Speaking of tours, the Monkees toured with Jimi Hendrix in the 60s. Did anyone pick up any pointers from him? DOLENZ: I didnt, but then again, I was playing drums at the time. But all of us were blown away by his talent. I was in New York at a press junket for the Monkees, and somebody said, Youve gotta come down to this club and see this guy play guitar with his teeth. And sure enough, we go down to this small club, and hes there playing the guitar with his teeth. Fast forward to the Monterey Pop Festival, and Im there watching all the acts: Ravi Shankar, the Who and everything. All of a sudden, these three guys come on stage dressed in psychedelic outfits, and the guitar player started playing guitar with his teeth. I said, Hey, thats the guy I saw in New York months ago, playing guitar with his teeth! [laughs] We happened to be looking for an opening act, and I suggested Jimi because he was incredibly talented but also very theatrical. TORK: I was talking to Jimi while I was just learning vibrato on the guitar. I had learned to pull vibrato, but you cant pull on the first string, so you have to learn to push vibrato. I was saying to Jimi, Im just beginning to get that push vibrato. He said, Yeah, you push against the weight of the guitar. And my eyes lit up. Mother of God, thats how he does it! So you have to push and be conscious of the weight of what youre pushing against, not just pushing the string. Theres nothing more annoying than somebody who has panic vibrato, when they shake their fingers as hard as they can. Panic vibrato is the most annoying, unmusical thing you can think of. Hendrixs vibrato was so engaging, and it involved you and it was earth-shaking. When he said, You work against the weight of the guitar, suddenly I was pushing stuff around in a big way. That was a wonderful clue. I also met Stevie Ray Vaughan by chance on the road in Australia or something. I said, Where do you get that tone? And he said, It comes from the heart, man. Thats all he would say. And Im saying, What effects do you use? How loud do you turn up? But all he said was it comes from the heart. Im reminded me of a story about Jascha Heifetz, the violinist. He was talking to the press, and they said something about his Stradivarius. He said, You think its about the Stradivarius? Go down to the local music shop and get me a $75 violin. He played the $75 violin, and they were astounded that it had the same tone. Of course, he did say the $75 violin had some bad spots. But the tone is not in the instrument. The tone is in your heart, in your hands.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 08:50:49 +0000
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