Name your playing influences...

[muddy]

Wow, I have so many it's really hard to nail down five but here goes:
As of late and in no particular order-

Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Vaughan
Muddy Waters
Albert King
Magic Sam

[JM3]

a nice finish to this thread would be for me to tally the most often quoted influence and list them by percentage

looks like KEEF is in there, and I admit I have played his tunes quite a bit myself

[FrankJohnson]

These are a few who shook the earth for me.......


Geddy Lee (although i don't sound like him)
Jimmy Trapp (Walter Trout)
Reggie McBride (Currently Keb Mo and others)
Bob Babbitt
James Jamerson

[FrankJohnson]

now,

On guitar.......thats another story.....

- David Bromberg (Although I don't play anything like him) because he personally tauight me more than songs, he taught me moods, people, rooms, dynamics and friendship)
- Walter Trout
- Eric Clapton
- SRV - (And all the influences that went into him)
- George Thorogood (Mostly the influences that went into him)

[melody]

Walter Trout the dude is awesome.. Full tilt all the way!

[FrankJohnson]

Walter Trout the dude is awesome.. Full tilt all the way!

Yep -
I met him several times, always makes time to speak with whoever wants to speak with him. He always gives his all too.......he is a seriously hard working artist, performer and dad.

[JM3]

I saw Goerge Thorogood once, He continued playing even after the staff put the lights on.
He then asked if anyone in the back wanted to come up front, The place almost had a riot as a wave of people stormed the front of the stage, much to the horror of security.

[buzztone]

George Harrison
Jeff Beck
Clapton
Jerry Miller
BB King


Silly to list only five but these are sort of in order...

[Gravity Jim]

You tell me! Shouldn't you be able to hear my influences rather than take my word for them? :)

[buzztone]

Maybe, maybe not.

[Gravity Jim]

Well, if you can't hear them, then they aren't "influences." They're just "guys you like to listen to."

For example, I'd love to be able to tell people that my influences are Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, because I find their playing really exciting and that's what I would strive for if I could do it. But I can't, and you can't hear either of those players in my playing. So they didn't influence my playing at all... I just like them.

[elicross]

By those standards, I probably have to drop everybody but David Gilmour. He's the only one of the influences I listed that I've gotten unsolicited comparisons to.

But I figure any guitarist I admire as much as the others I listed must have some influence on the sounds, tones, phrases I hear in my head and try to get out of my guitar. By that standard, I should probably add Elliot Easton and Joe Walsh to the influences I posted. During my formative years when I was first developing some rudimentary chops, I spent as much time listening to the Cars and the Eagles and enjoying the guitar on their albums as I did any of the other influences I listed.

[Cogs]

I wish I could say something witty about how I don't sound like anybody because I strive for originality, but I just don't have time right now.

[buzztone]

So you want to sound like Larry and Robben but if we were listen to your playing we'd hear what?

[clayville]

Well, if you can't hear them, then they aren't "influences." They're just "guys you like to listen to."

I dunno about that... but then I'm thinking mainly of the way I learned to play, the way I spent/spend my time woodshedding by playing along to "guys I like to listen to" and have throughout my playing life. If I'm listening with a guitar in my hands, and I'm trying to play along, or I go so far as to 'lift that needle up' over and over again to try and figure out what they're doing and how they did it... and then I incorporate what I conclude into my approach sometimes -- from an 'approach' standpoint, not just as bag o' tricks or a lick library -- and then I do that for so many years that I just 'know' what they're doing without even picking up a guitar... and I absorb those in perhaps some smaller way for future use... then maybe (just sayin') it's both... idn't it?

I sometimes think the way a 'musician' listens is a curse, a kind of distraction.

[buzztone]

You're one guy whose main influence does appear in your playing pretty frequently Clay.

I don't think you can say that about me.

[JM3]

I recently toured with a great guitarist who always "heard" something different than I did from the same source.he would always overcomplicate the simple stuff
go figure

[Gravity Jim]

So you want to sound like Larry and Robben but if we were listen to your playing we'd hear what?

I have no idea. Peter Yarrow? Roy Clark? Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66?

I haven't got a clue.

[cooltone]

many times, it's not just the "playing" that influences me (even though that is the topic of the thread) I find myself attempting to incorporate little nuances in what I hear, whether it's the 'tone' or dynamics, or even the type of guitar, etc. for example, when I heard Knopfler, I started using my fingers here and there..Keef, same thing with the open tunings, Walsh..the little "whips" he does with his slide...

[FrankJohnson]

You tell me! Shouldn't you be able to hear my influences rather than take my word for them? :)

I wouldn't totally agree with this.

I was strongly influenced by my dad, but have drastically different views on many things.

I have many players I play with that directly influence my playing style and technique, but I am uniquely me, be it good bad or indifferent.

I do believe that influence and emulation are different. You can be influenced, but maintain your individuality. I believe they are both admirable attributes.

By the same token, I can see an influence as taking on its own persona, and you taking that emulation within your own unique style and it shining through as a you with greater flair and abilities.

Either that.....or I am full of shit.....I have it narrowed down to those to things.......

[phantomman]

I don't think you're full of shit, Frank. And I've had you in the "good" category ever since I listened to those tasty audio clips you sent me a while back. You've definitely got "the groove" IMO.

[ch willie]

I agree. Look at all the 60s guys influenced by Chuck Berry or Scotty Moore--they sound nothing like them, but the influence is there.

[FrankJohnson]

I don't think you're full of shit, Frank. And I've had you in the "good" category ever since I listened to those tasty audio clips you sent me a while back. You've definitely got "the groove" IMO.

You are one fine young American Roger.....I have always said that!

Thank you - you are too kind!

I hope to have more coming, we are breaking a guy in that still believes he is a classic rocker.......we are in the process of fixing his little red wagon!

[elicross]

I think where the "It's not an influence if I can't hear it in your playing" thing breaks down is that, taken to its logical conclusion, it suggests that a musician whose sound is really original, who doesn't sound like anyone else, must've had no influences. And that doesn't seem likely.

I think some players are so heavily influenced by one or two musicians that you can hear it clearly in their playing, and you don't even have to ask who their influences are -- while others have unconsciously picked up little bits of a dozen musicians' styles and squished 'em all together into a personal style that's not instantly recognizable as coming from any specific source. But both types have been influenced by other players.

[refin]

Can we get a new batch of 5?

Dicky Betts
Andy Powell
Ry Cooder
Mick Taylor
Chet Atkins

[buzztone]

Roger (Jim) McGuinn
Django
Jimmy Bryant
Danny Gatton
James Burton

[juniorspecial]

Benny Goodman
Django
Mick Taylor
Steve Cook
Keith Richards

[phantomman]

Well I've already listed my "formative" influences. But some others that I really enjoy are......

Phil Keaggy
Pat Travers
Jerry Hahn
Pete Townsend
Albert King
Brent Mason
Vince Gill

Pretty diverse for a redneck, I reckon.

[FrankJohnson]

I was suprised to not see BB listed more than a mere mention.....

I think its a given that he is a constant in this equation?

[clayville]

I don't think you can say that about me.

Maybe I wouldn't easily peg it to George Harrison, but what I think I hear most often in your playing is a clarity of tone, an economy of motion and a fidelity to the melodies you come up with that gets carried through and reinforces the song without being overly flashy or distracting from the underlying core. It always reinforces the 'whole'.

And put that way, it's an approach very much in sync with Harrison's.

[ch willie]

No Peter Green, or did I miss it?

[buzztone]

Two peas in a pod...

I think that's a reasonable generality.

[NeoFauve]

I'd say, at first, Jimmy Page made me want to play.

I can only actually hear Santana and Knopfler in my playing in a concrete way all this time later.
It's in that my solos tend to be singable, and the way I use bent and pre-bent/relased notes.

There's a bunch of people who've inspired me or reingnited my interest. I'm fairly set in my limited ways, but I'll sometimes hear something I love and, by osmosis, eventually incorporate some aspect of it. More in how I play than what I play. I don't picture myself getting to where I can truly copy them.

Jim Campilongo recently, in a very big way. I love how he can ring all kinds of mood out of a very basic guitar sound.
Patsy Cline's singing, in the past 10 years or so. But that actually just reinforced things that really stuck to me from Knopfler and Santana.

I'd add John Leventhal.
Like Harrison, his mission seems to be coming up with parts that seem like they ought to be permanent to the song. I tried for years to cop his approach and compressed sound, using a volume pedal, playing a similar role with singers I was playing with.

So leaving out Patsy, for redundancy, that's my 5.

Jimmy Page
Carlos Santana
Mark Knopfler
John Leventhal
Jim Campilongo

[Cogs]

Dean Norling
Joe Harris
George Turner
Hence Phillips
Mickey Baker

[melody]

Peter Green
Mick Taylor
Rick Derringer
Jonny Winter
Prince

[JM3]

Saw Rick Derringer.back in the late 70's some of the absolute wildest playing I have ever heard

[refin]

Okay.........after this I might quit,there are too many.

Bugs Henderson
David Lindley
Albert Lee
Mark Knopfler
Frank Marino

[Offshore Angler]

These are a few who shook the earth for me.......


Geddy Lee (although i don't sound like him)
Jimmy Trapp (Walter Trout)
Reggie McBride (Currently Keb Mo and others)
Bob Babbitt
James Jamerson

Wow! Awesome list. But I'd have to put Carol Kaye in there too.

[FrankJohnson]

Wow! Awesome list. But I'd have to put Carol Kaye in there too.

I thought about her, but honestly, HAD to make room for the other three..... - this is tough.

Silent J - I honestly didn't mean any disrespect, and hope you didn't take it that way.



I thin an amended list with three supplemental influences would be as tough to follow up, but worthy of the effort.

[Offshore Angler]

I wouldn't totally agree with this.

I was strongly influenced by my dad, but have drastically different views on many things.

I have many players I play with that directly influence my playing style and technique, but I am uniquely me, be it good bad or indifferent.

I do believe that influence and emulation are different. You can be influenced, but maintain your individuality. I believe they are both admirable attributes.

By the same token, I can see an influence as taking on its own persona, and you taking that emulation within your own unique style and it shining through as a you with greater flair and abilities.

Either that.....or I am full of shit.....I have it narrowed down to those to things.......

Frank, one of the best posts I've ever seen here.



Absolutely I have been influenced by other players and but yet sound nothing like them. Why? Because studying them led me to different directions and I ended up at a different destination than them. The intent is not to emulate them, but to learn from them. To use them as a new jumping off point.