This
is a true story. The names may or may not have been changed to
protect the innocent, and the definitely guilty.
I'd
like to begin this with a confession. I, James Martin, professional
guitar teacher, Licentiate of the London College of Music, guitarist
of almost 25 years standing – am a complete and utter pedant. A
pedagogical fascist.
And
I make no apologies for that. The reason – Phil. Old mate of mine,
lovely chap, but when it came to guitar playing he had the gift of
setting your teeth on edge. You see, although Phil had several years
experience on me, he clearly hadn't been paying particularly close
attention to what he was doing. For example, his grip when doing
barre chords was skewed to the point where every single string was
being bent about a quarter tone out of tune, resulting in a major
chord being morphed into the kind of sound used in North Korean
concentration camps to break the spirits of their inmates.
Now,
this is a big deal. As a musician, you are only as good as how you
sound. For us guitar players, whos technique foundations are built on
shapes, this is an extra specially big deal, as you can have the
shape but not the sound ifyou're not careful about your technique.
And if you don't have the sound, you don't have anything.
A
wise man (named Justin Sandercoe, but that's for another day)
proclaimed the truth that “practice doesn't make perfect – it
makes permanent”. And he was dead right. So for 35 years , Phil has
been practicing himself steadily worse. Day by day by day.
So,
what can we do to avoid the Phate of Phil? LISTEN. Listen to your
chords, play them as arpeggios. Listen to your bends, make sure
they're in tune. Listen to your drum machine or metronome. Ifi it
doesn't sound good, then STOP doing it, look at what you're doing and
chnge it
