Acoustic Guitar Virtuosos
May 15th, 2009 by ComputerBob
I started playing the guitar when I was 12 years old, and started writing songs when I was 16. Early in our marriage, my wife and I sang my songs for a living for 5 years, giving 467 performances in 26 states, for crowds as small as 9 people and as large as 3,000 people.
I was just a passable lead guitarist, but I was very proficient at doing complicated finger-picking patterns on my 12-string guitar. Every once in awhile, another guitar player from the audience would come up afterward and ask me to show them a slowed-down version of the finger-picking pattern that I was using on a particular song, and I couldn’t — I had rehearsed it for so many hours that it had gone from conscious memory to 100% muscle memory. I couldn’t slow it down to show it to them any more, but I knew what it “felt like” when I was doing it correctly.
I’ve always played by ear, and I’ve always been able to “hear the chords” whenever someone else plays something on the guitar. So I’ve always been impressed when I’ve hear someone play something that challenges my ear. I’m especially impressed whenever I hear someone play something that I know I’m not good enough to play.
I’m really, really impressed by these acoustic guitar players. My advice — save the first one for last.
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