Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

I have a saying that was borne out of necessity……and that necessity was borne out of my own idiotness (that can’t be right). And it came from me always thinking that somewhere, deep down, I was actually the next Johann Sebastian Bach, except with an electric guitar and a Slick Shoes voice. (This is high school days, now; come on. Slick Shoes and their girly vocalist were very, very cool. No. No they weren’t. But they were cool to me, for some reason, and that is, in the end, all that ever matters to ourselves. ) It was just that no one had heard of me……when a Capitol Records producer finally did decide to visit my church (ya, these were real thoughts, and unfortunately sometimes still are), he would hear me and of course sign me right away.

So, because I had this view of myself, it just wouldn’t be possible in my mind for this prodigy musician who was myself, to find a note he couldn’t hit, or a riff he couldn’t play. So when Phil Wickham played a song in capo 37, and hit a soprano note, and sounded amazing doing so, if I chose to do the same song, I had to do it exactly like him. Can’t admit that Phil Wickham is better than you. No! In fact, he’s not better than me! Watch……let me hit this A. Same thing with guitar. When John Petrucci (again, high school…but he’s still admittedly a great musician) would play an insane solo, I would have to do the exact same solo……in a worship song. (That’s an entirely different problem altogether.) But here’s the thing. I can hit the A by Wickham. I can play the solo by Pettruci. No wrong notes, everything on pitch, all is well. But it sounds terrible! I end up screeching to the A vocal note in this shrill, Jack White meets whoever-did-the-voice-for-the-1930’s-Disney-Snow-White horrendous tone, and solo-ing 10 times too slow with absolutely no feel or form and chunking out every note.

Did I hit every note? Yes. Were they all on pitch, vocally and guitar-ily (I don’t even know what words I’m using now)? Yep. Everything was technically right. I can hit that note. I can play that guitar line. But should I? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Wickham hits an A because he sounds great up there. I also can hit an A. But I sound a gazillion times better hitting an E. Petrucci plays those solos because he’s great at it. I can also match those notes. But I would sound soooooo much better taking out half the notes, slowing it down, and playing a solo that fits my pace to where I can put feel into it and make it sound good.

(Understand, I do have a lot of respect for John Petrucci and Dream Theatre, even if not all their music grabs me. But, you do gotta admit, there is something a little cheese about growling at your audience.)

One of my musician mentors once told me that you should always practice at 110% of your ability, but never play live at more than 60% of your ability. Stay within yourself. And you gotta be able to admit, too, that you might not be as good as Phil Wickham or John Petrucci. A little dose of humility can take you from sounding horrible by playing something out of your musical range, to sounding great by playing something within your musical range. You might not be able to go to sleep at night thinking how amazing you were because you hit the same note as Phil Wickham, but everyone who heard you will go to sleep thinking, ‘Hey, they were pretty good’, rather than, ‘What did we just listen to?’

And the thing is, at one time or another Phil Wickham had to tell himself he wasn’t Pavarotti and to stop trying to hit D’s over middle C. And John Petrucci had to tell himself he wasn’t……well, I don’t want to start a war here over who the fastest guitarist is. They’re all just face-melters anyway; it all sounds the same, and there’s no real musical skill or melody or tone involved………………kidding!! Kidding!! Wow, it’s crazy……I could literally feel the heat coming from people’s anger even as I was writing that. For the record, Pettrucci is a fantastic musician; I just tend to get a little bored with the aeolian harmonic minor played as fast as you possibly can. No, wait, that’s Malmsteen. Oh!! I’m feeling reckless today. But seriously, to each his own. Those guys are great musicians, just not my taste all the time, although Petrucci does pull out some wonderfully melodic passages every now and again. Some people get bored with U2 and Edge’s delay. I can’t for the life of me see how, but there may be some. hehe

(Okay, Yngwie just took all the cheese out of the John Petrucci photo. Hmm…maybe out of the whole world. This makes Dream Theatre look like Jack Johnson.)

I try to remember that there are very few Stevie Ray Vaughan’s or Emmy Rossum’s in the world. However unfortunate and harsh it may seem, the simple odds of it are, you’re not one of them. And neither am I. But we just might be able, if we stay within ourselves, to one day make music that sounds just as good, if not better.

Splendid.
Karl.