- Disc - August 12, 1972
- courtesy of Jill Mallow
Alun Davies Guitar
Advice
IF YOU'RE going to play
guitar, learn to play it properly right from the beginning. That's the advice of Alun
Davies, Cat Stevens' guitarist who has also worked as a session player, solo artist and
music teacher for the Inner London Education Authority.
Alun recalls how he started
playing finger-style acoustic guitar. "I was listening to these early folk records
and I was aware that they weren't using a plectrum or just strumming because of all the
separate notes," said Alun. "But the first time I really heard it clearly was
listening to Jack Elliot's 'Cocaine Blues' where he used that clawhammer style. That was
the first thing I got down to listen to and learn.
"I'd worked out a way
of playing 'Cocaine Blues,' which was a strange sort of scuffling thing, which would take
me all over the fret board. In actual fact it didn't have to be like that, it was far more
compact. And then someone showed me how-to do it properly and I went 'Oh, I see.' "
Alun emphasizes that the
only way to learn finger style is to take it step by step, working out where your thumb
has to move, what finger slides up to which note and so on. If you learn to do this
properly you save yourself a lot of wasted effort in the long run.
"Things like good hand
position are important," says Alun. "It's not a discipline that's there for no
reason at all. If you do arch your hand properly, if you do have your thumb right
underneath the neck of the guitar and not curled round it, you will find it's easier to
make the changes. You will find that if you don't rest your entire hand on the fingerboard
but stay above the sound hole, it is easier to pick. Keep your hand suspended above it and
not anchored to the guitar.
"In the first eighteen
months when I was learning to play guitar I very slowly and deliberately worked out all
these chords from car, and listening to records. I discovered that the way I was fingering
the chord D was all back to front. When I wanted to lay other fingers on top of that
chord, say with my little finger, I discovered my little finger was in the wrong position
to do it. I had to unlearn a hell of a lot of things, and there are things I've never
successfully unlearnt. It's definitely worth learning the correct method."
Obviously the best way to
learn these techniques is to get someone to show you them. "Nothing is better than
having a good friend who plays guitar and who's going to show you something," is
Alun's opinion. "If you haven't got a friend who plays guitar then you're going to
have to whack out a pound or thirty bob an hour to a teacher. And you're going to have to
work at it. Your teacher's as good as you are. If he teaches you something and you come
back the next week and you still haven't learnt it he's going to start to lose interest in
you as a pupil.
"But if you start to
turn on your teacher. then you'll get a wealth of things. No figure would pay for that,
he'll do it for nothing at that point, in other words."
Alun speaks from his own
experience as a teacher of guitar here. He found it extremely depressing trying to teach
people who wouldn't make any effort on their own behalf. "I was very serious about
teaching," said Alun recalling his evening class experiences. "It used to drive
me right up the wall when I'd say that's C and that's F and that's G and they just
wouldn't take any notice at all. They'd come back dolefully twanging away making exactly
the same noises they made the very first week.
"But every now and
then it would be very rewarding. There'd be a couple of people who were really into it,
usually young geezers. They'd come back and they'd have all the changes off and they'd be
snapping backwards and forwards on the guitar and you'd think 'Terrific' and how rotten
for them to sit there with people struggling through it. Next year they'll give up guitar
and go to jam making classes."
Alun also gives a vivid
account of the effect an uninterested pupil has on his teacher. It clearly shows that you
are wasting everybody's time if you don't apply yourself to learning. "I'd have
people round at my house for private tuition and there was one who would make no effort at
all," recalls Alun. "I've never known an hour go for so long. I was forever
rushing out to the kitchen for another cup of tea. My mind was like a blank. There was
nothing more I could teach this man. Basically he had no natural ability. I think you have
to own up to your ability very early."
As well as learning from a
friend or teacher you can pick up a lot from listening to records, and, as far as
fingerstyle goes, unless you are talking about classic style players or flamenco, Alun
recommends listening to country players.
"If you can believe
he's flat picking listen to Doc Watson," Alun advises. "He's the man as far as
that goes. And Jack Elliot as well, because of his time. You can set your watch to it. I
always come back to old favourites, people like Chet Atkins, because you can't deny it
those guys can really play. As far as blues players, I listen to Son House and Snooks
Eaglin, who's really good. I'm never quite sure how he does things actually. I can never
quite suss it out but I think he plays with finger picks most of the time. But the real
man is Laurindo Ameida. I’m not sure what his nationality is, mainly I know him
through American recordings. Capitol have got some really fine albums by him."
Alun’s final piece of
advice for acoustic guitarists is to find someone else who plays it too. "You get to
bounce musical ideas off of each other. You can show each other things you’ve
discovered and ask each other how to play things you don’t know. Otherwise it costs
you a fortune in tuition."
