Mick Goodrick’s Guitar Player Articles
Mick Goodrick has been a central inspiration for my development on the guitar for over 10 years. His landmark book, The Advancing Guitarist was a huge eye-opener (like it was for many guitarists at that time). With the release of his newest book, Creative Harmony I went back through of some of the Mick Goodrick stuff I had collected over the years. He wrote a series of columns for Guitar Player magazine in the early nineties called “The Thinking Guitarist” that are a precursor to his book.
The thing that strikes me about these is his tireless commitment to creativity. He finds some interesting corners of the guitar and jazz, and is creative in the way he describes them and teaches the concepts. If you’ve checked out his books you know some of his ways of teaching, a lot of it is DIY-you make up your own exercises and find your own chords. He won’t hold your hand through any of it. It’s almost like he’s just shining a light on these concepts and you have to incorporate them into your playing on your own and in your own way.
One great way to work with this material is to take one idea at a time. Then you can work through that by writing your own exercises and etudes. That way you can successfully work it into your own playing vocabulary. Feel free to share any of your own etudes or ideas below!
Enjoy these articles-I collected them during my years at college where they had back issues of Guitar Player. I hope you can find some useful stuff here. They are definitely a reference to keep checking back with over the months/years, you will find new interesting stuff every time!
Mick goodrick Thinking Guitarist
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Thanks for reminding me of what great concepts Mick inspires with… He has always focused on a player’s individual voice and being non-cliche utilizing your own mind and heart to arrive there… Its hard to weed through so much material these days and waste time just learning over used lines/cliches that everybody including 8 year old’s can play nowadays! I can totally see why guitarist’s like Ambercrobie, Frisell, Stern and Metheny all studied with Mick… Another extremely gifted player/teacher is John Stowell…. He can be totally left of center but totally non-cliche with such interesting concepts sometimes Holdsworthian! Pat Martino has a wonderful way of looking at things from a guitar perspective as well… Thanks again for the Mick articles!
Jimmy, I had a chance to take a lesson with John Stowell-amazing guitarist! He’s got such an interesting sound and approach. It was really great.
Yea, I completely agree with you re Abercrombie, Frisell et al. It takes so much energy and commitment to come up with an original sound and those guys do exactly that.
Thanks for sharing, Mr. Goodchord is always fun to read
Of course. He’s one of my fav guitar thinkers/writers/players.
Thanks for sharing this writeup on Mick. I recently learnt about him (though have been a long time Pat Metheny admirer). Mick comes across as an amazing teacher and coach. I wish more educators had his kind of sense of humor as well as topical depth! I’m so glad I found out about Mick and am starting to learn from his lessons, materials, and humor too!
Yea he’s brilliant! His ideas have really influenced my own approach and teaching. I think the guitar world is a better place with mick!
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