So for the first installment of the Person You May or May Not Know (but probably should...), we're gonna take a quick look at guitarist Greg Howe. Greg is an outstanding "fusion" guitar player, although his music truly does defy strict categorizaion. Ultimately, his playing is deeply rooted in funk, rock, and blues, but he has a flair for "outside" playing, using jazzy extensions and color tones over some less than standard progressions. In addition to his own solo instrumental releases, Greg has toured as a sideman with many huge pop artists from Michael Jackson to the Backstreet Boys (yeah, yeah, I know...it doesn't sound cool, but you've got to be a consummate professional and a monster player to land gigs like this!)
I was blessed with the opportunity to study with Greg for almost a year and a half, driving down from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for long weekends, taking a handful of lessons here and there, and I can only say that his teaching ability rivals his musical talent. I expected to be overwhelmed, and shown lots of advanced skills/tricks/etc. The truth is, these lessons helped me more than any other single thing in my playing career, but not by hitting me over the head with advanced concepts and crazy ideas. We did work on some pretty intense material, but Greg was always able to make me feel comfortable as a player, while still pushing the limits of my ability. His goal was never to make me a "Greg Howe clone", but quite the opposite, he wanted to share some of his insight into music with me and make me into my own player and musician. C'mon...how many teachers really strive for that? He even took time out of his busy schedule to buy lunch for me after one of our lessons and just hang out and chat about music and life. I can't say enough great things about this guy.
So....all of you young players out there...get your hands on some Greg Howe albums (his 2003 release Extraction, with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers is a good place to start...also, an older album, Parallax, has some pretty mind-blowing playing on there). In addition, check out YouTube, he's got plenty of videos, including some lesson material. You won't regret it!
www.greghowe.com
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