My Guitar Influences - My Personal Top 5 Guitar Players and some examples of what I took from them.
Hello Steemit!
I've been wanting to share my top guitar player's list for a while , but I didn't want to list guitar players just for the fact that I like them but make it more of a personal list , what I mean , list guitar players that actually had some impact on me and made me took certain approach on the instrument ( or even pick it up in the first place ! ). To make it a little different , I want to trace back to the things I took from their playing and tried to mix them into my own way of approaching the guitar . They have changed over the years , but I guess these are my top 5 now !
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1. José Antonio Mena
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As I said , this is a more personal list , and this will be my number one influence of all time .He is my original guitar teacher , brother and also the one that built my dear strat ( alongside @meno) . I've been wanting to make him get into this platform , maybe someday he will! . He's got some ferocious technique , speed and precision that i can barely tackle . His alternate picking is near flawless. He can BURN! .
What I got from Him
Well , all the basic guitar mechanics , my first solos , chords and all that , but my biggest lesson came from his practicing methods , that i still think of until today!
He would make me practice alternate picking on every note , with a very dry and unforgiving tone , saying that practicing with delay or reverb was cheating , and all the note sustain and definition should come from the hands , no help from extra gear! I still practice this way , no effects , very low drive and my guitar's action is a little high so I have to dig in to get each note.
My alternate picking is a bit rusty these days , but I try to keep the note separation and clarity as much as possible.
2. Eric Johnson
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Huge influence for me , and the one player that made me think about the guitar seriously . After seeing that ''Manhattan'' performance on the 97' G3 concert , I said to myself ''I want to do THAT!''. His tone , his solo lines and chordal work amaze me until today . He is the reason i mainly play a strat , why I got into fuzz tones and why I've worked on piano style voicings , so yes. Huge player for me!
What I got from him
His chordal work made me want to get into harmony studies , The melodic pentatonic approach and 2-note per string licks . His tone made me want to investigate on Fuzz pedals , though he uses a Dallas Arbiter FuzzFace and I am more drawn into the ProCo Rat , at least he inspired the search , as in the end it's impossible to sound like him . I even got my hands on a Tube Driver , the main drive he uses.. only to find out I sounded horrible on it!
3. Michael Landau
When I think tone , versatility and good taste , Michael Landau comes to mind , huge player ! He has recorded a massive amount of albums for very different artists. The perfect sideman , you can see him playing on some really advanced jazz fusion albums to playing with James Taylor some really simple ( but GREAT ) songs and equally shining on them. Also a big influence on me!
What I got from him
A lot of things , I've read interviews on his gear , recording approach and such and my way of recording guitars is very inspired by him . I use a Maxon SD-9 and a Rc Booster after reading those were his main overdrive and booster pedals . The chorus chord layers and swells on my recordings are from him , and also when I get into an aggressive solo I think of Landau , as he has that aggressive blues type of sound in his leads, kind of like a modern day Hendrix!
4. Wayne Krantz
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This in an interesting one to include in my list , he is a killer player though I'm not that much into his music , he has some very modern jazz tunes , which rely heavy on improvisation. BUT His book: '' An Improviser's OS'' changed my whole approach on playing , it literally made me want to start again from scratch on my approach to guitar and it took me at least 2 years to get ''back'' to the place I was before , building it up again from his method . This also inspired my own method of improvisation , My Chord Visualization and Pentatonic Family approach came from the inspiration I found in this book. So , I definitely recommend it .
What I got from him
Well , his method changed my guitar playing completely , but I also really like his rhythmic and percussive style of soloing , something I like to add to my soloing in more up-tempo tunes .
5. Nicolas Ibarburu
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From Uruguay, this a fairly new player for me , and not so widely known but I'm really liking his compositions , production work and guitar playing nowadays. He has a very straight-forward style , he can get fantastic and powerful results from simple melodies , good phrasing and a great sense of rythm . He also has a very simple setup , guitar --> couple pedals --> amp , but his tone is extremely good.
He has a very interesting sense of rhythm , inspired a lot from his candombe influences. Candombe is an afro-uruguayan style of music that has a very interesting swing to it. Jaime Roos , Ruben Rada and Hugo Fattoruso being some of the most important musicians in this style.
What I got from him
His sense of melody and phrasing , I'm trying really hard to get some of his melodic approach into my own improvisation , a lot of his ''build up'' licks I've been adapting into my playing. Finally , I've been paying close attention to his right hand technique , since he has this kind of ''snap'' when attacking the strings that I really like , and I think is one of the reasons he is very rhythmically accurate.
Well! This wraps my list as per today! These are my most influential guitar players! As you can see , a lot of their playing has snuck into mine , but I always try to give it my own twist , we want to study our heroes but certainly we don't want to be copycats! Eventually our own voice will start coming out , it just takes time! I'm certainly trying to develop mine over time !
I hope this was a fun read! Thanks for reading and listening!
Signing Off
Pechiche Mena
Buenas influencias!, me identifico muchísimo con Eric Johnson, aunque en mi época de aprendiz no entendía mucho su música, con el tiempo me ha impactado profundamente y he tratado de aprender mucho de su técnica... Pronto te traigo mi lista de influencias!!... Saludos!
Gracias @dreamrafa! ,si Eric Johnson es una gran influencia a nivel mundial! Espero ver tu lista :) . Un abrazo!
This is a beautiful post you did for us @pechichemena, it is interesting to discover your influences and you are truly very talented! I love the fact that you put your brother up there at number 1, he is a pretty impressive player! It is sooo hard to choose a top 5, I would have to go for Andres Segovia, Robert Johnson, BB King, Joe Satriani, Buddy Guy... (Dick Dale, Jimmy Hendrix, Johhny Winter...etc etc etc..lol) So many good players out there... Great post pechi!
Thank you very much my friend! thank you for your words ! Yes , my brother is my top influence , even though nowadays we have completely different styles ,he was the one that taught me the basics and opened my ears to guitar playing , I started listening more metal and my early heroes were more into that style of music , Marty Friedman, Malmsteem, Dimebag Darrell, Michael Romeo and such ( I still love those guys) but nowadays I'm mostly inclined to more blues/jazz derived players. Cool list btw ! Seeing that you have Andres Segovia as a first name and Robert Johnson as a second means that you like a wide variety of music ! That is very cool ! Cheers bro!
Ah yes, Eric Johnson's tone and playing is superb. Enjoyed your solo inspired by him, great work.
Thank you very much @cizzo , yes , Eric Johnson is a world class player , it's impossible to sound like him , but at least we can grab some inspiration and include it in our own voice. Thanks For your comment! Cheers!
@pechichemena Awesome post man, I like how you have tried to meld all your influences together but not forgotten how to go back to them and dig deep. I think I will do a similar post as my top 5 are pretty different. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much @outoftune ! . I saw your post , very nice list btw!
Thanks for sharing. Lots of names I haven't heard before, but will be learning more about very soon!
Thank you @proxytech ! I'm glad you liked the post ! looking forward to your list ;)
This list is pretty great. My personal list goes a little something like this:
Eric Johnson
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
John Petrucci
I love pure instrumental guitarists. It's a shame that these instrumental guitar virtuoso's don't get much love these days with the rise of pop and EDM and such. I personally love Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani. I actually just posted a cover of Cliffs of Dover on my channel if you were interested. I also have covered Joe Satriani songs in the past as well.
This post has been voted on from MSP3K courtesy of @Meno from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ).
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