On Playing It Right

Published: Fri, 03/25/22

A couple of weeks ago on my way to the studio, I was thinking about a conversation I'd had the day before with my friend Rob Anderlik, a very talented and articulate guitarist, dobro and lap steel player from Chicago. We'd been talking about learning to play from listening to other people, and how important it was, or wasn't, to get it note for note. Usually, when I'm thinking about those sorts of things, it turns into one of these newsletters. But this time, when I got to the studio, I turned on the lights and the microphones, sat in front of the the camera, and just talked about it instead.

So this week's Youtube video is more of an editorial than a lesson, but it's still about how to learn and play music. Yes, it pays to be accurate when you're learning. But once it's time to play, it's more about achieving the most musical ends. In other words, if you can make it sound good, no one should worry about whether you're playing it "right."

You can find the video here:

Nobody Cares If You Can Play It Right

For the record, the original version of "Buck Dancer's Choice" I refer to during the video is the one by Sam McGhee; I just couldn't pull his name out of my memory palace in the moment. You can find it on Spotify as part of the Rough Guide To Hillbilly Blues anthology, and there's a good transcription available in Steve James' book Roots And Blues Fingerstyle Guitar.

More soon,

David

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