When I was a kid, Terry Murphy was the hometown hero of guitar playing. He was a hilarious guy, and while a little rough around the edges, he had a heart of gold. A few years ago, I heard that he had died in a car accident, and it bummed me out really bad.
Terry worked at a guitar store (of course), and I would go in there and annoy him with all my little guitar nerd friends. I had been listening obsessively to Clapton’s solos in “Crossroads”, and he kept landing on a note that didn’t appear in “The Box” which I was so dedicated to at the time. Terry was behind the counter at the store, hungover and surly, noodling away on an old, beat-up sunburst Strat. I always loved the way Terry played, so I was just watching and listening. He then played this killer A minor Pentatonic lick, but he landed it on a note between two notes of “The Box”. I jumped off the stool I was sitting on, and yelled “THAT’S IT!!! THAT’S THE NOTE!!!”. Terry looked at me like I was retarded. “What the hell are you talking about?”, Terry replied. “The note you just landed on! It’s the one Clapton plays all the time. It’s not in “The Box”, and I couldn’t find it”, I said with a huge grin. Terry, still looking at me like I was an idiot, said “It’s the Major 3rd. It’s from the Major Pentatonic scale. You can mix them together, dumbass”.
This little piece of advice is still the biggest, most impactful thing on my playing of anything I’ve ever learned. Terry was a huge hero of mine, and this little tip (however gruff it was delivered) let me know that it was OK to trust my ears, and that I wasn’t limited to the notes of any shape or pattern. The day I learned this literally is the first day I felt like I was actually understanding how to play music.
Anyway, I was talking to my friend Chris on Facebook this morning, and I found out that Terry is NOT DEAD!!! He’s alive and well, with two kids. It’s so rad to find out someone that you thought was dead is actually still kickin’. My day is made.
guitarwithguffey 