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What are your musical influences...


garybrun

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Going on my topic on a pervious thread...
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What are your greatest musical influences'  and why???
Looking forward to reading your replies. 

Edited by garybrun
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Influence, imo, generally informs ones style and approach. Yet many of the things I loved listening to did not necessarily inform my style (at least consciously).

My listening "range" my not be very wide compared to Pedro or CraigB but for me it was somewhat diverse over the years.

The Beatles (and much of the English Invasion)

Genesis/Gentle Giant/Yes/Tull

Joe Pass

Return To Forever

Ray Charles

Hendrix

Cream (and all of the spinoffs)

Chicago/Blood Seat and Tears

Stevie Wonder

Elvis

Zappa

Edgar/Johnny Winter

Primus

ELO

.... and so much more, that's a just a small sample.

Edited by Bapu
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While I've loved listening to tons of music, my largest influencers have been my teachers.

I had a drum teacher in 4th grade who taught me to read time in sheet music which has proved very handy over the years... He was a teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University but I no longer know his name.

I had choir directors and a bass teacher in grade school.

I had a great guitar teacher, Ed Rudman, in Boulder Colorado for around 4 years who started me on Real Book tunes in 1993.

Lots of friends along the way urged me to learn one song or another.

2 ArtistWorks teachers (Dave Stryker and Andreas Oberg) have helped me stretch in new directions.

Watching live music like Yonder Mountain String Band or Dave Matthews Band or the Grateful Dead also had a big impact on me.

Edited by Gswitz
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I'd have to say the ones who influenced me the most were The Beatles. They motivated me to pick up a guitar and sing, particularly McCartney's harmony parts. The very first song I learned to play without the music in front of me was Misery. I learned to play guitar from The Pocket Beatles For Guitar and a huge book called The Beatles Complete or The Complete Beatles. Can't quite remember now. I can't find it anywhere online now. It had a red cover with stripes across it at the bottom iirc?

If I had to pick a top 5 (In order of importance to me):

Elvis & The Beatles

The Everly Brothers

Hank Williams Sr.

Chuck Berry

There are a lot of others that I learned from. There are too many to mention from the 50's and 60's on the country and oldies chart, but none had the same impact on me the way those 5 groups/people did.

Edited by Shane_B.
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Possibly subtle influences on mu guitar playing were many country stars that my father listened to:

Roy Acuff

Hank Williams Sr.

Chet Atkins

Buck Owens

Case in point: In my 8th grade cover band our lead guitar player said I strummed guitar like a cowboy. Shortly after that I switched to bass.

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These are artists I'm pretty sure have influenced me (as opposed to ones I just like):

  • Genesis (and solos - mainly Hackett/Collins/Banks)
  • Rush
  • Yes
  • It Bites
  • Camel
  • ELO
  • Pat Metheny Group / Lyle Mays
  • Pink Floyd
  • Bruce Hornsby
  • The Eagles / Don Henley
  • Chet Atkins 
  • Marillion 
  • Spock's Beard


 

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I profited by a broad music background from school and classic guitar education.

With my preferred styles I've stuck somehow in the 60s and 70s the most, but there is also a lot of influence from the 80s when we were playing intensively in our band. In that time I learned to estimate my fellow's play on the Jupiter 8 synth.

For playing lead guitar Eric Clapton had the most, almost unique influence.

Bands (more or less in order of importance):

  • The Beatles
  • T.Rex (Marc Bolan)
  • The Kinks
  • Little Richard
  • Alice Cooper
  • The Rolling Stones
  • The Who
  • CCR
  • Queen
  • Status Quo
  • The Sweet
  • Chuck Berry
  • Sheryl Crow
  • Lenny Kravitz
  • Bonnie Tyler
  • Eurythmics
  • ...
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Ah! Literally everything. I am happy to jump from Mozart to 80's Italopop passing via Metallica, Madonna, Herbie Hancock, some blues, Eminem and a detour in country land to end up  with some R&B and hip hop. So long there's a good  melody and some groove I dig it and it inspires me.  The sound of my band and my writing and playing as a songwriter and guitar player is the direct consequence of that.

Though I've never listened much to current stuff, in any era. I just let the passing of time filter away the 99% of crap and leave the 1% to which is worth listening. So in about 10 years I'll discover some good stuff from 2020 to get inspired from. :D

 

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8 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

I'm not even sure I have influences. While I can tell you which music, bands and artists I used to listen when I was young and growing up, I never aimed to imitate or become any of them in any way shape or form.

Being "influenced" by is not the same as copying. So we'd probably all say the same.

 

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