Eric Johnson Style Practice

[millionrainbows]

Why “some moreso than others?”

Do you mean some people would be happy to play like a well-known star, or they are happy to be in a strictly defined genre?

Does that mean Wes Montgomery, strictly a jazz guitarist, did not really define a
Wes Montgomery" style?

Les Paul said, “If your mother can recognize your playing if she hears it, then you’ve found your voice.”

[millionrainbows]

@jimbob00

No one else has broken down the mechanics of picking like Troy so we can’t expect Eric to do this himself. That would mean him and Troy are the same person. You just aren’t able to critique your own arm and hand movement like that.

Hmm…Frank Gambale seems to have broken down the mechanics of his picking. But he’s Frank Gambale, right? He’s not Eric Johnson, either.

@jimbob00

As Troy said earlier, Eric does actually go into it, eg his “bounce” explanations - and it was clearly enough for Bonamassa and Gales etc to run with before this website existed.

The players you mention - Bonamassa and Gales - are advanced players, so they should be excluded as examples, for obvious reasons.

I largely agree with this following point of your rejoinder:

@jimbob00

No one else has broken down the mechanics of picking like Troy so we can’t expect Eric to do this himself.

…with the possible exception of Frank Gambale.

On the other hand, every guitarist is capable, or should be capable, of “showing their riffs” to other players, especially advanced players. This refers to the left hand.

Although EJ can’t explain his picking, which with most players, until Troy Grady, is intuitive anyway, he should be quite capable of explaining the riffs he does in more detail, or at least his chord work. As it stands, his instruction is very general.

@jimbob00

Otherwise Johnson may stop putting out all the stuff the rest of us like to see! Or, he won’t care, which seems more likely.

We aren’t supposed to speculate on his motives.

[ScottyB]

Shredding is only one facet of anyone’s playing I’m interested in, and I’m sure others here are more interested in other things than pure technique too. It’s not what you got, it’s how you use it. You can shred scales all day, but that is boring if you don’t know anything about music and you just sound like you’re practicing.

Eric has a lot of interesting techniques, as did EVH. The most interesting things about them for some, is their sounds, others its their note choices and interesting reworking of very basic things into much more, and others it’s their shredding prowess. Can’t really lump everyone here in the same boat, musicians tend to defy the “norm” in all accounts.

EJ’s picking technique once you see what he’s doing, is pretty standard among most good guitar players and nothing ground breaking, it’s what he does with it.