[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]