Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.

Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.

You can't think and play. If you think about what you're playing the playing becomes stilted. You have to just focus on the music I feel, concenctrate on the music, focus on what you're playing and let the playing come out. Once you start thinking about doing this or doing that, it's not good. What you are doing is like a language. You have a whole collection of musical ideas and thoughts that you've accumulated through your musical history plus all the musical history of the whole world and it's all in your subconscious and you draw upon it when you play

Learn everything you know in all keys.

I'm a little tired. I haven't been out for more than five or six weeks in the States, and that's really a lot for me. You know, to me, music is important, it's the way I make my living and I like it and I enjoy playing. But it's not the most important thing in my life - that's my family.

Using drugs didn't help me to play, all it did was to hang me up for about fifteen years.

I don't remember that I copied any guitar player note-for-note. But I remember copying Charlie Parker note for note.