Scott Henderson Discussion

[Gonza]

Whats up man!!!

I'm a newbie here, but I went through every fucking page in this forum reading the most interesting topics for me so I'll consider my self not so newbie here.

Alright, I have TONS of questions but out of respect for everyone here I won't ask 'em all... not all together anyways.

So I've been having huge issues with myself, people say I'm a good player and a part of me (ego I guess) believes that, and wants to hang onto that, but I hate my playing lately mainly because I've been trying to hard.

how do you work on that? I can enjoy a jam of course but even enjoying "playing good" I always feel I'm repeating myself.

Also how do you take other peoples compliments? like do you satisfy their opinion by acknowledging your good playing even though you hate it sometimes? you know what I mean?

And just as a little anecdote I have a friend who played the guitar when I met him pretty good. And years later he fucking rocks! And I'm here think, man I really wasted my time and I can't help but to compare myself, but when I compare myself to someone like you, there is no point in doing that cause I've discovered you as a great player already, now this guy I aw him grew into one.

By the way: You gotta watch Rick and Morty, it's COMPLETELY your style Scott. dark humor mixed with Sci fi mixed with plain weirdness, you can't die without watching it.

One more thing! (reading this is getting boring huh?) I'm from Uruguay and I've started listening to you and be amazed after you came here, any chance that's happening again?

And lastly, THANKS! Huge, enormous, immense Thanks! for all your dedication to this forum, your fans, your incredible music, your humbleness, and your example. It is really inspiring.

Gonzalo.

[Scott Henderson]

Being critical of your own playing is healthy, but hating it is going too far. If you can't find some good qualities your playing, it's a statement that you're expecting perfection, which is an impossible, non-human goal. I think of myself as a good player with lots of room for improvement - I think that's a healthy attitude. I have confidence on stage because I'm not trying to prove myself or impress people - I'm there to be creative and have fun - nothing more. Comparing yourself to others probably defeats that way of thinking more than anything. If you aspire to be better than someone else, you set yourself up for huge fails and more self-hate.

Humility is the most important thing. I used to think that was a negative word, meaning un-confident. Actually the two have nothing to do with each other. Humility is the knowledge of how small we are in the universe, and that what we do isn't all that important. The world will keep turning after we're gone. For me, that helps me to look at my music as something which brings joy to people, including myself, as opposed to a job which brings me nothing but frustration and stress. If I'm doing it to "be an important guy" or to "climb the ladder of success" or to "be better than him", I might as well be working on Wall Street.

Dealing with the audience is easy - say thank you and smile. Nobody wants to compliment you and then be told they're stupid for doing it. The audience usually likes the show - we're the only ones who notice if things are less than average.

We all repeat ourselves. Music is a language - no matter what story we tell, we're still using the same words. However we can always learn new ones, and that's what transcribing is about - not to learn licks and play them exactly how we learned them, but to spend a few weeks with each new idea, changing it rhythmically and modally to make it part of our natural vocabulary and style. No one gets bored with their playing if transcribing is a part of their daily practice time.

Lastly, be thankful that you're smart. There are enough stupid musicians out there playing awful bullshit and thinking they're great for doing it. I'd rather be smart and critical of myself than be a happy wanker.

[Gonza]

Thanks! I guess I'll start with changing my vocabulary, and I don't mean the guitar, but the choice of words.

And yeah, you got it right, transcribing is not part of my daily basis training so I guess I'll get into that A LOT more.

thanks again Scott!

[slyzspyz]

brilliant reply Scott, everyone would benefit from reading this

[Kevin Thomas]

the Mouth of the Lord has spoken