Eric Clapton reveals why he always starts writing songs on acoustic “It makes you play a certain way”
Eric Clapton is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players to ever live. His hits like Layla and Wonderful Tonight showcase his extraordinary ability to craft timeless electric guitar lines, but as he explains in a new interview with Guitar Center, he prefers to practice using an acoustic guitar.
As the guitar legend explains, he started out his guitar journey as a teenager playing an acoustic guitar. “I started on the acoustic. That’s the thing,” he says. “And when I practice, I practice on the acoustic. It makes you play a certain way.”
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“I always revert back to what I heard as a kid that made me wanna play, and it is acoustic blues. Then I heard electric blues,” he continues.
Clapton explains how the arrival of Muddy Waters to the UK in the ‘50s had a profound effect on his dream of becoming a professional guitarist himself.
“I remember when Muddy [Waters] came here with an electric guitar, and it was like, ‘What’s all this?’ It was like Bob Dylan, just 50 years before, you know. And so he had to come back again, acoustically.
“So it was very much [that] the skiffle thing was going on. It was really big, and that’s what gave me… I thought, I’m not doing well at school with what I’m being taught, and I’d gotten so much out of music, I’m gonna try and play the guitar, because it moved me so much – the sound of solo guitar.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Eric Clapton remembers the release of his now classic Unplugged live album. As he explains, he didn’t even want the album to be released, and even bet his label boss $100 that it would be a flop. Of course, the album has since gone on to sell over 25 million copies…
“I wanted to do a deal with them… to put it out as a limited edition,” he says. “Just 500 copies or something. I just didn’t want to hear it anymore… I had a real aversion to it for a long time.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
