Brainfood: Guitar International Interviews

Had a great Sunday afternoon reading through the Interviews archive over at the PRS sponsored Guitar International. These were the best of the best -- enjoy.

Mike Stern talks about working with Miles Davis & Jaco Pastorius

Earl Klugh on George Benson and "Naked Guitar"

Derek Trucks on Staying Genuine and Eastern Music

Ben Verdery and Bill Coulter on New Directions in Classical Guitar

Jamie Andreas on Guitar Fundamentals and Proper Practice

Emmett Chapman on why he invented The Stick



Sample Gem from Ben Verdery:

"I feel everybody should own about four technical books that are always around. Just play something different, don’t play the same scales all the time. The most important thing that I learned about practicing is trying to improve your study habits. One thing I do tell people often and I do it in my own way is to write a little sign on your music stand that asks “Where is your mind,” because so often I’ll be practicing and my mind will be wandering. I’m playing a passage and I’m completely somewhere else.

One thing I do is I have a timer. Every 15 minutes it goes off, and it just wakes me up. It all has to do with being awake. Being goal-oriented and setting reasonable attainable goals, so when you achieve them you feel a great sense of joy.

Also one of the most valuable techniques in practicing is playing slowly. That’s where the metronome comes into play. It’s something that our bodies don’t want to do, but really slow practicing will help you learn and calm you down. Sometimes it would be really food for you to imagine that you can’t play and not taking it for granted. If you’ve ever hurt your finger you know your world falls apart. So you should approach each day like this is the last day I am going to play, I could die tomorrow. Be thankful that you have an instrument.