Daron's Guitar Chronicles: Vol 4

249 FASCINATION STREET

FASCINATION STREET

So in San Francisco we finally got to meet the reporter we were supposed to last time, the guy who'd gotten sick and they'd sent a woman in his place, the one Ziggy had gotten extra friendly with. If you ask me, the guy was kind of full of himself, but at least he seemed to know his stuff, and he didn't take up too much of our time.

We were staying at a small hotel south of the city, near the Cow Palace. We'd played here once before, that time we'd opened for MNB, but what was funny is that backstage it didn't look that familiar to me. They must have renovated or rearranged or something. Or maybe I just didn't remember.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because we didn't see the Cow Palace until the next day. The day we arrived was all press and more press and then dinner in the city with the promoter and some of his people. Digger was in his element schmoozing it up with them, while me and the guys in the band didn't have to do much but eat, smile, and sign a few autographs.

There's a certain kind of guy you meet at these things who fancies himself an expert on guitars. Sometimes they know their stuff and it's fun to talk to them. Sometimes they're just a rich guy though who wants to tell you about the latest expensive toy he bought. I wonder if NASCAR drivers get guys coming up to them wanting to talk about the Maserati or Porsche they just bought or whatever. (How much you want to bet it's the same guys...)

I humor them. Like I said, sometimes they're okay, and sometimes they might even be able to play a little. Okay, most people suck at the guitar, but here's where I think I differ from most professional musicians. It doesn't actually bother me that people suck at the guitar. Part of the whole point of the guitar is that with a sort of basic grasp of how it works you can be off and running and give it your best shot to sound like Elvis Presley or whoever. As an instrument it's a little weird, because it's undeniably a folk instrument but there is "classical guitar" too. Not that many instruments have both. There are no "casual" bassoon players.

And then there's the electric guitar which is like the electric toaster. Everyone can make half-decent toast with it.

What I'm trying to say is that if you suck at the guitar, that's okay. You don't actually suck. What you're actually doing is just expressing yourself, which is what it's all about. If you had four hours a day to practice, you'd get better, but the fundamentalwhatever you express with your playing, that still wouldn't change. It'd get easier, maybe. And the way it sounds might get closer to what you've got in your head...

I should just shut up before I dig this hole any deeper, but the more I meet people the more I realize that I do something for a living that some of them dream of, but more of them would flip out if they had to. Get up in front of people and play, I mean. Sometimes I can't even get people to just play along with me. They're shy. They think I'm going to judge them. Here's the thing. I'm not. Every player is worth something. Every player has something they do that's unique. Some chord change or lick or expression. The way the fingers and strings can combine is basically infinite.

So when there's a chance, and one of these guys talks a big game, I like to put a guitar in his hands and see what he does. Some of them refuse. Okay. Some of them actually show me something, though. If they just let it out, be themselves. It's not about perfect technique or how fast you can play.

Unfortunately, at the dinner setting there were no guitars, so I had to listen to a guy natter on for a while about some special edition Ibanez he lusted after. Could've been worse. We got out of there fairly early as these things go, since some of the promoter's people had other shows they had to be at that night. Which meant it was just barely nightfall when we were getting out of there.