.full.953539.jpg "moonlight songs")
I loved that feeling of trying to improve as a player, and it felt great to get it back during this album by playing with somebody who is so accomplished.īlake played an electric fretless guitar quite a bit, and he told me that he picked it up from Ry Cooder Jack Johnsonīlake played an electric fretless guitar quite a bit, and he told me that he picked it up from Ry Cooder. I grew up before the internet, learning to play by sharing books and guitar magazines with my friends. It was conscious in the sense that the main reason I wanted to work with Blake Mills is because he’s an amazing guitar player. Was it a conscious choice to have less driving rhythm and more slinky lines and textures for Meet the Moonlight ? I haven’t gone to fake nails yet, but it seems like a good idea. So I adjust the blend according to the song.
#Moonlight songs skin#
Adding in some skin from the finger provides a bit of a fuller sound. It all depends on how much definition you want in the top end. Then when I went back out on tour, I’d play kind of using a bit of both the pick and the finger. It’s funny, because I would almost always play with a medium-gauge pick, and I think that’s partly because my fingernail gets worn down from all that percussive strumming on the heavier-gauge acoustic strings when I’m on tour.īut for the new album, I worked closely with producer Blake Mills, and every time I would give him the option of playing a track with or without the pick, he’d always choose the one without the pick because he preferred the tone. What exactly is going on with the pick and fingers as you execute that skank rhythm? I tend to play a lot of acoustic because it’s always around and doesn’t require electricity Jack Johnson The reggae skank is done more on electric guitar, but I tend to play a lot of acoustic because it’s always around and doesn’t require electricity.Įspecially when we were making surf movies, we were always traveling and there was always a guitar around, but there wasn’t an amp very often. They are both different styles of percussive acoustic strumming. So you hear a little bit of the chord, but it also acts as a percussive moment. The second one is a reggae skank, where you hear a little bit of the chord before muting it you strum on the backbeat with the fretting hand holding the chord, and then release quickly to mute it. The first one is that muted thing we first talked about, where there’s no note. I think that a lot of it comes from listening to reggae, and there are actually two different versions. I don’t mind going to it as my default when I’m alone or playing with friends in the living room, but there are times when I’m recording that I avoid it. It’s like when a blues player does just guitar and vocal – it’s got a certain thing. But it’s what I love to do, and when I’m sitting on the front porch, I have a version of all the songs in just that style. Yeah, I probably do a little bit, because there are times when I hear that in my own stuff. When I was writing songs, I would hear bass and drums in my head, and I’d do my best to create it all with the guitar alone Jack Johnsonĭo you ever avoid applying your own signature style to some material to steer clear of redundancy from song to song, album to album? Once somebody is helping you, it gets sort of redundant. When I wound up having a bass player and a drummer, I actually had to unlearn a little of what I was doing, because I was trying to cover too much. I didn’t wind up writing or recording that way, but I still play around with it sometimes on my own. I would mess around trying to hit where the kick drum would be with my right hand too. I’d try to make a snare drum sound by muting the strings with the fingers of my left hand – my chord hand – so that I could still keep the rhythm going with my strumming hand. When I was writing songs, I would hear bass and drums in my head, and I’d do my best to create it all with the guitar alone. The most solid aspect of my guitar playing is the rhythm, and I think that percussive style came from playing alone for so long, not necessarily wanting to be a folk musician, but not having a band. How did you develop your signature rhythm style?
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