Lick of the Week - Cool Latin Vibes
Picture it - it's the "Summer of Love" ...
The group "Santana" was flown in by helicopter to Max Yasgur's farm, which was the site of WOODSTOCK in August of 1969. It was just months after Carlos was playing bars in Tijuana. Now, he was about to play to 400,000 people.
When Carlos got out of the helicopter around noon he found his way backstage to say he was ready to play. He was told he probably wasn't going to go on until after the Grateful Dead. He sees his friend JERRY GARCIA and Jerry says they aren't going on for another 12 hours or so which would be about 1am. Carlos expected that he would most likely get on stage at 3am.
So, there he was stuck at Woodstock when Jerry Garcia said, "Carlos, take this!" The drug of choice at Woodstock was LSD (ACID). Carlos popped it in his mouth and soon after he started tripping out, and by all accounts, he tripped out hard.
All of a sudden, it's time to play and Carlos is ready to perform to a crowd of people that didn't know who he was just yet. Carlos was on the eve of his success, but this performance that was just about to happen at Woodstock, would catapult him to stardom.
He has said many times that it felt like the neck of his guitar was slithering around like snakes. He would close his eyes and trust his fingers to just play. He didn't want to stare at his guitar neck, because it would freak him out. So, he would make these odd faces and close his eyes and trust the gift of his fingers to remember where to go.
Carlos would pray while playing at WOODSTOCK and asked God to please let him play well and if he did, he would never touch drugs again. Well, Carlos did play well, but I don't think he kept his promise to not get high anymore.
I just think this story illustrates a point I've been trying to make with my students for years - practice doesn't make perfect - practice makes permanent. If you practice perfectly and you repeat it enough times, and just trust yourself - your body will remember what to do!
So I hope that helps you overcome some of you stage jitters!
This week's lick is arguably one of Santana's finest. It's in a Dorian modality, but you can also just think of this as "cool minor blues rock" sound.
See if you can play it as smooth as Carlos did!
My favorite part is between bars 5 and 6 - the syncopation and the eventual hammer on to the 10th fret on the B string just really sings.
As always, the guitar pro file and printable pdf are in the DropBox for Guitar Dojo App members.
If you're not sure how to get into the app, or even apply - send me an email and I'll get you sorted out!