Heart and Intention

[Seamus OReally]

I was reading something this evening and encountered a phrase I really like: “heart and intention.” This, I think, is the essence of art… especially music, and especially soloing in a blues or jazz context. Playing every note, every phrase with heart and intention is what turns a guitar solo into music.

Then i got to thinking about the solos that have really reached me, and none of them are “difficult” or full of flash technique… but they are dripping with heart, powered by the artist’s intention.

Agree? Disagree? What solos really stuck to your cortex and still won’t let go?

 

[PLX]

What solos really stuck to your cortex and still won’t let go?

Eruption

 

[Far Rider]

Comfortably Numb.

 

[DirtySteve]

I like anything Mike Campbell (known as the man who never wasted a note) ever did for that very reason.

 

[Seamus OReally]

I like anything Mike Campbell (know as the man who never wasted a note) ever did for that very reason.

I lean toward that kind of player, too. Jesse Ed Davis on “Doctor My Eyes,” James Mankey on “Joey…” It doesn’t have to be hard to play. It’s just got to contain the player’s heart.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I like solos that are about the song not the player. No real favorites.

 

[fitz]

Good Times Bad Times

 

[PLX]

Good Times Bad Times

Classic example !

 

[C-Grin]

Seamus I know your a huge fan of Robin Ford and his music is anything but simple . I read something Michael Shenker said a long time ago that stuck with me, and I will get the quote wrong so paraphrasing
"I try to write music as simple as a nursury rhyme, so it will appeal to people" then he said he wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world. So can the two collide, or intermingle somehow?

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Comfortably Numb.

And Time, and Mother…

Lots of Gary Moore.

Too many to name, and be respectful of.

 

[Sargeant Preston]

Lots of Gary Moore.

 

[67plexi]

 

[Seamus OReally]

Seamus I know your a huge fan of Robin Ford and his music is anything but simple . I read something Michael Shenker said a long time ago that stuck with me, and I will get the quote wrong so paraphrasing
"I try to write music as simple as a nursury rhyme, so it will appeal to people" then he said he wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world. So can the two collide, or intermingle somehow?

Playing with heart and intention is exactly what Robben Ford is doing. You can be more harmonically sophisticated, like Robben, or less, like Clapton, and still play with heart and intention.

 

[67plexi]

I still love playing and singing this song