INTRO FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The founder of justinguitar.com lends GT his insight as one of the world’s most successful guitar teachers. This Month: Immersion.
To write this article I’m taking a break from compiling an exciting new course to help people get confident with blues guitar. I often explain learning blues as being a musical language, and many of the ways we learn language apply to music, with licks being like words, and solos poetry. But one thing I hadn’t thought about much until now is the power of immersion.
When we surround ourselves with something we seem able to absorb it deeply and with amore lasting effect. I think about times when I’ve travelled overseas where nobody speaks English and I’ve had to embrace a less familiar language. I’ve noticed it clearly when speaking French (which I’m still rubbish at). I’ll study a bit at home before a trip, do some audio courses, and I’m sure it helps, but if I go away on a climbing trip and there are no English speakers, it all comes out a lot easier than on occasions when I’m mostly speaking English but having to speak French just now and then.
I had a couple of months where I got really into blues research. I was on tour with The Counterfeit Stones back in the late 90s and decided I needed to know my history better. I bought a book called The Devil's Music: AHistory Of The Blues by Giles Oakley and would pick one artist that seemed important from the book and then head out into the town to buy aCD (remember them?!) to link the history with the music. And I learned a lot as it helped me make a framework where I could store my blues knowledge.
But I was missing the immersion trick. I gave each CD a spin (or two if I really liked it) and moved on. I think perhaps making that overview was helpful, but I think while doing that I should have chosen just one artist to home in on each week, to fill my musical imagination with their playing.
So, to test things out, I have been trying to immerse myself in blues, specifically trying to absorb the work of a particular artist. The week before last it was Robert Johnson. Pretty much all I listened to was his complete recordings; in the car, at home, while cooking, on dog walks. I must have heard it 100 times last week alone, and on top of that I did some reading and research into his travels and life, how he lived and how things might have been for him.
I started doing some transcribing towards the end of the week and was amazed at how much had made its way into my musical imagination. I can ‘hear it in there’ so the challenge is mostly getting it out onto the instrument. The absorption seems to be
