I want to tell you a little story about something that happened months ago at the Music school I was attending to, to introduce you a little bit to the situation, it was a common at EMBA (School of music of Buenos Aires) to have clinics of musicians that were at town, mostly for playing gigs in that particular week.
I read this big sign of Scott Henderson coming to do clinics here and, obviously, I get very excited about it, not only because of the clinic itself, but for the fact that we could have a chance to play with the guy, so I was kind of nervous at the same time, you know…
So, finally, the day of the clinic came, we were all very enthusiast and energic, I could have bet that everyone were mentally thinking about their best licks and phrases to impress the guy (We, guitar players, are SO like that!)
And there he was, expecting us to play and destroy us with his devolution hahaha, he asked for a group to come out and play, so the first ensemble came in and played the Wayne Shorter’s classic Footprints.
I, personally, really enjoyed the version that they did, so I wasn’t expecting him to say to much…
To my surprise Henderson corrected every little thing and criticized a lot of details, he talked a lot of the communication within musicians and how important is to us to really be aware of the things that the others in our group are playing, just for the sake of reaction and spontaneous inspiration.
I remember he said ’’It was kind of a Ed Sheeran version of Footprints’’
After this I knew what attitude he was gonna give to anyone so I decided to stay calm and hope for the best, we were the next group coming…
We took the stage and played Miles Davis’ All Blues, but we tried to incorporate the stuff that he said to the other group, we were very expectant of what we were playing,we were at it, you know, very loose and very inspired. Personally I was very happy because everyone clapped at my solo hahaha (Told ya, we, guitar players, are SO like that!!!!)
When we finished the crowd went kind of crazy, then Scott asked what the crowd thought about the performance, there were all very silent, someone at the back said ‘’it was awesome’’ with a very shy voice. He critizised us about how long the take was, I wasn’t necessary to play a G 12 bar blues for so long hahaha, and the most funny thing was that he said ‘’This guy plays some weird ass shit’’ pointing at me and doing a ‘’Smoking Pot’’ gesture, I will never forget that in my life …
Anyway, here a video of that performance (It’s splitted into two parts because I uploaded it to my Instagram)
Some other groups played, I wasn’t expecting him to play with us, but then he put his guitar out and I immediately asked if I could play with him, so, if you weren’t believing me, it happened! Here a little video of it (I was nervous as f*ck man...)
I fell very fortunate about that opportunity we had, I feel like I learned a ton of stuff about communicating with other musicians just for that clinic, that was one of the good things the school had (Some others weren’t that good, but I will not talk about it now haha)
So, tell me if you or a friend had an opportunity to play with one of your idols, if you haven’t, what artists would you like to jam with?
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