I understand they are all variations of the same chord substitutions!
I’m currently working on Nang Nang. I really like that first solo. You have some great steal guitar voicing (Buddy Emmons) going into a Jimmy Rivers line into a Chet Akins line, your double stop moves, a Charlie Christian line then a walk up the e string that sounds like Django into some swing lines ending with a mandolin line. Wow! Anyone thinking of taking that lesson there are two more solos after that! My guitar never sounded funky until I played the Nang Nang intro.
Well Jim thanks for everything. I think it’s been over ten years now and I never imagined I would be the player I am today. I could not have done it without you. Many thanks.
Hi Neal - You actually credit me for the the Chet post but it was GG!
Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and generous post. I'm really happy the lessons are clicking- that's a good feeling isn't it? When ones hard work, and time well spent, finally shows some evidence- it's very gratifying. Keep up the good work! All the best- Jim
Hi CG, I apologies for not giving you credit for the outstanding tribute to Chet Akins. I really enjoyed it. There was a very insightful comment made by one of the guitarist interviewed that I didn’t mention above. He said the “key to the kingdom” of the Chet Akins sound was his perfect timing of the bass strings. He said “Chet was always in the pocket” with the bass strings.
Sounds like good advice when practicing one of his songs.
Comments
Thank you for posting this great insightful and inspiring tribute to Chet Atkins. It was nice to hear all the great guitarist interviewed empisize how much Chet practiced. Some time that gets lost when great artist are being talked about. Its easy to say he or she “was a genius” however fellow artist know there is endless practice that goes along with it. You cannot have one with out the other.
One guitarist talked about a pivotal point in his career when he finally saw Chet play and realized it was possible to play what he was playing but it would be really, really hard.
Hearing great musicians talk like that make a big impact on me and I’m sure other non-professional guitar players. I practice everyday and I can see and hear my playing improve vastly, however, it’s easy to forget where you started and become frustrated.
I have a morning practice routine. I play with a metronome slowly in time making sure every finger is hitting the fret with the thick flesh of the finger and as you said in one of the lessons “make sure every note has its chance in the spot light”. I have learned to play the scale in six positions on the neck and play them in major minor and dominant. Another great exercise I found was playing a scale ascending on one string as far as you can go then descending on the next string and so on until you play all six strings. Some time I question all this practice but then I play one of my lessons and it seems like my fingers know where to go with out thinking!
I recently went back to some old lessons. I hadn’t played “Stella” and “Panhandel Rag” in years. Playing them again was so much fun. My playing on Stella was so clean and moving from one double stop to the next seemed effortless. That’s such a great composition.
When I tried to learn Panhandle eight years ago I could play it but I didn’t understand all those cool movements (maybe turnarounds) you were teaching. But now I understand they are all variations of the same chord substitutions!
I’m currently working on Nang Nang. I really like that first solo. You have some great steal guitar voicing (Buddy Emmons) going into a Jimmy Rivers line into a Chet Akins line, your double stop moves, a Charlie Christian line then a walk up the e string that sounds like Django into some swing lines ending with a mandolin line. Wow! Anyone thinking of taking that lesson there are two more solos after that! My guitar never sounded funky until I played the Nang Nang intro.
Well Jim thanks for everything. I think it’s been over ten years now and I never imagined I would be the player I am today. I could not have done it without you. Many thanks.
Neal
Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and generous post. I'm really happy the lessons are clicking- that's a good feeling isn't it? When ones hard work, and time well spent, finally shows some evidence- it's very gratifying.
Keep up the good work!
All the best- Jim
I apologies for not giving you credit for the outstanding tribute to Chet Akins. I really enjoyed it.
There was a very insightful comment made by one of the guitarist interviewed that I didn’t mention above. He said the “key to the kingdom” of the Chet Akins sound was his perfect timing of the bass strings. He said “Chet was always in the pocket” with the bass strings.
Sounds like good advice when practicing one of his songs.
Thanks again,
Neal