We'll be asking them the same questions each time, and hopefully they will have some valuable insight for us all. First out of the blocks, Mr Christopher Schlegel.... so Chris....
How long have you been an instructor at Guitartricks?
I have been an instructor at GT since December 2005.
At what age did you start playing guitar?
I started playing guitar with an acoustic beginner's guitar I got from my
parents when I was ten years old.
Did you have lessons, or are you self-taught?
I had a few formal lessons with guitar teachers.
The first one asked me to close my eyes and tell him if certain notes he was
playing were higher or lower in pitch than others. After a few minutes he
concluded I was tone deaf and told my father I would not be able to learn to
play music on the guitar.
The next one started by teaching me her system of learning the musical
notes, "This is an E, we'll call him Ernie. Hello, little Ernie. Ernie has
a friend named Fred. Fred lives right next door to Ernie. Fred is the note F.
A little further from Fred's home is George's home ..." And so on. I went
for one lesson and never went back.
The next was a guy in a local music store a few years later. It was
difficult for me to understand what he was saying due his constantly
slurring words. He taught me a couple of blues licks, the intro to "Sweet
Home Alabama" and a few open chords. All of which I already knew. That
lasted about 3 lessons and disintegrated.
I learned some songs, scales and chords (especially barre chords!) from
older guitar playing guys around the neighborhood. One of my uncles had a
Beatles songbook I got tunes and chord shapes from.
I learned the most from just listening to albums and teaching myself them.
I'd pick up Beatles and Beach Boys songs from albums. I figured out the
riffs and songs from Deep Purple, Kiss, Montrose, and so on. I figured out
some of the melodies and instrumental parts from classical things like
Beethoven, Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart. For the lead guitar stuff
later on when I was about 15 I started turning the record player down to 16
RPMs (half-speed) and figuring out what Ritchie Blackmore, Jeff Beck, Ronnie
Montrose, Ace Frehely, and Eddie Van Halen were doing. Later I got a reel
to reel machine that did half-speed. When I was 18 Yngwie Malmsteen's first
album "Rising Force" was released and that sent me to the half-speed tape
player for about 12 hours a
day!
Do you play any other instruments, besides guitar?
I play the bass and the piano. I've played them professionally in a lot of
different situations, too. Right now, I am working on building Piano Tricks
with Jon, the owner and creator of Guitar Tricks. I am the first instructor
and show off all my marginal piano skills there! I really love playing the
piano and wish I could play it better. But really I am just a barroom
hack. I can hack my way through just about any pop, blues or jazz tune.
But I can't really play the classical stuff I love. I do little simplified
versions of Beethoven and other classical pieces just for fun.
I also played banjo. I used to do a lot of guitar work in various orchestra
pits of broadway musical shows. At intermission of the last performance run
of one show the musical director asked me if I could play the banjo. I
said, if it pays money I can play the banjo. He told me a couple of shows
that were about to start up required banjo in a dixieland jazz style. Of
course, at the time I didn't have a banjo and had no idea how to play one.
But, a couple of months later when the show opened, I had a banjo and could
play it!
What was your first guitar?
My very first guitar was a red electric SG shaped Gibson-copy ripoff. My
grandfather was a milk delivery man. Some of his routes went through more
upscale parts of the city. Someone had put this guitar in the trash can at
the curb to be taken away to the dump. He grabbed it, cleaned it up and
gave it to me. I was five. I would hold it and strum it like I was playing
it while watching reruns of the Monkees TV show! I loved it.
When I was ten my parents got me an acoustic from Sears or JC Penney
or some catalog. I started to learn basic open chords and little melodies.
When I was twelve I spent the summer working as a carpenter's go-fer for my
step-father. So he and my mom got my first electric guitar. It was a
Kalamazoo with a matching 10 watt amp! It was made by Gibson but was
basically a particle board-body, Strat-copy. I loved that guitar! It was
awesome.
What sort of rig do you currently use?
I have two 1970's Strats and a Marshall JCM 800 50 watt half-stack for rock
and blues things. I use a Digitech S100 for a bit of delay, echo, flange or
whatever and a Boss MetalZone for overdrive and distortion (I like the
parametric EQ knob!).
I have a Crate DX-112 digital modeling amp that I use for jazz and classical
things. And for making lessons. I have two LaPatrie classicals that I use
for classical and jazz gigs. I have an Epiphone Emperor II Joe Pass model
that I love! I play it most of the time at home now.
All my tools can be viewed here:
http://www.truthagainsttheworld.com/Tools/
What's your dream rig?
I have them! Several of them! See above! In all seriousness, my favorite
thing of all nowdays is just a guitar. One of my classicals totally
unplugged is my favorite set up. I also like to sit out in the back yard
with my kid and my Epiphone playing Gershwin tunes. I rarely even use a
pick anymore. Just me and a guitar.
Who was your biggest influence, both musically and in general?
Beethoven is my biggest overall influence. Also, Art Tatum influenced me
greatly. From back at the beginning, The Beatles, Beach Boys, Blackmore,
Van Halen, Malmsteen, of course.
There is also an important trio of guitar geniuses that have become very
influential to me over the last decade: Joe Pass, George Van Eps and Johnny
Smith. These guys are important to me because they achieved the goal I am
working on: playing "total guitar". Playing totally solo arrangements of
tunes in an advanced "chord melody" style; melody, bass line counterpoint,
inner voices and chords, fast ornamental runs and arpeggios linking all
these things together. Essentially applying classical concepts to jazz
guitar.
The common characteristic among these guitarists, along with Beethoven and
Tatum, is their ability to create compositions and, or arrangements that are
meant to be performed by one virtuoso soloist at the very pinnacle of
thought and action, of integrated conception and supreme technical skill all
aimed at the goal of creating beautiful music.
Regarding non-musical influences, I am profoundly influenced by the works of
Ayn Rand and Aristotle.
What musician do you most admire and why?
Beethoven. He was and remains the best musical composer and was by all
accounts also a virtuoso pianist. His symphonies and concertos are
glorious, timeless works of great art. And his solo piano sonatas are
endlessly astounding and a perfect model for the best that is possible to
any musician (writing or playing).
What is the best guitar playing lesson you ever learned?
Make sure you totally enjoy your ability to play a beautiful piece of
music. It is very important to improve. But it's also important to just
take joy in whatever piece of music you can presently play well.
How has your taste in music changed over the time you've been playing,
if it has changed at all?
I've always loved classical music from when I was a kid. I always loved
musical tunes from movies and plays. When I was a kid I had an album of
tunes from Walt Disney movies. And I still love listening to them to this
day. I like most classic jazz. Which is of course largely stuff from
Broadway musicals. I can remember loving tunes by George Gershwin, Irving
Berlin, Duke Ellington, Richard Rogers and guys like from when I was a kid.
So it's fun to be working on solo arrangements of those tunes from the great
American songbook!
The biggest overall change in my playing has been that for the first twenty
years I played a lot of electric guitar in bands; rock, blues, jazz, big
band swing, musicals, pop, funk, and so on. You name it, at one point I
played it. For the last 10 years I've focused more on solo guitar
performance. And that means classical and jazz. But mostly I find it
incredibly satisfying to be able to play a whole show of an hour or two all
by myself. Being totally responsible for all the music that happens.
I don't enjoy rock and fusion stuff as much as I used to. It's still fun to
play every now and then, but I don't enjoy listening to it. I'd rather
listen to Beethoven or Art Tatum all day. Which I do!
What was the first song you learned to play all the way through?
One I wrote! As soon as I learned a D major chord and an A7 chord (the
first ones I got out of a Beatles songbook) I started to do some
fingerpicking and making little embellishments. My first cover song was
probably one of the Beatles songs. I don't remember which one. The first
one I remember getting all the way through was "California Sun". I remember
hearing that on the radio one day and loving it. It was so bright and
powerful and fun sounding! I thought it was neat that it had a little
melody and then some chords. Eventually a couple years later I played it
live with my first band. It was a garage band of friends in junior high
school. We played it and an original much like it called "I Was Born To
Rock and Roll" at our first big gig, which was the junior high school talent
show.
What's the most challenging piece of music for you to play currently?
Over the last 5 years I've been transcribing some Beethoven piano sonata
movements for guitar and that is incredibly difficult stuff to do. But, of
course, it's also very rewarding. Also, some of my own original classical
guitar sonata pieces are hard. But that's because I wrote them to challenge
myself!
Thanks!
Christopher Schlegel
You can check out Chris' tutor profile and lessons here.
Check out my music, video, lessons & backing tracks here![br]https://www.renhimself.com
