I can recall back in the days when I was first developing a love for Blues, Rock and Country music, how there never seemed to be any real division between these styles. After all, it’s all “American” music, isn’t it? It all seemed to come from a similar source, and my ears were always tuned to the connections that these wonderful musical forms all had to each other.
It quickly became obvious to me that I was developing a strong foundation to my playing, and that I was able to freely move “in and out” of these styles from one to the other, as my improvisational abilities continued to develop. As I moved on to actually playing gigs and touring with major artists, I had to immediately make sense of all this “foundational” work and knowledge, and put it to use in actual songs. This was a sensitive area, because now, I had to let the guitar playing simply “speak” to these songs, whether their influences were based on Blues, Country, Rock n’ Roll, Folk or Jazz. The idea of “genre” had to basically be thrown to the wind, and each song, and the improvised work I did with them, had to really begin to “stand on its own.”
This is critical knowledge if you expect to really go on and become a complete player….the idea that we must approach all music as if it’s a fresh and new open book, or even better, an open “canvas” on which to paint. Use ALL your influence when you play; and that means what you choose to leave out, as much as what you choose to put in. “Less is always more”, to quote an old expression, and we must use our taste and restraint as much as possible to really express what we need to say in the context of a song, a new composition or even a solo. And don’t forget, every time you are soloing, or simply coming up with a backup part to a song, you ARE “composing” as you go along, putting all that foundational knowledge to work. Good luck!