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[justinguitar.com Gordon Giltrap
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Interviewed London, September 2012
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Lesson ID: MA-206]
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(music)
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Hey, how you doing, Justin here,
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and I'm here today with Gordon Giltrap,
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a fantastic English acoustic guitar player
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a couple of hits under his belt and all
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and so I just thought I'd, seeing as we
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were going to have a jam and hang
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out a bit anyway, that we'd do a little
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video for you guys. So Gordon, how
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did you get started on the guitar?
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It goes back to when I was about nine
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years old, Justin. I was given
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a plastic ukulele with a picture
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of Elvis Presley on the head star.
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Awesome, Awesome.
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And I found out recently, actually my
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friend Ray Burlie, I'm in this
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quartet with Ray Burlie, he's a great
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classical player, and John Effridge, and
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Clive Carroll, got four pascital
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But I was chatting with Ray the other day
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And I said well I started out on this
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little plastic, he said, "You didn't have
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one of those." I said, "Yeah."
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And he started at the same time as me
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about the same age, on this plastic thing
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and it had a clamp that went
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on the fingerboard and you pressed
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the buttons and it kinda found the chords.
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Oh Wow!- I never could figure that out
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That was my first introduction
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to a stringed instrument.
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And then I got my first guitar when I was
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twelve, which was basically an
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archtop jazz guitar, it had an action that
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high, you know what they were like.
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and then I was exposed to the music
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of the day, which at that time would be
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skiffle, and the big thing for me was
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Hank Marvin, as it was for thousands
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of guitar players during that time,
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you know? Hank was the first british
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guitar hero, so I was into the shadows
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big time and I wanted to be able to play
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the guitar like Hank, and one day own one
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of those red electric guitars, I never
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did in the end, and I'd actually even
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try and sing, and I'd get my hair
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just like this, all these years on
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viewers can't you see the resemblance?
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So that's how it started
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And were you getting lessons or were
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you learning from books or- entirely self
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taught- this is pre-internet vibe-
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totally yeah totally. Everything I've
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ever learned has been self-taught
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and that's not a bad thing, although
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of course, I've virtually learned to play
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the guitar incorrectly, I use,
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I'm actually using one of your picks today
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by the way -right- great sounding pick
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But I started out as a plectrum
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player when I got into playing acoustic
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guitar, and I figured out well,
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how do I play two notes at the same time?
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Well I'll bring in another finger to do
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that
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So I use my little finger, and that's the
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way my style has remained, it hasn't
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changed. What this technique gives me
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of course, like anybody that picks and
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uses the fingers as well is you can go
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from picking to strumming instantly,
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so you can go from very filigree stuff
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to chord in playing as we did during that
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lovely little jam together.
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How do you go about getting more than two
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notes with you just using the pick and
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the little finger? Like particularly,
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jazz riffs are often the bass note and
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three fingers playing, do you strum as
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well with the little finger?- No I just
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don't I don't think. You just don't do it?
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I don't know, I think about it, you know,
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because my career has been based
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on my compositions, and I've often thought
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God I'd be such a better player if I
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played properly and used more fingers, but
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it's never kind of worked that way,
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and nobody's ever said, "there's a
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deficiency there." I think it probably
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gives you your own unique flavor - it's
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given me, yeah- like James Taylor plays
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with all funny, he plays all of these
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chords upside down to the way we would
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play it - and I played- and, as much as
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I'd say it was wrong if he came for a
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lesson, he's James Taylor- and he sounds
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great - yeah absolutely- Oh God yeah
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You know I had a jam session with him
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years ago? - Wow- Yeah you won't remember
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but it's a long story, but I won't bore
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you with that, but it's a great story
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but yeah, so I suppose the bottom line
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is that if it sounds right it is right
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-yeah- you know and if it works
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and there have been times, I even went
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for classical lessons for a short time
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and, I thought, "this is crazy
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because you know, this is my sound, you
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know by sheer accident I've created the
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Gordon Giltrap sound, and people hear me
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and they go "Oh, I can tell it's you
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straight away" it's that sound, it's an
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approach to playing and the little riffs
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and because of the deficiency in the left
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hand, I do a lot of hammering and the
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pulling off with the right hand
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and do a lot with the left hand
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obviously you know, so that kinda makes up
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for that. -so instead of having to try an
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alternate pick style - yeah exactly
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hence the reason why I have a very low
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action on the guitar, I relatively like
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8-strings, so it speaks a lot quicker
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okay, and you do quite a bit of teaching
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as well, what do you find the things that
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you teach most commonly, the most common
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mistakes you see in your students?- The
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most common mistakes?
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Well, they're probably not really
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mistakes, I think that what I try to do is
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instill in them their own sound, you know
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and get them to be creative
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It's all very well, a lot of the people
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that come to me are aware of my material
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and that's what I teach, but then they go,
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"Well I was trying this the other day and
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actually I got this thing going and I
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wrote something with it." And I go
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"That's great! That's what it's all about"
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It's not learning to play parrot fashion,
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it's learing to put your own personality
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onto the piece you're playing you know,
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and I'm sure it's the same with you Justin
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with your vast repertoire you may be
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covering other people's material but it's
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still gonna come out sounding like Justin
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because you're gonna put your personality
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It's down to interpretation, and what I
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try to do with my students is to inspire
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them you know? Of course, the reverse side
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of the coin, occasionally happens, I do
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gigs, people come up and say, "Oh
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I'm gonna go home and burn my guitar." I
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say, "No you won't. You won't go."
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"Oh well I'll never be that good"
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I say, "well it's not a competition. It's
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not a competition." - it's not the
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Olympics- It's not the Olympics
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the important thing is, why do we take
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up playing guitar in the first place?
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It's because we loved it. It's for the
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sheer joy of playing the instrument.
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And that's still what it should be, you
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know, all the while you're retaining the
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love and the joy of playing, then you'll
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carry on, you'll move forward with your
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playing.
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I felt like that before, I've worked with
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some of the greatest musicians on the
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planet.
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I've worked with Mike Taylor, I've worked
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with Albert Lee, and you sort of think,
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"I'm never gonna be able to do that. I
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don't think I'm gonna bother picking up
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the guitar again."
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But they can't do what I do, see? That's
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a great thing about the guitar, that I
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find, and I've had the great pleasure and
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the privilege of knowing a lot of famous
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players, some of them have been
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acquaintances, people like Brian May,
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Albert Lee, Tony Iommi, Martin Taylor
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And they don't do what I do, and I don't
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do what they do.
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It's a complete sharing thing.
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But you know, some of the greatest players
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I've ever met, have been the most humble,
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self-effacing people.
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Because we all know that we're never gonna
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get where we'd really wanna get.
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And it's that journey of discovery and
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struggle, let's be honest, that keeps us
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going, you know, and that is a great
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leveler and I put on my website,
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and it's not a thing to say how great I am
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but respect for your playing ability,
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you can't buy that.
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No one's gonna give you a thousand quid
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and say "okay you finally got respect
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people are gonna respect you for what you
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do."
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It's down to ability, though, isn't it?
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It's true. It's down to what you can do,
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you stand or fall on what you can actually
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present to people. And you can't buy that.
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Respect is not bought, it's earned.
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It's earned through years and years of
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doing it.
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And it can be a pain at times, and it's an
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incredible form of servitude, and every
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guitar player that we've seen and admired
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you just have to remember that those
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guitar players spent hours and hours and
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hours on their own, with this instrument.
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You know, working at what they do,
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struggling with it, and sometimes,
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I think it's little successes, isn't it?
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With what we do.
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It's the little sound-bytes of success
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that keep us going.
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Actually, that sounds good, that makes me
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feel good when I play that.
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When I was jamming with you, it made me
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feel good, you know, to actually, bring
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the dynamics down, and let you come
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through because instinctively, I think
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people that have been playing for a long
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time as we both have,
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me longer than you, because I'm an old
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fart, you instinctively know what's right
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which you should do anyway.
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And it's not down to how fast you play,
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it's playing the right notes, some of the
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greatest guitar players I've been
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inspired by, people like Peter Green,
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play three notes and it's just the right
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three notes.
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It's the sound and the tone and the touch
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it's what they bring to their music and
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what we can bring to our music.
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Absolutely. There's some beautiful pearls
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of wisdom in there.
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-Well it's all common sense, it's just
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really kind of learned on the anvil of
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experience and doing it and being around
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people that are better than I am. You know
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players far superior to me. That's a
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challenge I put myself through
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and sometimes I think, "why do I do this?
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Why do I put myself through this?" But
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to play with great players, inspire you,
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that's incredible. How do they do that?
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Sometimes it's frightening. And
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sometimes it's intimidating. Of course
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you're working with someone like Martin
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Taylor who's been playing since he was
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four, you know.
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Someone who's been exposed to Django
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Reinhardt almost from the cradle. He can
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do that stuff without thinkin about it.
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Second nature to him, it's like breathing.
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With me, I was a relatively late starter
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I didn't start till I was twelve.
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You've got people like him, you've got
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people like Tommy Emmanuel, been playing
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since they were like seven years old
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I think, "Oh, I should've started earlier"
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Because they're hands developed earlier
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then they had, they grow, and you have to
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develop certain muscles. Anyway, here
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sort of ended the lesson, I think
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(laughter)
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Okay well thanks very much for coming over
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it's been a great time jammin with you,
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and I think we should do some more
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-absolutely- see you all later
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See ya later guys - bye bye - enjoy
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[justinguitar.com Find Gordon Giltrap at
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www.giltrap.co.uk]