Lessons on writing from three master guitarists.

[temporus]

One of the things I've learned from Jay Lake's blog posts (jaylake ), is that you can apply ideas and lessons learned from one art form and extend it into other forms.  In that spirit...

I was watching a documentary with my wife: It Might Get Loud--which, if you are a guitarist of any sort, you really should watch.  Heck even if you aren't a guitarist or musician at all I think it's a fascinating documentary.   In any case during a scene in which the three principles, that is the guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack Whyte are all jamming together playing slide guitar, on the song In My Time of Dying,  I noticed something.  Something that if you weren't a guitarist you might not have picked up.  Heck, perhaps even if you were it might have slipped past the eye.  (Thanks to my TiVO, I could go back and check.)  Each of the three guitarists had the slide on a different finger.  Jack had it on his pinky, Jimmy on his ring finger, and The Edge had it on his middle finger.  All three jamming together, playing the same song.  Going about it in each their own way.

There's no "right way" to play with a slide.  There's no finger you must put the slide on to play slide.  Folks just learn a certain way to do it, and that's what they use.  And that's what hit me about this.  Three virtuosos on the guitar, each knows the instrument better than most of us know our spouses.  Probably spend more time with them too.  But they each play it in their own way.  Sometimes in subtle little ways.  The lesson I took away from that scene was that there are many ways to approach the same story, the same result.  None is more right than the others.   Be wary of anyone trying to sell you on "the way" to do anything.  In fact if someone tries to tell you "the way" to write (or any other endeavor I can think of for that matter) run away. 

There's another scene where The Edge is teaching the others I Will Follow,  and he talks about finding the particular voicing he wants on chords.  (In the case of this song he's talks about the E chord)  One of the great things about playing a guitar (or many of the other strummed multi-stringed instruments) as opposed to playing, say clarinet, is that there isn't one set way to play a note.  And because you can play the same note in several ways, you can play the same chord, in various different ways.   Choice matters.  An E chord played in the most common open string position sounds different than the same notes configured differently on the guitar in other hand positions.  He talks about being very economical and careful about selecting not just the chords he wants to use, but the character those voicings of the chord will lend to the song.  He talks about getting the struggle to get the sound he can hear in his head to come out of the speaker.  Voice matters.  One of the things I'm learning about writing through editing is that the stories that stick with me the best, the ones that suck me in, more than a good plot, or intriguing world, or anything else, are the stories that have a strong voice.  Voice matters. 

Quite possibly the thing that most blew me away about this whole documentary, was watching Jimmy Page.  Of course it was enthralling to watch him show the others bits and pieces of songs throughout the film.  And the first time he picked up a guitar and just went into a song infront of the others, you could see them share a kind of gobsmacked, tacit understanding of: Holy Crap, I'm here with Jimmy Page, playing the riff to Whole Lotta Love.  No, what was amazing about watching Page during the movie was his attentiveness to the other musicians.  The music they talk about, the songs they play.  This is a man, who has forgotten more about music than most people ever learn in a lifetime.  But he's still checking out sounds, and learning.  All three of them are, of course, and you can see it in them during their discussions.  For me that was perhaps the final lesson to walk away from the film.  Masters of craft don't stop learning.  They grab every opportunity to keep learning, and striving.

Pretty well blown away by the film, as you might be able to tell.  I have to admit to feeling a bit jealous about it as well.  Writers don't typically get to jam.  Sure, we do have conferences, where we can go and discuss many of the same things that these three guys talk about during the course of the film.  Our path on the road to writing.  The influences we've had to bring us to where we are today.  Sharing snippets with each other to inspire and cross pollinate ideas.  But I miss the jam.  Sitting down with peers, where someone plucks out a riff, then its off with everyone jumping in and out as the song takes you.  Writing can be like that too, in ways, but music, by its nature, tends to be more of a group event to begin with, whereas with writing, you have to push and stretch yourself to garner those opportunities. 

Have you seen the film?   Are there lessons from other art forms that you bring with you into writing?