I've been a GW member for about 16 months and haven't done this. But I enjoy reading them, so I wanted to go ahead and try. If nothing else, I think it's a cool thread for new members to understand each other.
1) Influences
- Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar, solo)
- Joey Santiago (Pixies)
- Paul Simon
- Lyle Lovett
- Louis Cole (Knower, solo)
2) Albums and Songs
- Southern Rock Opera, Drive By Truckers, "Angels and Fuselage"
- House of Sugar, Alex G, "Taking"
- Knower Forever, Knower, "Nightmare" - Mono Neon so good on base here, and keyboard solo so janky and brilliant - could listen to outro all day
- Workbook, Bob Mould, "Wishing Well" - open chords!
- Road to Ensenada, Lyle Lovett, "Christmas Morning"
3) Strengths
Time feel / pocket, some creativity, but...
4) Weaknesses
This could be the longest section of the questionnaire, but I'll try to stay focused. One, I can't express completely all of the music I feel inside of me. Two, melody: I can follow or create decent chord progressions, but my skills in single note melody are woeful. Three, stand-alone guitar playing - I think of Tomo's YT video "So You Play Guitar?" - I don't think anyone would think I could play guitar if I didn't have a band with me.
5) Gear
'96 American strat with lace sensor pu's
2016 SG
'86 Washburn dreadnought acoustic
Fender MMBA
Fender Deville 212
Crate DFX65 (haven't used this in like a decade)
Boss RC-5 Loop Station
Neural DSP Quad Cortex (only use with band)
Marshall JCM800 and cab (only use with band)
6) Goals
I want to make music that I love and that hopefully other people love too. Guitar is how I want to do it. I don't care about shredding. Or even soloing. Mostly I want to create music with a band. But I also want to be able to play my guitar without accompaniment and have it sound complete. Which means I need a lot of help on melody. I love GW lessons on "Silent Night" and "Twinkle Jazz." I'd like to be able to do my own solo arrangements like Tomo has done for "Isn't She Lovely" and others. Like start with a jazz standard and make it mine. Then move on to my own creations. I already write "songs." But they are really just chord progressions for verse and chorus, then the keyboardist and vocalist fill in the melody, and we all work on intro, outro, etc. I'd like to be able to do it all.
Great clay! Nice work!
Great to read this
Thank you Clay for with us over 16 months! Amazing! Thank you so much! I love reading your profile! You know so much about music, bands and more! I would love to help you more so you can express yourself through guitar! Plus I hope you can enjoy playing guitar and maybe solo guitar style with chord melody or simple melodic soloing that shows chord changes! You can do it! I am not perfect but I am enjoying “Guitar Playing” Let’s have more fun with guitar playing! Maybe you can write more songs…. chords with melody in! Looking forward to your guitar journey!
Tomo
Thanks Jeff and Tomo. Loving the journey so far.
Thanks for sharing this, Clay. I totally agree with you - the questionnaire is a good exercise for yourself and in understanding how other people are engaging with guitar. There are so many possibilities! Even though I thought I knew you pretty well, I learned a lot reading your post. Keep studying musical examples - it sounds like you are exploring arranging music. Exciting stuff!