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warrrreagl · 12-23-2007, 07:31 PM

Dan's music was indescribably elemental in my playing style and helping me develop my initial musicality. I can never even fully explain the debt I owe him for my music. For example, my finger-picking style was created by memorizing all of his. My chord fingerings were developed by trying to copy his. My ear-training is a direct result of trying to copy exactly what I heard him play coming out of my speakers. It was Fogelberg's music that first allowed me to hear a chord played on guitar and visualize that chord so I could tell what it was without having to look. My performance persona was developed by trying to copy what I imagined his to be as I played his music at friends' houses. My sense of blending came from playing chords while picking out the lower harmonies. I learned more from the potential of multi-tracking from his first album than anything else I'd ever heard before. My vocal harmonies were entirely indebted to his. I saw him play in Birmingham in 1978 and I was able to go back to my sister's house and play all the things he'd played that I'd never been able to play just from watching his hands. He absolutely gave birth to all of my formative musical spirit.

And now his spirit has moved on down the line.

Back in high school I was in the jazz band and on the fast track to becoming a jazz snob and growing "beyond" my Fogelberg-inspired acoustic roots. In New Orleans for a Jazz Festival, a friend and I went to a workshop with one of the guest guitarists and he showed us cool stuff like how to string our guitars different from what we'd normally done in the past. At one point, the guitarist asked me to play something for him and I had my Les Paul and the only thing I could think of was Old Tennessee. I know now that the guy wanted to hear some cool jazz fingerings and stuff but at the time Old Tennessee showed off my skills more than anything else. After I'd played through the intro, first verse, and first refrain, he stopped me and immediately trashed my playing style in front of God and everybody else in that room. It was obvious that he didn't think the song was valid and he ripped my thumb position, angle of the neck on the guitar, finger position between the frets, and everything else you can think of. After it was all over and my friend and I were walking back to the main auditorium I was thoroughly crushed and kind of pissed off that I'd played Fogelberg instead of something more jazzy. My friend simply said, "He was kind of an asshole wasn't he? I thought you sounded good." And that was all the vindication I ever needed to hear. It really DID sound good. I played it very well, and my friend and I both came to the conclusion of "fuck him."

Never be ashamed of where you come from.

12-23-2007, 07:31 PM	#17 (permalink)
warrrreagl pinche vato Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton	Dan's music was indescribably elemental in my playing style and helping me develop my initial musicality. I can never even fully explain the debt I owe him for my music. For example, my finger-picking style was created by memorizing all of his. My chord fingerings were developed by trying to copy his. My ear-training is a direct result of trying to copy exactly what I heard him play coming out of my speakers. It was Fogelberg's music that first allowed me to hear a chord played on guitar and visualize that chord so I could tell what it was without having to look. My performance persona was developed by trying to copy what I imagined his to be as I played his music at friends' houses. My sense of blending came from playing chords while picking out the lower harmonies. I learned more from the potential of multi-tracking from his first album than anything else I'd ever heard before. My vocal harmonies were entirely indebted to his. I saw him play in Birmingham in 1978 and I was able to go back to my sister's house and play all the things he'd played that I'd never been able to play just from watching his hands. He absolutely gave birth to all of my formative musical spirit. And now his spirit has moved on down the line. Back in high school I was in the jazz band and on the fast track to becoming a jazz snob and growing "beyond" my Fogelberg-inspired acoustic roots. In New Orleans for a Jazz Festival, a friend and I went to a workshop with one of the guest guitarists and he showed us cool stuff like how to string our guitars different from what we'd normally done in the past. At one point, the guitarist asked me to play something for him and I had my Les Paul and the only thing I could think of was Old Tennessee. I know now that the guy wanted to hear some cool jazz fingerings and stuff but at the time Old Tennessee showed off my skills more than anything else. After I'd played through the intro, first verse, and first refrain, he stopped me and immediately trashed my playing style in front of God and everybody else in that room. It was obvious that he didn't think the song was valid and he ripped my thumb position, angle of the neck on the guitar, finger position between the frets, and everything else you can think of. After it was all over and my friend and I were walking back to the main auditorium I was thoroughly crushed and kind of pissed off that I'd played Fogelberg instead of something more jazzy. My friend simply said, "He was kind of an asshole wasn't he? I thought you sounded good." And that was all the vindication I ever needed to hear. It really DID sound good. I played it very well, and my friend and I both came to the conclusion of "fuck him." Never be ashamed of where you come from. __________________ Living is easy with eyes closed.