“Anything but the guitar”: Marcus King claims he never plays guitar at home – and thinks it makes him a better musician
To get to a level of guitar proficiency possessed by blues maestro Marcus King, you’d think you’d have to be practicing around the clock. But as King tells Guitar World in its new print issue, he actually prefers to play just about anything else – while at home, at least.
The 29-year-old ace explains that guitar playing is so deeply rooted within him that playing other instruments is actually beneficial when he comes back to his main instrument.
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“When I’m at home, I don’t like to touch the guitar,” he says. “I play a lot of piano, which I write on. Or I’ll sit and I’ll play my pedal steel guitar or my fiddle, banjo, ukulele – anything but the guitar. If I do pick up a guitar, it’s a gut-string, fretless number.
“The guitar is something that I’m so familiar with. It’s like riding a bike or speaking the English language. If I moved abroad and only spoke Spanish for six months, it’s not like I would forget how to speak English. Guitar is so deeply rooted in me.”
It’s certainly true that taking time out of any creative endeavour often means you come back to it with a refreshed creative spark. Marcus King explains that the idea of being a musician first – not just a guitarist – was instilled in him by a book by bass virtuoso Victor Wooten.
“I like to play different instruments, and it helps my playing when I go back to the guitar. I read Victor Wooten’s book [The Music Lesson] and he harped on about the importance of being a musician, not a bass player, and I’ve always been influenced by that idea.
“It’s a holy experience to be able to sit at a guitar and say exactly what I have on my mind.”
Marcus King’s latest album Darling Blue arrived last year. Check out its lead single Honky Tonk Hell below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
