Carlos Santana thinks guitarists who play fast are no better than gym bros flexing their muscles: “Big deal, so what?”
If your idea of great guitar playing is shredding scales faster than a coffee-fuelled gym bro curls dumbbells, Carlos Santana has a message for you: “Big deal. So what?”
Speaking on the new issue of Guitarist, Santana suggests that too many players mistake technical skill for musical expression, forgetting that music’s true power lies in the way it moves people.
“Music isn’t a sport at the end of the day, especially for the listener,” he says. “If you just practise all day and night going really fast, after a while it’s a bit like going to the gym and seeing somebody flexing their muscles. Big deal. So what? Playing with spirit is like giving someone a hug that lasts for infinity. Time stops.”
READ MORE: “I’m not that fast on the guitar, but I don’t want to be”: David Gilmour explains why speedy solos never interested him
According to Santana, it’s the heart and soul that make a guitar player memorable: “The only thing people will remember about your music is how you made them feel. They are not going to remember all the fast scales and ‘Look at what I can do!’ moments,” says the guitarist.
“But they will remember those three notes that made the hairs stand on the back of the neck and tears come out of their eyes, even if they don’t know why. That’s a whole other element, one I call spirit. Some people don’t know how to play with spirit, heart and soul. Those are three very important ingredients.”
Improvisation, he explains, is central to this approach and it’s all about embracing the unknown.
“Anybody can practise scales up and down. But there’s something about coming down a water slide. You don’t know how you’re going to land; it might be on your head or on your feet. That’s what happens when you deviate from the melody,” says Santana.
He cites John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Wayne Shorter as teachers of this art, recounting Shorter’s wry advice on practising: “He’d tell them, ‘We don’t know what we are going to play; how do you practise the unknown?’”
Santana also credits a wide array of influences beyond the usual guitar pantheon. “I learned improvisation from Coltrane. I learned cosmic music from Sun Ra. I learned down-to-earth music from the Grateful Dead because they were heavily immersed in the folk and bluegrass worlds. And don’t dismiss the guitar playing of Bob Dylan. He played a lot of great guitar, which worked beautifully with his vocals.”
Placing particular emphasis on learning from soul singers, Santana says that “playing along to soul singers is something nearly every guitar player could learn from. I don’t care who you are, whether you are Al Di Meola or not, I’d recommend this to any guitar player. If you spend even one day learning how to play and phrase like those lady soul singers, you will become a better musician. This is the truth.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
