Gordon Giltrap Interview and little jam! (Acoustic Guitar Lesson MA-206)

[justinguitar.com Gordon Giltrap

Interviewed London, September 2012

Lesson ID: MA-206]

(music)

Hey, how you doing, Justin here,

and I'm here today with Gordon Giltrap,

a fantastic English acoustic guitar player

a couple of hits under his belt and all

and so I just thought I'd, seeing as we

were going to have a jam and hang

out a bit anyway, that we'd do a little

video for you guys. So Gordon, how

did you get started on the guitar?

It goes back to when I was about nine

years old, Justin. I was given

a plastic ukulele with a picture

of Elvis Presley on the head star.

Awesome, Awesome.

And I found out recently, actually my

friend Ray Burlie, I'm in this

quartet with Ray Burlie, he's a great

classical player, and John Effridge, and

Clive Carroll, got four pascital

But I was chatting with Ray the other day

And I said well I started out on this

little plastic, he said, "You didn't have

one of those." I said, "Yeah."

And he started at the same time as me

about the same age, on this plastic thing

and it had a clamp that went

on the fingerboard and you pressed

the buttons and it kinda found the chords.

Oh Wow!- I never could figure that out

That was my first introduction

to a stringed instrument.

And then I got my first guitar when I was

twelve, which was basically an

archtop jazz guitar, it had an action that

high, you know what they were like.

and then I was exposed to the music

of the day, which at that time would be

skiffle, and the big thing for me was

Hank Marvin, as it was for thousands

of guitar players during that time,

you know? Hank was the first british

guitar hero, so I was into the shadows

big time and I wanted to be able to play

the guitar like Hank, and one day own one

of those red electric guitars, I never

did in the end, and I'd actually even

try and sing, and I'd get my hair

just like this, all these years on

viewers can't you see the resemblance?

So that's how it started

And were you getting lessons or were

you learning from books or- entirely self

taught- this is pre-internet vibe-

totally yeah totally. Everything I've

ever learned has been self-taught

and that's not a bad thing, although

of course, I've virtually learned to play

the guitar incorrectly, I use,

I'm actually using one of your picks today

by the way -right- great sounding pick

But I started out as a plectrum

player when I got into playing acoustic

guitar, and I figured out well,

how do I play two notes at the same time?

Well I'll bring in another finger to do

that

So I use my little finger, and that's the

way my style has remained, it hasn't

changed. What this technique gives me

of course, like anybody that picks and

uses the fingers as well is you can go

from picking to strumming instantly,

so you can go from very filigree stuff

to chord in playing as we did during that

lovely little jam together.

How do you go about getting more than two

notes with you just using the pick and

the little finger? Like particularly,

jazz riffs are often the bass note and

three fingers playing, do you strum as

well with the little finger?- No I just

don't I don't think. You just don't do it?

I don't know, I think about it, you know,

because my career has been based

on my compositions, and I've often thought

God I'd be such a better player if I

played properly and used more fingers, but

it's never kind of worked that way,

and nobody's ever said, "there's a

deficiency there." I think it probably

gives you your own unique flavor - it's

given me, yeah- like James Taylor plays

with all funny, he plays all of these

chords upside down to the way we would

play it - and I played- and, as much as

I'd say it was wrong if he came for a

lesson, he's James Taylor- and he sounds

great - yeah absolutely- Oh God yeah

You know I had a jam session with him

years ago? - Wow- Yeah you won't remember

but it's a long story, but I won't bore

you with that, but it's a great story

but yeah, so I suppose the bottom line

is that if it sounds right it is right

-yeah- you know and if it works

and there have been times, I even went

for classical lessons for a short time

and, I thought, "this is crazy

because you know, this is my sound, you

know by sheer accident I've created the

Gordon Giltrap sound, and people hear me

and they go "Oh, I can tell it's you

straight away" it's that sound, it's an

approach to playing and the little riffs

and because of the deficiency in the left

hand, I do a lot of hammering and the

pulling off with the right hand

and do a lot with the left hand

obviously you know, so that kinda makes up

for that. -so instead of having to try an

alternate pick style - yeah exactly

hence the reason why I have a very low

action on the guitar, I relatively like

8-strings, so it speaks a lot quicker

okay, and you do quite a bit of teaching

as well, what do you find the things that

you teach most commonly, the most common

mistakes you see in your students?- The

most common mistakes?

Well, they're probably not really

mistakes, I think that what I try to do is

instill in them their own sound, you know

and get them to be creative

It's all very well, a lot of the people

that come to me are aware of my material

and that's what I teach, but then they go,

"Well I was trying this the other day and

actually I got this thing going and I

wrote something with it." And I go

"That's great! That's what it's all about"

It's not learning to play parrot fashion,

it's learing to put your own personality

onto the piece you're playing you know,

and I'm sure it's the same with you Justin

with your vast repertoire you may be

covering other people's material but it's

still gonna come out sounding like Justin

because you're gonna put your personality

It's down to interpretation, and what I

try to do with my students is to inspire

them you know? Of course, the reverse side

of the coin, occasionally happens, I do

gigs, people come up and say, "Oh

I'm gonna go home and burn my guitar." I

say, "No you won't. You won't go."

"Oh well I'll never be that good"

I say, "well it's not a competition. It's

not a competition." - it's not the

Olympics- It's not the Olympics

the important thing is, why do we take

up playing guitar in the first place?

It's because we loved it. It's for the

sheer joy of playing the instrument.

And that's still what it should be, you

know, all the while you're retaining the

love and the joy of playing, then you'll

carry on, you'll move forward with your

playing.

I felt like that before, I've worked with

some of the greatest musicians on the

planet.

I've worked with Mike Taylor, I've worked

with Albert Lee, and you sort of think,

"I'm never gonna be able to do that. I

don't think I'm gonna bother picking up

the guitar again."

But they can't do what I do, see? That's

a great thing about the guitar, that I

find, and I've had the great pleasure and

the privilege of knowing a lot of famous

players, some of them have been

acquaintances, people like Brian May,

Albert Lee, Tony Iommi, Martin Taylor

And they don't do what I do, and I don't

do what they do.

It's a complete sharing thing.

But you know, some of the greatest players

I've ever met, have been the most humble,

self-effacing people.

Because we all know that we're never gonna

get where we'd really wanna get.

And it's that journey of discovery and

struggle, let's be honest, that keeps us

going, you know, and that is a great

leveler and I put on my website,

and it's not a thing to say how great I am

but respect for your playing ability,

you can't buy that.

No one's gonna give you a thousand quid

and say "okay you finally got respect

people are gonna respect you for what you

do."

It's down to ability, though, isn't it?

It's true. It's down to what you can do,

you stand or fall on what you can actually

present to people. And you can't buy that.

Respect is not bought, it's earned.

It's earned through years and years of

doing it.

And it can be a pain at times, and it's an

incredible form of servitude, and every

guitar player that we've seen and admired

you just have to remember that those

guitar players spent hours and hours and

hours on their own, with this instrument.

You know, working at what they do,

struggling with it, and sometimes,

I think it's little successes, isn't it?

With what we do.

It's the little sound-bytes of success

that keep us going.

Actually, that sounds good, that makes me

feel good when I play that.

When I was jamming with you, it made me

feel good, you know, to actually, bring

the dynamics down, and let you come

through because instinctively, I think

people that have been playing for a long

time as we both have,

me longer than you, because I'm an old

fart, you instinctively know what's right

which you should do anyway.

And it's not down to how fast you play,

it's playing the right notes, some of the

greatest guitar players I've been

inspired by, people like Peter Green,

play three notes and it's just the right

three notes.

It's the sound and the tone and the touch

it's what they bring to their music and

what we can bring to our music.

Absolutely. There's some beautiful pearls

of wisdom in there.

-Well it's all common sense, it's just

really kind of learned on the anvil of

experience and doing it and being around

people that are better than I am. You know

players far superior to me. That's a

challenge I put myself through

and sometimes I think, "why do I do this?

Why do I put myself through this?" But

to play with great players, inspire you,

that's incredible. How do they do that?

Sometimes it's frightening. And

sometimes it's intimidating. Of course

you're working with someone like Martin

Taylor who's been playing since he was

four, you know.

Someone who's been exposed to Django

Reinhardt almost from the cradle. He can

do that stuff without thinkin about it.

Second nature to him, it's like breathing.

With me, I was a relatively late starter

I didn't start till I was twelve.

You've got people like him, you've got

people like Tommy Emmanuel, been playing

since they were like seven years old

I think, "Oh, I should've started earlier"

Because they're hands developed earlier

then they had, they grow, and you have to

develop certain muscles. Anyway, here

sort of ended the lesson, I think

(laughter)

Okay well thanks very much for coming over

it's been a great time jammin with you,

and I think we should do some more

-absolutely- see you all later

See ya later guys - bye bye - enjoy

[justinguitar.com Find Gordon Giltrap at

www.giltrap.co.uk]