It’s Good To Be Humble

When I first heard about Danny Gatton, there was a bootleg tape circulating that featured Danny playing a gig with Robert Gordon. The unofficial title was, “The Humbler”. And, that was how guys were referring to Gatton, the humbler. I think that the set has posthumously been released under that title.

Now, I love Gatton. And, his playing will definitely put you in a humble frame of mind. Incredible guitar player. But, I’ll bet you a dollar that, if you had the chance to ask Gatton about the guy I’m going to talk about today, he would have spoke with reverence.

If you want to really know what it feels like to be humble, check this guy out.

George Van Eps’ recording career was more than than 60 years long. Most of it was as a sideman. Thousands of records. Now, you can do a little snorting around the web and hear examples of Van Epps’ playing. There are some YouTubes, his records as a leader and solo artist are readily available. And you should do that too.

Today, I want to get in to some other stuff though.

We can learn something from all our musical experiences.

I’ve had a set of books for about 25 years called “Harmonic Mechanisms” by George Van Eps. It’s a three volume set. Twenty five years and, I’ve never made it all the way through Volume 1. Now, I haven’t been working on it continuously for all that time, by any means.

You see, these books are as complete a study of melodic and harmonic possibilities and how to attain the facility to have all of those possibilities in your head and hands and ear training as I believe exists for the guitar. These books are intimidating.

I have made various attempts to make a complete study of these books and failed time and time again. I have said, “I’m going to start at the start and work every day until I make it through all three volumes if it takes the rest of my life”. There are several series of dated pages in my Volume 1 where I would mark my progress each day, after a few months give up the ghost. I have also tried the opposite approach; start at a random place in the book every day. I’ve failed at that too.

Well, I say I’ve failed but, in reality, I realize that after spending a couple of months woodshedding with that intensity, I was technically at a lot higher level than when I started. Every time. Not only technically either, musically. In fact, every time I have spent even an hour or two on this stuff, I have walked away a better musician. It’s frustrating because I know that this stuff is over my head. But, after struggling with some of it, any of it, other stuff starts coming easier to me.

Now, I haven’t sat down and worked with “Harmonic Mechanisms” for, I’ll say 5-6 years. Today, I was looking through my closet and there are the books staring me in the face. I’m not as delusional as I used to be. I didn’t think to myself; “I need to make it through those things if it’s the last thing I do”. No, a little wisdom crept in and I said to myself; “I need to drag those things out and mess around with them a couple of hours because, every time I do, I walk away a better player”.

Also, I thought; You know, I’ve never even cracked Volume 2 open. I’m going to see what’s in there, live dangerously”. So, I busted it open and on the first page of exercises, on the third measure, I was stumped. This is from the third measure of the first page.

That is a simple phrase. A common phrase. A first year piano player would look at that and say, “no sweat, one hand”. But, damn near impossible to play on guitar as written. All you hotshot guitarists out there, I challenge you to pick up your instrument and play that phrase. You can use any fingering you like. There is a fingering that is Van Epps has notated, by the way, but I defy you to find any way to hold down that B note while you play the descending line.

I played with that phrase for about 20 minutes or so, really tried to get it to sound right. Stretched and stretched. Then, I started just playing through all of the other phrases in the example. Funny thing, these other 6 to 1 reductions in the first inversion came pretty easy compared to the example above. And, when I had enough, I started to do some improv and I was playing stuff with ease. Ideas were flowing.

Here’s the real strange part; after all of this, I drove in to town and the whole way, I was thinking about that phrase. I envisioned it on the piano and, I started to think about other phrases that are common on different instruments but, rarely played on guitar. I started to think about the entire tonal spectrum and how my mind needs to be in that place more often rather than just thinking about how to manipulate a guitar.

When I got back, I immediately picked up the guitar and started to work on it again and then another session of improv and more deep thought.

So, I made very little progress in Van Eps’ book, as always. But, I feel like I’ve gained major yardage in other areas. And, that is the real genius behind George Van Eps’ very frustrating and intimidating series of lessons. It is truly humbling to work on something and not master it. Even more so when it is a simple idea. But, that’s a good place to be. It’s a place where doors are opening. I’ll repeat what Van Epps says in the forward to this volume, another deceptively simple remark.

We can learn something from all our musical experiences.

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Tags: Danny Gatton, George Van Eps, Guitar, harmonic mechanisms