Playing with "Integrity"

Larry Peter, present day                                   Larry Peter (far right), 1981 with bandmates from "Export"

I’m middle-aged.  I can say that because I plan on living to 116.

With each passing year it becomes clearer that I will never be the player I once aspired to be.  I’ll never have the finger-independence for the rapid jazz chord progressions I wish I could play.  I never developed a hybrid picking style.  I’m marginal at best as a rhythm player.  I still hate the first position F chord!  I’m an old-school rocker with a decent solo vocabulary and not much more than that.  So, what’s next for this 58 year-old guitar player?  Throw in the towel, put all my gear on ebay and hit the anti-depressants?

Not on your life.  I’m not done yet. 

Back in 1987 I had the marvelous opportunity to work as producer on some TV commercials featuring B.B. King.  I spent several days with B.B., and when we weren’t filming, Lucille was always in his hands (or mine).  After one particularly soulful melody, he let loose a jaw-dropping flurry of notes.  Yes, the man could also shred.  When my mouth was able to function again, I asked him, “What does it feel like to be the best at what you do?”

He laughed, “I’m not the best.  No one is the ‘best’.  You just have to play with integrity.”  That response stuck with me.   But, how does one develop integrity in playing a guitar?  Let’s examine the word.

Most of us know the definition as: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.  Webster’s second definition is more appropriate in this case: the state of being whole and undivided.  I eventually came to the conclusion that integrity in playing is taking a holistic assessment of everything you’ve learned and synthesizing it into something you can call your own.  Here’s how that realization helped keep me rocking…

Many of us “part-time professional guitarists” (those with day jobs) will hit points in their playing careers when they have to hit the pause button for a time.  My first big pause was when I relocated here after Hurricane Katrina.  I think these pauses cause us to reflect and reassess where we are as players.  Some, like me, will focus on their weaknesses rather than their strengths.  It can be a bit depressing.  Sadly, I’ve seen too many middle-aged players who found themselves in “pause” mode and chose to hit the “stop” button.  Their guitars went into cases and into the attic.

I used my pause to try to discover what B.B. meant by “integrity.”  I was mature enough at this point to know that I would never come close to the technical abilities of my guitar heroes, so I worked with the skills I possessed, along with the musical vocabulary I had “borrowed” from them, and attempted to find a new “whole.”  Whatever I came up with would, necessarily, be uniquely my own.

I will never have the fluidity of Leslie West - but that gorgeous vibrato?  I can use that.  I will never have the soul of Santana – but the syncopation?  I can use that.  I could never develop a melodic solo like Eric Johnson, but maybe I can remember to incorporate some string-skipping and chord tones within my old soloing habits.  I will never approach the speed of Yngwie, but I can use the knowledge that an entire career can be forged from playing one scale.  (Lower your pitchforks.  That was a joke.  Sort of.)

Most successful guitarists reach these realizations far earlier in life than I did.  Maybe such a realization was key to their success.  At some point, we have to stop chasing others’ talent and build something – anything – with all the material we’ve collected so far.  That in itself is a difficult habit for me to overcome – player’s envy.  Especially working at Moore Music.

I hear Ed incorporating beautiful chord partials into his melodic solos; I hear Rob’s clarity in his upper register licks along with his ability to morph a single note through a variety of tonal variations.  The voice in my head asks, “Why can’t you play like those guys?”  The honest answer is, “Because I’m me, I’m 58, and I don’t want to start over.”  I already have what I need to allow the music in my heart to emerge from my amplifier.  It almost seems selfish to ask for more.

At least in my case, the search for integrity in playing is a path – not a destination.  It’s given me new goals in practicing.  Rather than learning six-string arpeggio sweeps, I’m putting the things I know together in new ways.  It’s as exciting as learning the lick from “Purple Haze” was as a teenager.

If you happen to be a middle-aged player who’s been in “pause” mode for awhile, get your guitar out and search for your integrity.  Don’t learn new licks.  Play what you know, and focus on being aware of how unique your style is.  No one plays like you.  Put a few licks together in a new combination, or in a rhythmic variation you haven’t used before.  Whatever your musical vocabulary currently is, you will find infinite variations living within it – you don’t have to add anything. 

And please, my friend, hit the “play” button, never “stop.”   Keep making music.   We need everything you have to give.

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Larry Peter (or Sir Lawrence, as we like to call him) is Director/Producer/Composer for Powerplant Production, teaches classes on videography, and all-around cool dude. He is also Moore Music's videographer, responsible for many of the videos seen on the Moore Music Guitars' YouTube channel. Those are just his day jobs. He also moonlights as guitarist in the band, aptly named "The House Band."