Quote:
Originally Posted by reeve21
What a beautiful melody, Mau!
Do you care to share some of the players who have influenced you?
I hear some Pat Metheney, but would guess you listen to lots of music, both guitar and other players.
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I really like your question, Bob -- but I'm afraid Pat Metheny is one of very famous players whose music I never really listened to...
When I was a kid, my favourite players were probably Slash and Steve Vai. While Vai was out of my league, I practiced Slash's solos for years and still remember them to this day. I also played a lot of Ozzy because Zakk Wylde's style was a good fit for my technique.
Otherwise, I listened to SRV, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix (although I never tried to copy any of his parts), Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, C.C. DeVille, Dimebag Darrell, Marty Friedman, Dave Mustaine, John Christ, Randy Rhoads, Joe Pass -- and many more.
When I started fingerstyle guitar, I spent a lot of time studying Tommy Emmanuel and Pierre Bensusan.
Beyond guitar players, I listened to a lot of different music genres. A lot of the music that I write is probably influenced by the cheesy Chinese pop tunes that my parents enjoyed too much. Similarly to Celtic music, there's lots of pentatonics in Chinese music.
In my classical piano days I also studied a lot of composers and the one who had the most influence on me was probably Schumann. I'm not deluded enough to suggest that I have a thousandth of Robert Schumann's talent -- but his way of writing eclectic pieces that were very melodic but went in all kinds of directions had a lasting impression on me. He was the first composer to really break the classical mold and come up with original structures (and be successful at it).
I also love Mozart and Rachmaninov -- whose music I don't listen to often enough because of my stupid tinnitus...
In any case, I could go on and on about musicians who have inspired me. I love music!