The Guitar Hero series on Jemsite features interviews with guitarists and musicians who may not have star status YET, but their current situations have shaped them to be who they are--determined, fond of their craft, and heroes in their own right. Perhaps you'll see in these upcoming entries the next Jimi Hendrix, Melissa Etheridge, or Duane Allman. Or perhaps they'll become household names by doing what they do best---doing their thing.
It's the rockers that are the stars--but it's the teachers that make the difference. For without them, those rockers would not have the motivation, drive, and skills that they have today. Here at Jemsite, we'd like to thank all the guitar teachers who stood on the sidelines and coached their skilled guitar players to stardom.
Tony Hogan falls into that category. A guitar player of almost 40 years that played everything from bluegrass to Indian music on his acoustic, and a guitar educationist, Tony is a music lover and likes to "keep things simple and enjoyable." His demeanor may be so, but his plethora of genres sure isnt--Tony also dabbles in jazz, blues, and world music. He blogs about the experience on two major blogs: Acoustic Guitarist Blog and Acoustic Guitar Player.
Perhaps I should be careful when I call him teacher. He is a self-proclaimed GUITAR EDUCATOR. As he says, "It's an art form in itself." (See below.)
And that's why he's a Guitar Hero.
So you’ve been playing guitar for 38 years. How did you get started doing it in the first place?
It was only natural for me to take up some type of musical instrument. When I was young I assumed that everybody had songs running through their head all the time, a bit like a radio station playing non stop music, in a similar way that the mind always has some type continuous thought activity. My father was a great singer; I grew up with Jazz tunes around me. Originally I was going to play drums but when I realized I would have to sit at the back of the band, it didn’t seem such a great idea. I visited a friend’s house and his brother had an acoustic guitar lying around. I looked at it; I was mesmerized, and just assumed I could already play it. So I set about learning to play the guitar once I realized that I needed to do more than just assume that I could play it. And I’m still in awe of its potential. Who are your musical influences?
As teenagers we were looking for heroes and role models, I heard Clapton, Hendrix and Santana in the late sixties and it was pretty hard not to be absorbed into that culture. My early musical influences were jazz singers and commercial pop radio. Probably the most powerful early guitar moment was when I heard Roy Clarke play on television, it sounded like he was making a guitar talk. At 15 someone introduced me to the music of Wes Montgomery. I studied jazz guitar with a couple of great guitar players at 16 for a few years, and years later with Ike Isaacs, he was a great British player who taught many other great players how to play. Ike was respected amongst the great jazz guitar players but did not get the attention of the general public. I wasn’t overly attached to any specific style from an early age. Although I liked a lot of contemporary jazz players like Ralph Towner, I also loved the music of Poco, Nick Drake, Stefan Grossman, Duck Baker and numerous other acoustic players and singer songwriters. A turning point for me was hearing the music of Michael Hedges, Alex De Grassi and Pierre Bensusan; these players laid a foundation for many others to follow now, such as Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour and all the new guitarists playing in altered tunings. In two weeks I’m doing a Master Class with Pierre Bensusan.
What are your favorite guitars to play?
I grew up playing Gibsons; I preferred the necks for playing chords, although I loved the sound of Strats, they were not the best for my style. These days I swap between a few guitars; a Breedlove acoustic, a Gurian handmade acoustic by Micheal Gurian in Greenwich Village in the late seventies, an acoustic I built at a guitar making workshop (it sounds beautiful) and an Ibanez semi acoustic Artcore AF 105. The Ibanez is the most robust, I can use that on acoustic gigs if need be and still sound acoustic-ish. It’s great for jumping from one style to another and seamlessly I can go from straight jazz to a funky swampy blues sound, then capo up and do an acoustic ballad. Some friends say it’s the nicest sound they have ever heard coming from a guitar. What genres are your favorite? What made you decide to move towards these genres (bluegrass, jazz) rather then maintain the stereotypical rock/electric guitar combo?
For many years I haven’t been particularly interested in commercial music because I’ve always been aware there was a wealth of music that existed outside of what was being rammed down our throats and promoted by the music industry. It was very clear to me from a very early age that many of the people who were getting airplay, couldn’t play their instruments very well. I was more interested in the quality of music, regardless of style than what is fashionable. Santana opened up the Latin thing for many of us; it didn’t take Einstein to be clear that classical guitar wasn’t part of mainstream rock, but it is very hard as a guitar player to not fall in love with the classical/nylon string guitar at some point.
In the early seventies people like Jan Akkerman from Focus and Steve Howe from Yes were exploring the classical and fingerstyle guitar, this impacted on me and suited my nature more. In Britain there was a whole stream of players who were mixing folk with contemporary music, such as Renbourn, Jansch, and John Martyn; this opened the door for players like me to explore the world of folk and open tuned guitars. I came to bluegrass much later in 1982, I heard Hot Dawg with Tony Rice playing guitar and the brilliance was undeniable. I also studied Indian music with a great Sarod player Ashok Roy after traveling through India quite a few times.
How did you decide to get into the guitar education field?
Quite a number of the people around me were straight rock players and they were curious about what those ‘funny chords’ were that I was playing. I started teaching when I was 18 because I had studied guitar improvisation, chord structure and harmony. Most of the great players I had met were also educators and happy to share. I don’t think all of them were good teachers; it’s an art form in itself. Teaching really involves a lot of analysis and diagnosis, very few teachers seem to do that or are aware of that and are trying to teach people to play things but are often unaware of the real gaps in the guitar students knowledge, they often make assumptions that the student understands all aspects of music. There are strategies a teacher can use to cross check whether a student gets the big picture and has all the pieces of the puzzle in place.
What is the best part of your job?
Seeing people learn to create music which is a reflection of their own unique style and personal history. The response people get back from music always far outweighs the effort they put in. Strangely enough there is a lot of unlearning required once people learn.
Do you prefer teaching or performing and why?
Both are worthwhile experiences. Teaching enables me to explore the why’s and how’s of music and takes care of the cerebral side of things and stimulates my curiosity. Whereas playing live has a nice edge to it, it’s an emotional experience and it’s great to ‘be in the moment’ and to take chances. It forces me to be ‘mindful’, it can be a lot of fun when it all works, and a pain when it doesn’t. But it’s better to play live music than rehash the past.
What kind of lessons have your students taught you?
No two people are the same, everyone plays for different reasons. As a teacher what I have noticed is the need to simplify everything, this becomes more evident everyday. The most important thing to do when playing is to relax; a lot of players miss that aspect. By analyzing a student’s hands, it has made me realize that finger and hand movements are much simpler than most people think. Another thing I’ve noticed is that students want shortcuts, quick fixes and as a rule are not willing to work on the things that will help them be better musicians. Being flashy is important to so many players, my opinion on this is something I have had to let go of. What I find is when students learn on acoustic they can’t hide behind effects and volume, their strengths and weaknesses are exposed. I love the technology and gadgets; learning to use effects properly is a great skill in itself and is bypassed by some and overused by others. I guess the most important thing I have learnt is to let people be themselves and do my best to help draw the music out that they are born with, to give the tools that they need. It will generally only be one a thousand students who will really dig in and learn what they need. You maintain two blogs, both created with the intention of informing their readers about practicing and performing guitar skills. Do you feel the blog method is a good way to do this?
Blog technology really is just a transitional technology on the Internet. The gift that blog technology has given us is it has enabled non techie people to have a voice on the Internet without having to learn to build traditional websites which are static, time consuming and messy to edit. A thing that is happening now with blog technology is that people can use blogs as a Content Management Systems (CMS), whereas before it would require a much more complex web application to achieve the same result. Blogs are useful at this point because they are dynamic, search engine friendly and are a great doorway to a broad global audience. It will change, or I’d be better to say, the web is in constant flux and blogs are just one of the many useful tools available. However, ask me the same question in 12 months and I’m confident my answer will be different.
As I am also an Information Technology professional, I see other things emerging which will be more powerful. At this stage my blogs have had almost a quarter of a million visitors in a year and half and I know have barely scraped the surface of what I know is possible. My passion for guitar is genuine and I think the reason why they have been successful is because the content is of a high standard, diverse, I have an understanding of many aspects of music and I can quickly recall information based on my personal experience.
What kind of imprint in the guitar education community do you want to leave?
For me, the most important thing is to help people be themselves, not just bad or even good copies of other players. Music for me is about emotions, and we as human beings need to be heard, we need to express our deepest emotions. Often words are totally inadequate. It’s my wish to inspire people to be themselves and find their own musical voice.
I thank you for the opportunity of sharing why I do what I do.
The Guitar Hero series on Jemsite features interviews with guitarists and musicians who may not have star status YET, but their current situations have shaped them to be who they are--determined, fond of their craft, and heroes in their own right. Perhaps you'll see in these upcoming entries the next Jimi Hendrix, Melissa Etheridge, or Duane Allman. Or perhaps they'll become household names by doing what they do best---doing their thing.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed