online lessons from Dave Stryker https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/renowned-jazz-guitarist-dave-stryker-joins-artistworks-extensive-list-of-online-teaching-artists-300620702.html
Always good to see teaching artists. Someday, I'm gonna sit down and do some genealogy-like charts of who taught my favourite guitarists - i.e. who learned from whom. Incomplete samples: (Jazz) Wes Montgomery - learned from records of his favourite player, Charlie Christian (a Benny Goodman alumnus.) Charlie learned from Eddie Durham (Jimmie Lunceford alumnus.) Eddie learned from his whole family and a good musical education at the Chicago Conservatory. (Gypsy jazz) Jimmy & Stochelo Rosenberg learned from Stochelo's uncle / Jimmy's grandfather, Wasso Grünholz - and Django Reinhardt's records. (Blues) Lightnin' Hopkins was taught by his cousin, Holger "Texas" Alexander and a considerably older, Texas-born great - Blind Lemon Jefferson. Lightnin' himself wound up sounding a lot different to either. B.B. King - Self-taught, plus lessons from his cousin, Bukka White and mentoring from others. B.B. put a strong finger vibrato in his playing, to get the feeling his cousin did with a bottleneck. Both great performers - but totally different. Robert Johnson - taught by Son House and Ike Zinneman. He became a better player from this instruction, but he's completely his own man. Nobody like him. Note: not every musician recognizes genius in his fellows. Robert Jr. Lockwood once said of B.B. King, whom he mentored: "His time was apeshit!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Montgomery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Christian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Durham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochelo_Rosenberg We need the greats to teach. Good to see.
Good info and well-presented - but a little much for one lesson. A good reference for (important) stuff that would usually take a while to learn in its entirety. Also, seeing this all in one place makes me admire even more those favourite musicians, some wrongly termed as "primitive," who were never taught formal theory or how to read music, yet accomplished such fine things without this knowledge. As he was becoming well-known, B.B. King decided to learn to read music and did so, via the Schillinger system. He didn't do that to play any differently. He just wanted to save money, by not having to pay others for band arrangements. It worked.
Addition to the above: I'm all for knowing music theory. I read the dots myself. If a person is developing playing ability and has some concept of artistry, theory can help him/her tremendously (but not always.) BUT - learning to read does not guarantee a person will learn to play well. I know people - I won't call them musicians - who can read anything - and play it with total lack of expression or meaningful interpretation. Reading and theory will help if there's "something there." It will not, however, put that something "there" if it's absent. It's something like taking a lot of grammar, structure, etymology & other formal courses to be a writer. All useful, if there's something there. Doesn't follow that the best grammar student will necessarily write the most interesting story, though.
I played guitar for many, many years, until recurring ganglion cysts and de Quervain's tenosynovitis in my left (fretting) hand made me give it up. I was into blues/rock until I heard a recording of "One Mint Julep" by Barney Kessell, then I was a jazz convert. I spent weeks learning every note of that tune, then it was no looking back. Some of my jazz influences; Barney Kessell Charlie Christian Wes Montgomery Herb Ellis Tal Farlow Joe Pass
I had the privilege of seeing two of Bruce's favourites play in concert on the same stage: Barney Kessell and Herb Ellis. A favourite of mine, Charlie Byrd, was also on the bill. All three - just the best! It was at ArtPark, Lewiston NY in the late 80s. A ticket cost around $5. I also saw Ray Charles, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie , SpyroGyra, Arlo Guthrie and the Fabulous Thunderbirds there. And bluesmen Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Come to think of it - I remember Ray Charles having a hit with "One Mint Julep" back in the 60s. Oh yes - 1961. I was 18. Great tune! The kind Atlantic Records were famous for! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Mint_Julep
