Almost every musician is plagued by worries about how much technique they do or don’t have, and how important technique is or isn’t to the music they are trying to create. Here’s a short blog that helps to answer those questions:

I just had a discussion with my partner in JGS about the new players that we were really impressed by. We both brought up some young players clearly on their way up, and commented that they were amazing but seemed to be all about proving it every second. It seemed that they needed to relax into just trusting their own musicality and just use their considerable chops as an effect pedal of sorts, that doesn’t stay on all the time through every song.

While I believe that it’s very important to have more than enough technique to create the music that you hear inside, it’s important to not be a slave to constantly showing it and make sure that you are primarily all about giving your listeners an emotional musical experience. This happens through finding that balance between your natural taste that comes from being a fan of music and knowing what you want to hear and the technical abilities that you have acquired on your instrument, which is really more of an emotional decision than anything else, and varies from person to person – there is no one correct balance, your have to find it for yourself and it shouldn’t be subject to other’s opinions.

All that being said, to have that balance, you DO need to have the chops side taken care of so you have the CHOICE to use them ore not 😉 Here’s a few things to check out if you are feeling the need for speed and more licks in your bag of tricks:

Developing Picking:

http://www.jazzguitarsociety.com/masterclasses/armen-movsesyan-picking-demystified/

Developing Legato Technique:

http://www.jazzguitarsociety.com/masterclasses/allen-hinds-lesson-in-legato/

For more: http://www.jazzguitarsociety.com/category/masterclasses/