Back in the Day…
When you were paid (as a band) $75 per gig, sheet music purchases were out of the question. So, we learned by listening. Over and over and over again.
In the days before guitar tabs or web sites, the only way to learn how to play a song was to figure it out for yourself. Occasionally, you would find sheet music but it was expensive. We would sneak a look at it in the store to get a missing chord or lyric but mostly we just listened to the record over and over and over again until we thought we had it. My role in the process was to figure out the chords and learn to play any solos or important lead section. Somebody else in the band handled the lyrics and the drummer was supposed to learn the drum part (which he occasionally did but mostly he didn’t).
I had taken guitar lessons for maybe 8 months in 1964/65. My teacher (Mr. Orsini) was a jazz guy who hated rock and roll and wouldn’t teach it. There weren’t a lot of choices of guitar teachers in Schenectady, NY in 1964. The upside was that I didn’t only learn cowboy chords-I learned 6ths and 9ths and augmented 5ths and all the cool jazz chords that rockers didn’t often use. They weren’t much use at first but the George Harrison started adding some weird chords to Beatle songs (which were a staple in my band at the time). He often ended a song with a 9th chord and occasionally a 6th. I knew them right away. The rest of the song was usually pretty easy at least until we got to Revolver. Learning the leads was a different story altogether. I’m not a particularly dexterous player and I’m not particularly fast. I was a pretty decent lead player for a 14 year in 1966 but I often couldn’t quite keep up with the pros I was learning from and I was somewhat baffled by double tracked leads that I didn’t know were double tracked. I remember learning the solo for the Yardbirds’ “Shapes of Things” and I got it down pretty well but the double tracking at the end threw me off. That was about as good as I got.
The other problem was that at that time, I played a 1962 ES-330 which sounded pretty great but didn’t have good access to the upper register. By 1968, I had grown frustrated with the feedback from the P-90s and full hollow 330 and bought an SG Standard. The problem with the SG was different. I understood intonation by then but could never get the G string to intonate properly. I played with 9’s back then (when I could find them) and today, when intonating an SG, I still can’t get the G string right because the guitars were built for a wound G string. What did I know…I was 16 in 1968. But at least I could reach the high notes on the fingerboard without falling all over myself.
By 1968 however, we discovered something called a “fake book”. These basically bootleg compilations of popular songs usually written out by hand or mimeographed (remember mimeographs?) from legit sheet music. They were crazy expensive ($25 in 1968 was equal to around $250 today) but it saved us a lot of time even though the books were often wrong or oversimplified. The band, in 68, made around $150 per gig so $25 was significant. By 69-70 we were good enough to charge $300 usually for frat parties at the local college (Union) but we had to play until 3 AM. That usually meant more than a few repeat songs but most of the partygoers were drunk by midnight so they probably didn’t notice.
I played with various bands until 1974 when I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be a rock star. I simply wasn’t a good enough player and figured I never would be. I was an OK backup singer…I can still harmonize with almost anything without even thinking about it. That’s a wonderful gift but I would rather have had those long thin fingers that many of the great players have and the dexterity to use them. My little hands and short fingers are not made for playing lead.
It was a very different time. No i-pad to refer to for the lyrics and no Ultimate Guitar website with every song ever written. I guess that makes it much easier to learn a song but it’s not the same. Learning by ear makes you a better musician. You learn some theory and you learn perseverence. The latter is perhaps the most important element in becoming a good guitarist.
Our four piece band was getting $125 a night, double on New Year’s Eve. We played nearly every Friday and Saturday night. I was 12 when I joined the band on bass, they were desperate. Never walked beans after that. Never became a rock star either.
My band was 6 pieces and we got $300 (mostly college frat parties) in the late 60’s/early 70’s. I never became a rock star either.