The best way to learn guitar is to take everything you like about the instrument and apply it to your writing. Don’t go through that process, but just pick a couple pieces of a song and put them in a folder, a playlist, and listen to them. And every time something new is added, you can play it live. That’s the best way.
It doesn’t get any better than that?
Definitely. And some people have more trouble with it than others.
Did you take guitar lessons growing up? How’d you handle that?
No, I didn’t take any music lessons, and that’s not a joke. I mean, I have a degree in music, but it wasn’t like I was making music with the guitar, which is what everyone wants to do. I remember the one time I did take a beginner’s course, and I would have the instructor go up there and play chords on a guitar with a metronome, and the guitar didn’t even move. And for me, I think that was really important. The most important thing is learning enough about playing guitar to learn basic chords, and then you can start to learn from there.
Which aspects of guitar are important for writing songs well?
If you’re writing for your band, it’s really important that we all have our own voice and we all take a part of the song. I try to write what I like, but if someone else does, it’s up to me (laughs). But in terms of songs in general, if I’m writing a song and I know that a couple of people are looking forward to it, I just try my best to have fun with it. As soon as it’s something that some people want to hear, I get very nervous about it. That’s why I like the song writing process of the band.
There’s a misconception that the better a songwriter has the better a song will sound.
I don’t think so at all. If someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, I want to be able to sing in the band,” that is very flattering from their point of view. But to us, we have a lot of respect for songwriting, even if it’s not really our way. Our style is more a combination of live band performances and improvised songs. So if something turns out great, I love using it. And that means you don’t have to feel bad if something goes terribly wrong,
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