What Can Tap Dancers Teach You About Creativity on Guitar?
Creativity Secret for Guitar #13
Have you ever watched a tap dancer at work?
When done well, it can be magical.
One of the oldest exercises tap dancers use is listening to their surroundings and figuring out how to recreate the sounds with their feet.
I’ve heard stories of some old timers in New York City who had to take cabs everywhere because the subway trains taunted them to madness! They just couldn’t move fast enough to mimic the sounds the trains make.
I also remember Eddie Van Halen mesmerizing nationwide radio listeners in the 80’s with his elephant and horse sounds he made with his guitar.
And Steve Vai whipping out the evil laugh in the movie Cross Roads was perfect for the scene.
But, my favorites are the guys who figured out how to put these sounds into their songs and make it work.
- Steve Stevens’ machine gun sounds in “Rebel Yell,”
- Joe Perry’s train whistle to open “Train Kept a Rollin’,” and
- Joe Satriani’s alien language in “Surfing with the Alien” are the best examples I can think of, at the moment.
Notice anything about that last example?
Yeah, I’ve never heard an alien talking either, but, apparently Mr. Satriani has extended conversations with them. I also never thought about what it would sound like to surf through space with the Silver Surfer.
Hmmmm… I wonder what creativity secret you can get from that?
Opportunities to practice this are all around. Next time you are out, begin to listen for interesting sounds you can emulate. You can even use your phone to capture the sounds so you can figure them out more accurately when you get home.
You are going to derive two major benefits from this exercise:
- You will be forced into a different mode of thinking when you are figuring out how to coax sounds out of your guitar it isn’t designed to make.
- You will also develop an intimacy with your instrument that few other players have.
Let me know when you figure out a sound that is way out of the box. I can’t wait to hear you play it.
Dean@PeakPerformanceGuitar.com
P.S.
We’ve only covered 13 of the promised 21 Creativity Secrets for Guitar and you’ve already run out of time to be able to put all of them into practice. We are building a Creativity Tool Kit your competitors can’t rival…and we still have eight more to come.
I have many more than 21 creativity secrets. Let me know if you want more…
