Guitar lesson with a giant...

[paularve]

Hi,
I've got myself a private guitar lesson with one of the greaters jazzguitarist in Scandinavia and Europe as well! (Staffan William-Olsson - guitarist in The Real Thing, if that tells you anything). I can't believe it worked! I just sent him a mail a few weeks ago, where I asked him if he would be interested in giving me a private lesson. 3 hours later he replied the mail and said "Sure!" I was almost fainting, cuz he's like WAY UP THERE. It's really hard to explain in words.
But I wonder, what the heck shall I ask him about? I feel like every question I'm going to ask him will be sooo simple. And that's not the worst part: Afterwards, all the guitarists on the musicoriented school which I attend to, will have a masterclass with this over 40 year old virtuoso, and I'm supposed to improvise in front of him! HEEEEELPPP!!!!!!!
Any advices? Eric, I assume you've been playing in front of a few of the "big guys" when you went to GIT. (I see they got masterclasses quite often over there, with seniors like Luke, Martino, Satriani, Holdsworth, Stern, Coryell and so on...) What's your experience?

[EricV]

Hi there,

well, yeah, at the MI I had some private counseling with some "big ones" ( ) and I studied with Brett Garsed and Scott Henderson there, which was of course quite intimidating at first, since I was familiar with their work and was a fan of those guys, so sitting down in front of them with a guitar seemed pretty unreal.

But they made it easy... they were used to the situation and seemed very relaxed, making it easy for me to relax as well and not hold back too much.

Some thoughts come to mind:
- It sure IS intimidating to play / jam / have a lesson with someone you admire / look up to / know as a great player. But what I think you should do is consider it a chance. I mean, you won´t get anything out of the lesson if you tighten up and hold back completely. It´s a chance to play with and learn from a great guy, and you should feel confident about your abilities and try to play at full potential.
Of course, you ALWAYS play different when someone is watching,a t least compared to playing in your bedroom ( practise space ).
But you should be confident, try to relax and remember that BOTH of you are players. That´s the common thing between you and the "big guy". Sure, you know he´s a great player, and you know his work.
But you have the chance to play with him, so try to enjoy it, relax and use your potential.
I know that that sounds tough. But it is possible...

- When I first jammed with my friend Abi von Reininghaus, I knew that he´s an awesome player. But I tried to relax and just try to make it fun for BOTH of us. Because, even though you play some cool licks, if you are not relaxed and kinda confident, it won´t sound too well, cause there´s no confidence in your playing. And it shows.
I mean, even if you can´t shred like crazy, if your technical abilities are way behind what the "big guys" abilities are at, it won´t matter as long as you play with confidence.
So relax, and try to enjoy that opportunity.
Eric

[paularve]

That ment a lot! I'm bringing pen and paper on monday (that's when I'm having the lesson). That's my main plan...