I attended one of his clinics in 2003, he told to an amazed audience that he was still taking lessons from Charlie Banacos-and that was something he had often mentioned in older interviews as well. And also repeated a few times the zen like quote…“the more I know, the less I know”, referring to the vastness of the whole thing.
I’ve said elsewhere that the interview is great, and now with clips added is even greater. Good job, guys!
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“the more I know, the less I know”
That’s the spirit to have in life. I’m 47 and have literally been teaching guitar for 30 years. Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned as much in the past 3 years as I have since those first few magical years of playing and discovering. Part of it is thanks to the internet - there is a limitless supply of inspiring music and players - and part of it is due to allowing myself to be honest about my challenges and shortcomings and address them. Mike Stern has been an inspiration since I first had Upside Downside on vinyl probably around 1986!
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I studied briefly with Charlie Banacos before his untimely passing. Amazing, amazing teacher. And yes, he had many students that worked with him for 20+ years.
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Lots of great material in the Stern file. To add even more, you can play with where the phrases begin and end, try swing feel, and change 16ths to 8ths. For example, I took the “Brecker Lick tk2” phrase and manipulated it a bit. The fundamental pulse of bebop is the 8th note, so I switched the 16ths to swing 8ths and jacked the tempo up to 260. I also displaced the phrase to show different feels. Phrases can swing harder if you start them on upbeats. I hope it is OK to post this here. Let me know if it is against the rules.
Of course, these techniques can be applied to the entire CTC catalog. Enjoy.
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When was this shot? Makes me wonder what else is in the can, Troy. 
If people here haven’t yet read about Mike’s recent injury and remarkable recovery…
https://t.co/YfwIZPmhii
almost as incredible as the Pat Martino story!
Leni and Mike are clearly a wonderful team as well. I recommend people check out their appearance on episode 23 of the No Guitar is Safe podcast, and Leni on episode 6 of Shane Theriot’s podcast.
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@openstring sorry to get off topic for a second, but what programme did you use for the tab with the jazzy handwritten font? Is it GP7?
[cough] Frank Gambale [cough]
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I’d very much like to see that one, as well as the Tommy Emmanuel one from the collection of older interviews!
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I am still using GP6. I have heard about many bugs in 7, so I was waiting a little while before I upgrade.
Cheers.
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How do you set it up like that with that font? It looks cool!!
Speaking of flubs, I was relieved to hear some in Mike’s playing. It makes the rest of us mere mortals feel a little better.
As for stuff in the can, yes, Gambale is my top request for an interview as well!
Check out the “Sheets of Sound” books for a guy who has taken Gambale’s concept a lot further… oh, and Dweezil Zappa for applying some of Gambale’s thing to Frank Zappa’s music!
Hey, forget what I said above… my top request for an interview is Dweezil!!!
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I saw Dweezil in October, my mind exploded! Some of the stuff he’s able to pull off is crazy. He’s got incredible technique and is able to apply it to all kinds of bizarre time signatures and fretboard patterns. If time ever allows, a conversation with him would certainly be interesting.
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The sequenced lines Mike plays in this interview are some of the most non-traditional things anyone has played that we’ve interviewed. And he’s working some of them out on the spot as an exercise. So it only makes sense that you will see mistakes. I wouldn’t take any of this as a comment on Mike’s technique, only his unfamiliarity with these ideas that he’s still working out.
Mike is in that small category of players who can actually alternate pick pretty much any line they are likely to write, because his technique has a solution for every kind of alternate-picked string change you can make, i.e. all four of them.
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• In GP6, click F7 to open the “Stylesheet”
• Then click the “Texts & Styles” tab up top to manipulate the fonts. They have quite a few jazzy choices.
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No way dude really?!?
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I don’t have any inside information, but Troy has made glimpses public in the past.
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I wonder if Gambale still sweeps everything?
They met up several years ago!
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His hand looks so relaxed , like there are no strings on his guitar and he is just moving through air.
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