“Congratulations, You’ve Practiced A Lot”

By Cris Jacobs 

I took a few lessons when I first started out, with some guys who spun me up and sent me on my way. After that I did lots of shedding in the bedroom and lots of listening. I’ve never been one to shun away from the theory, and the language and learning, but I was never a music school guy.

From the beginning I was drawn to the improvisational aspect of music. I knew that I was going to need to learn - and you can read all the books in the world and gain as much knowledge about things as you want - but nobody wants to listen to somebody whose just regurgitating other peoples information, without lending something positive to the conversation.

‘Congratulations, you’ve practiced a lot.’

That doesn’t do it for me, you need to take it a step beyond. I’ve always kept that in mind and wanted to use technique as a means to an end, rather than the end itself. I came to that realization early on, luckily.

Not going to music school as well, and coming at it from the songwriter side of things, I never saw myself being the most dazzling guitar player on the planet, or really wanting to be that. I just wanted to be able to be good enough to have my own voice. Then developing that voice is the journey, and the chops and technique are the maintenance of that journey.