The Best Playing Advice I Was Given - ASK ZAC EP 31

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope you were doing
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well today today we were going to talk
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about the best playing advice that I've
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ever gotten I also wanna do a little uh
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you know kind of housecleaning on you
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know revisiting the James Burton uh Las
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Vegas thing which I just played the
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outro lick but first a little short
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pause for the cause please if you
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haven't subscribed and you've been
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enjoying you know go down to the corner
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the store there and we've got nice mugs
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like this one or t-shirts and I really
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appreciated also at askzac.com I'm
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starting to post a lot of fun articles
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that I've written in the past one of the
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featured ones is my 2005 interview with
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Tom Bukovac and yeah I did the it was
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my first interview that I'd ever
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conducted and also I had to take the
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photographs for it so of course an
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article there were only two photographs
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used and on the website there's a bunch
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of other ones that I also took of his
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gear that weren't included in the
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original article and vintage guitar
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magazine there's also a nice interview I
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did with Stuart Smith of the Eagles and
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that's on there and also one on John
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Leventhal and that has a besides being a
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great fun interview have a bunch of
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pictures of his his guitars at easiest
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on all those records so yeah check that
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alright first off the opening lick that
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I played so back you know early on
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earlier this year I should say I did an
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episode on James Burton and I played the
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intro lick to Las Vegas the little banjo
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thing that's a Gram Parsons tune of
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course we're talking about the Emmy Lou
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Harris version of it of course James
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Burton played on both so somebody asked
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me about the outro lick and I was
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befuddled by it and I played some other
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kind of lick in one of my past episodes
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trying to pass for it but you know as
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what happens with these things is that
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once you put an episode out and people
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start asking questions well somebody has
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the answer and that's one thing that you
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know yes you know the channel's call
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asks Zach but you know really it's about
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having the humility to ask the right
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people so when people ask me a question
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sometimes I do know the answer but many
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times I have to go get help from Fender
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Gibson or Ernie Ball or bill crook or
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you know whoever it might be so anyway
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in this case hate or Crespo who is a
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fantastic guitar player and he plays in
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kind of Elvis Tribute impersonator bands
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and he has James's style down pat to the
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point of he's taken you know Elvis live
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recordings and can play everything that
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James plays during the entire show so it
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was no big deal for him to toe take this
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lick and and show it to me and so he was
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kind enough to send me a video of it and
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then I had to ask him to send it to me
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where he was playing it slower because
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it was still so fast and just so you
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know this is kind of a it's one of
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James's licks that if you're an Elvis
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fan and if you've heard a lot of his
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live stuff then you've heard James do it
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before because he would he would use it
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with Elvis live a
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but for those that that haven't listened
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to a lot of Elvis you know bootlegs and
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stuff you probably haven't heard the
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lick before except at the end of Las
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Vegas so without further ado here here
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it is and of course we're in the key of
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E and we start off on an a note on the B
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string and I'm just gonna play this
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super slow and I'm gonna pull my hand
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away to kind of show that I'm playing an
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open string and and hopefully you can
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catch on to it if you want to learn it
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so again and again we're starting on the
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B string on an a note
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[Music]
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very fun like and yeah if you want to
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hear James doing more listen to the the
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recently released live stuff from 1969
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on the Ray Charles
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Ray Charles tune what I say he plays it
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a couple times in one of his solos plays
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that lick and it's it's it's nice
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all right now talking about playing
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advice so of course you know I've gotten
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a fair amount of playing advice you know
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through the years from from different
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people I remember John Pell who's the
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head of the guitar department at Belmont
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University where I went to school and
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graduated you know he was all about
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knowing the neck of the guitar and
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that's great advice
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you know Guthrie Trapp who I've you know
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done you know I've interviewed him twice
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did a recent you know kind of Skype true
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tone lounge thing with and he's very
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much into knowing the chord shapes up
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and down the neck and kind of the Caged
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system and and playing chord tones
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instead of scales and such
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that's his you know kind of playing
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advice but the best playing advice I
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ever got was not from a musician per se
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it was from my music loving father so
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when I was just learning how to play the
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guitar he gave me the most important
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advice that I've ever gotten and could
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ever give to anyone and it was and it
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used to just burn my hide when he would
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say this to me but he'd say clean and
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clear and so I'd be trying to play some
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lick and I'd be slurring it and kind of
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messing it up kind of like instead of
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saying hey there mister man if you
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hadn't done that I don't know you know
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I'd be all this you know slurred stuff
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you couldn't tell what the notes were
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and just to give a little background
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dad my dad saw Elvis in the 50s he you
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know he he saw a little Richard in the
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50s he saw BB King in the 50s he he saw
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Ray Charles you know in a nightclub and
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sat you know right you know right near
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his piano he was part owner of a bar at
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one point because he was my dad was an
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auto dealer and and because he was an
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auto dealer in a little town in Texas he
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could get a liquor license and this
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little bar they had Albert King and
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other people come down and play there
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because it was part of the chitlin
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circuit down in South Texas and so my
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dad even though he wasn't a musician he
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knew music and he you know he was a
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serious music listener and probably one
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of the great examples of his ear besides
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you know being hard on his sons playing
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which I'm grateful for was I was way
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into Eric Clapton early on and I was
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listening a lot too well all of his solo
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stuff you know up through I guess that
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would have been through about you know
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the forever man era and you know a
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little bit after that maybe journeyman
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but also of course cream & the
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Blues breakers and you know my dad would
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would come in in a while listen you like
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the Blues breakers or or Derek and the
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Dominos and stuff like that and he'd
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kind of mm-hmm
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one day I had heard about the Mike
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Bloomfield supersession album and I put
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that album on on the first cut Albert
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shuffle and as soon as my dad heard that
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he came into the room he said now that's
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real guitar playing my dad appreciated
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Clapton but when he heard you know
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Michael Bloomfield he was like that's
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that's the real thing and and I was
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blown away by that of course it was
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funny you know cruising Erickson
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Englishman and and and Mike Bloomfield
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was a good Jewish boy you know from
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Chicago
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so but yeah so there's kind of my dad
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and and so my dad passed away a couple
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of years ago but you know before before
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he did we used to go and see see music
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together and one of the you know one of
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the shows we went to is you know that
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that poster on the wall and that's why I
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have that hatch you know show print and
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it's very special to me because that was
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a show that my father and I went to
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before he passed away
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and another thing we went to see was we
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saw Delbert McClinton with Bob Britt and
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James Pennebaker playing guitar and this
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was my dad was very close to dying at
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this point and he was in a lot of pain
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and he was barely able to make it into
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the venue and you know we got there and
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we sat down but as soon as he heard that
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great music that Delbert and his
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fantastic band were playing it was like
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it just lifted him up and it gave him it
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gave him a nice you know chunk of
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happiness so I'm always grateful to
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those guys
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so yes he said clean and clear and you
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know and then he would also tell me
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things like play it like you mean it
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you know play it with authority and
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that's one of the biggest things I see
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with younger players and even older
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players that are still you know kind of
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amateurs is sometimes you can play notes
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just like you know hitting keys on a
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keyboard but you need to play you know
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music with feeling and with authority
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and you need to be assertive when you
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play those notes it can't be just you
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know can't be just notes you know you
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got to you got to feel it and again not
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like you have to get in someone's face
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and just get angry or something like
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that but you just it's just playing
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playing things with with meaning and
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substance so I'm forever grateful to my
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father who you know frustrated the crap
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out of me
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as a kid because he used to come into my
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room all the time when I was practicing
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and he'd say clean and clear so just
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remember that clean and clear and that
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doesn't mean not playing with overdrive
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or something like that or not using
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effects but just meaning you know every
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note play it like you mean it you know
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play it dead on the note and yeah just
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just make good music so feel like I
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should play something else so you know
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I'll just play a little bit put a little
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trim Ola on and this of course is my
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bill crook
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Paisley Telecaster that he made for me
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and it's a great great guitar and you
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know it's got the prettiest paisley
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finish I've ever seen outside of the the
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real thing from 68 or 69 so let's go to
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both pickups put a little tremolo on
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[Music]
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all right I hope you all have a great
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week and I'll see you next time thanks
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again bye-bye