Only just started watching this so I don’t as yet know anything about the content other than it features a Q & A, which might be of interest here - and if not, then there is at least his amazing music to behold.
Guthrie Govan Guitar Clinic | Fast Picking, Tapping, Improvisation & Technique | 2005
Thanks for posting that, I’ll check it out.
Thanks for posting this, I hadn’t seen this before.
I was a big fan of Guthrie’s lessons on Lick Library and his columns/transcriptions in Guitar Techniques magazine back then. I remember the clips of the Tone Merchants clinics (where he was a rep for Cornford amps) started appearing online in about 2004. It’s hard to believe that was all 20 years ago.
I haven’t watched it all yet, but so far the advice is similar to what he said in other lesson videos at the time, and in his Creative Guitar books.
EDIT: Interesting section at about 32:28 where Guthrie is discussing tapping with multiple fingers. Guthrie mentions that the finger combinations (2 3) and (2 4) work well together for him, but that (3 4) is problematic. He mentions that he’d happily believe what he has read in a piano book about (3 4) being weak for everybody for everybody, except that almost everything Paul Gilbert does is based on (1 3 4).
Guthrie’s conclusion is that you can probably train your hands to do anything, but Paul clearly demonstrates interdependence between his second and third fingers, and distaste for (2 3) combinations.
The truth is, there is progressive variation in the anatomy of the hand among the population, we don’t all share the same underlying anatomy. In particular, there is variation in the anatomy of extensor digiti minimi (EDM), which extends the pinky. For some people, EDM pulls on the ring finger, and so (3 4) combinations are likely to be problematic. For others, EDM is more free of the ring finger, but the ring finger now cannot be extended separately from the middle finger, so (2 3) would suffer as a result.
Yes it reminded me of his advanced Creative Guitar book, which I bought in maybe 2004, and which at that age I found very intimidating more than anything - mostly because of the alternate picking chapter, and the fact that my wrist was simply not compliant in the way he suggests it ought to be. It didn’t help that the material is presented not in order of difficulty - IIRC, the chapter actually ends with picking on one string. But perhaps I was at fault for not first purchasing the more foundational Creative Guitar book. And in fairness, he does point out that not everyone picks like the way he suggests, and other players can get good results with different posture and motion etc.
Anyway, he offers some interesting thoughts on getting different tonal qualities with the pick. I’ve got to about the eight finger tapping section.
I got Creative Guitar 1 & 2 a little later than that, I think sometime in 2007, but definitely after Erotic Cakes was released. Now that I think of it, I think I let a friend borrow them years ago, and I don’t think I ever got them back. I might buy new copies.
I think they’re interesting books and worth reading to gain some insight into how one of the great players of our time thinks about the guitar, but I think they’re largely obsolete as technical instruction manuals.
I actually still don’t have the first one. No idea of its content so can’t comment. But I suspect you’re right.