Posts from the ‘talent’ Category

I just listened to episode 1 of “No Guitar is Safe”, A Guitar Player Podcast with Jude Gold, featuring guest Joe Satriani. (I pinched the title of this post from Joe.) The podcast is a great concept, where Jude ‘flys’ to his guests’ home studios (complete with helicopter SFX), and interviews them, interspersed with guitar playing (mostly the guest, but Jude plays too). It brings great insight into how guitar players got started, progressed, and became pros.

Joe was fascinating to listen to, and I just had to share the following, which is about developing lifelong skills, and finding and cultivating your unique talents while letting go of the rest. It’s my transcription, but I replayed it several times and think I got it right.

Thank you Joe for the wisdom, and Jude for the great interview.

You can play the episode directly here: Ep. 1 Joe Satriani

Starting at 00:16:24:

[…] musicianship is separate from physical ability. I was learning this lesson year by year […] from Bill Wescott, who was my music theory teacher in high school. […] He was always saying, you know, the musician in your head and in your heart, that’s the one that you really need to train, that’s the one that can keep learning until you’re 95 years old. Your fingers however, may fail you, you know, and your limbs, and it might be something, it might be a road block, it might be your reach, your stretch, it might be your speed, it may be your coordination. It doesn’t mean that you can’t imagine and compose and direct and do lots of other things in music. […] I was also exposed to this new group of kids that were a few years younger than me, like Steve Vai, who I could tell by the second lesson had more than I did. […] There’s people being born all the time, and some of ’em are great at jumping high or running fast, or just sitting and thinking, and there’s, you know, all these talents, and they come together in the strangest combinations, and so what’s your combination?, you better figure that out, and work on those things that you have the most potential with. And the others things, you know, don’t bother beating your head over. —Steve Vai