Guitar Gear

Early this morning, I woke up to catch the Wimbledon Men’s final. Though I no longer play tennis, having played a little competitive tennis in my younger years, I have kept up with professional tennis.

Growing up watching the likes of Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, then Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, it was hard to imagine there’d be yet another phenom. Then Roger Federer hit the scene in 2001.

Yeah, I know he’d been around prior to this and had a couple of wins under his belt. But at the time, at least to me, he was to tennis as Ricky Fowler is to golf. Good player, nice guy off the court, but no majors.

But my opinion changed when he beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001 to advance to the quarterfinals. No, he didn’t win that tournament, but he got my attention. I remember thinking to myself that this guy was a special talent. Where Sampras was a powerhouse serve and volley guy, Federer was… well… kind of everything. He could rally from the baseline, he could attack the net, and his defensive game was otherworldly to me.

I remember turning to my buddy as we watched that match, “If Federer continues like this, he’s going to be the Bruce Lee of tennis.” My buddy asked me to explain and I replied, “What made Bruce Lee a master wasn’t because he was an expert at Kung Fu. What made him a master was that he didn’t obey the forms. He called his particular brand of martial arts the art of expressing the human the body. This is what Federer seems to be doing. He’s good at all aspects of the game. He hasn’t mastered it all – yet. But I’d like to see what happens when he does.” This segues into what we could all learn from “Fed” with respect to our beloved instrument, the guitar.

Humility. I believe that a driving force behind Roger’s success has been his incredible humility in approaching the game. Listen to an interview, read an exposé on his life, and you’ll never hear him brag. Take, for instance, his post-win interview yesterday. He spent more time talking about Cilic than himself and showing incredible empathy for Cilic’s physical condition.

For gear sluts like us, it’s easy to fall into the trap of getting big-headed about the gear we have; especially if we’ve paid a pretty penny for it. But in general, the gear doesn’t make the player. As for me, I keep pretty humble about the gear I have. I have some really great stuff, but I never speak about my gear as if it somehow makes me better than someone who has different or less-expensive stuff.

Open-mindedness. The fact that Roger Federer can win on any surface and more importantly, to mix up different styles of play informs me that he didn’t want to be known as a certain type of player. The fact that he can serve and volley, rally from the baseline, attack the net mid-game and have such incredible touch to be able to hit drop shots that are DOA is simply stupendous. As Jimmy Connors said of Roger Federer, “You’re either a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist, or a hard court specialist. Or you’re Roger Federer.” Damn!

In the guitar world, there are a couple of guys that never cease to amaze me. The first is John 5 from Marilyn Manson. That dude can play all sorts of styles. Of course, there’s also Paul Gilbert who’s simply incredible. Finally, one of my all-time favorites is Phil X. Not only can he play a bunch of different styles, he’s got shitloads of personality to boot! All these players haven’t gotten fixed into playing specific styles.

If that’s not your thing, I get it, and that’s perfectly okay. But opening yourself to being proficient in a multitude of musical styles can make you so much more expressive in your playing. For me, I’ve been focusing on reggae as of late. But what I’ve actually been experimenting with is applying modes and major scales to my solos to see where they lead me. It’s been really interesting and fun to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Focus. To be able to do what he has done for so long… To me, that just takes immense focus. Of course, as a professional tennis player, he has the luxury of applying all his focus. But to maintain that for close to two decades. Wow! Same could be said for Serena Williams. And she’s like Roger: So gracious and kind.

Focus is something that helped me get over my GAS. At one point, after I had acquired tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear, I just said STOP! I realize that I just wasn’t spending enough time on the gear I had. And what I realized is that the unicorn I was chasing was right there in front of me all along. I just had to quiet my mind, focus on playing, and let the beast out. 🙂

I could go on and on about what I could learn from Roger Federer, but three points is enough. ROCK ON!