November 6, 2025 • 21 mins
What if your next gig felt clear before you even picked up the guitar? Steve walks through his complete prep system for tackling a massive score like Jesus Christ Superstar with a small ensemble and tight rehearsal window, turning complexity into confident, musical performance.
We start with bird’s-eye listening to map the architecture of each song—intros, verses, bridges, and drops—so the emotional arc is obvious. Then we zoom into the details: where guitar adds impact, where silence is stronger, and how to balance parts when the score expects an orchestra but the pit is five players. Steve explains how he studies multiple productions, from the original album to the 2017 John Legend staging, to separate essentials from style and shape guitar parts that fit the cast, room, and instrumentation.
From there, it’s practical tools: performance-focused cheat sheets, dynamic markings, and page-turn cues that keep the body ahead of the paper. We talk about fixing bad charts, choosing voicings that leave space for vocals, and creating textures that cover missing horns or keys without clutter. You’ll hear why some riffs must be faithful while others can flex, how to decide which part makes the band sound bigger, and what to practice so transitions, articulations, and tone shifts feel automatic under pressure.
If you’re a guitarist preparing for theater, church, or a cover set, this playbook shows how to think like an arranger while playing like a teammate. You’ll walk away with a repeatable workflow for deep listening, smart part selection, and musical dynamics that elevate every scene. Enjoy the process, serve the song, and make a small band sound huge. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a bandmate, and leave a review with the biggest prep tip you’re stealing.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey Steve Stein from Guitar Zoom Academy here.
I just want to talk to you alittle bit about how I prepare
for gigs and musicalopportunities that I'm presented
with.
And I'm sure my uh my approachis going to seem a bit overkill,
which feeds right into my OCDand uh perfectionist sort of way
(00:22):
of approaching things.
But so my example for you todayis going to be starting that
right now, it's it's October,all right, October 2025 when I'm
filming this.
In November, I'm going to beperforming Jesus Christ
Superstar for one of the localcolleges.
And it's going to be myself,another guitar player, uh
(00:44):
drummer, bass player, and apiano slash key slash synth
player.
And if you know anything aboutit, which I did not, I've, I
mean, I've heard of it before,but I've never actually listened
to it.
There's a lot of stuff going onin that musical.
Lots of, there's, there's a tonof songs, there's a ton of
music, and just a lot ofdifferent things going on in
(01:04):
there.
And the performances that I'velistened to and watched online,
things like that, there'susually more than just a band.
You know, you'll have kind ofan orchestra set up where
there's different kinds ofthings.
So my point is the first thingthat I like to do when I try and
get ready for some sort ofperformance, be it one of the
(01:25):
rock bands I play in, uh playingwith symphonies, playing a
church, playing in a musicallike this, is I want to get
comfortable with the music thatI'm going to be playing.
So this is something that maybea lot of people don't do, and
it's okay.
Everybody's got their own way.
I just wanted to talk to you alittle bit about how I do it.
I like to listen to the musicand get to know it in my head.
(01:47):
Um, you know, not the chordsand the scales and the solos and
the whatever.
Just, you know, as a verybird's eye view, like what does
the song, let's just talk aboutone song to begin with.
What does the song sound like?
Like, is there an intro of somesort?
Is there some sort of guitarthing at the beginning?
And then the verse kicks in.
Is there palm muting going on?
(02:08):
You know, what happens in thebridge or the chorus?
What changes there?
You know, just generalizedthings that I'll get out of
listening to a song.
Where, you know, somebody whomay, maybe doesn't play an
instrument might listen to thelyrics and memorize the lyrics
and that sort of thing.
For me, it's less aboutmemorizing the lyrics and it's
more about kind of what I callgoing underground or going deep.
(02:28):
Like I'll start listeningholistically to the structure of
the song.
Again, from a very bird's eyeview, just getting used to
things.
And then as I've listened to itthree or four or five or six or
seven or eight times, orwhatever it is I need, then I
start zooming in a little bitand start getting a little bit
more.
Oh, it sounds like there's alick here.
Oh, it sounds like there'ssomething here.
(02:50):
It sounds like I don't playhere.
Sounds like this is quiet here.
Like I'll start creating, youknow, an idea in my head of when
do I play?
When do I not play?
Am I playing loud?
Am I playing quiet?
You know, is there what's goingon there?
Then I'll kind of zoom in evenmore.
And and this is where it reallyhappens more with situations
like the musical, situationslike church, where I'm not
(03:14):
exactly sure what theinstrumentation is going to be.
So, in the the way I approachthings is I'll start thinking,
well, what are generalisticallythe guitar parts, right?
G and whatever and whatever.
And maybe there's a pickingthing underneath there.
So I'm already thinking, well,there's probably got to be two
guitar players to do this.
And if I wind up only being,you know, the only guitar player
(03:37):
at church or something likethat, I'm gonna have to choose
one part or the other.
Or maybe there's two guitarplayers, but there's a really
important piano part, butthere's no piano player this
weekend for church.
So I might give considerationof how I might, you know, cover
that part.
I don't do that most of thetime if I'm in a rock band
situation because, you know, anACDC song is kind of an A C D C
(04:00):
song.
Now, I might not be able tocover, you know, the rhythm and
the solo at the same time, but Ican have more of a generalized
approach to these songs and Ican learn them more kind of in
the vein of what they are.
Although, you know, if if ifyou're playing Queens Reich and
you're the only guitar player,and most of the time that music
has two guitar players, youknow, doing harmonies and
(04:20):
different chord, you know,arrangements and things like
that, you're gonna have to dothe same thing.
You still have to make someadjustments on what's the best
thing I could be doing at thisat this point.
So the the bigger picture hereis you can't just learn a guitar
part necessarily, you know, atab number one versus guitar one
versus guitar two.
It depends on the circumstance.
(04:40):
It depends on the ensemble thatyou're playing with, whether or
not there's enough people tocover everything.
So because I've played in threebeat three-piece bands a long
time with one guitar player, onebass player, and a drummer, and
then everybody sings, you getvery used to how to approach,
you know, carry on wayward sunthat's got all these different
(05:00):
parts, like different kinds ofthings like that.
So you make the music sound asfull as you can without missing
things, but it's impossible tonot miss things.
You just try and pick the bestthings at that time.
It's a lot more work to do thatthan it is just learning a
guitar part.
So moving into this um JesusChrist superstar, there's a lot
(05:21):
of music.
So, you know, I started offjust listening to trying to get
comfortable with, you know, thethe musical in its entirety,
kind of getting used toholistically what everything's
doing.
And I have charts from the thecollege that they've given me.
The the problem, though, is wearen't able to cover all of the
parts that I'm hearing in thismusical, watching the one with
(05:45):
John Legend, watching the oneback from 1992, I think it was.
There's a London one, um,there's the original from 73, I
think it was 72 or 73.
Like trying to get a sense ofwhat's different between these
and what what do I see myself asa guitar player, as a musician
bringing to the table?
You know, I need to play what'sneeded of me, but are there
(06:08):
other things that I could do aswell to maybe thicken this
experience a bit as opposed tojust what's written on the
chart?
So this is a conversation thatyou need to have with the other
musicians that you're going tobe playing with.
I'm I'm not trying tonecessarily be an overachiever,
although I'm sure I am.
What I'm trying to do is thinkhow can I give the best musical
(06:30):
experience to the performersthat then, you know, may feed
them to the audience.
And of course, the themusicality you're you know,
connecting directly to theaudience as well.
So it's not just what's theleast amount that I could
possibly do to read the chartsand get through the thing and be
done.
It's what can I do to try andmake this as big as I can, as
(06:53):
full as I can, or the opposite.
Are there spots where I shouldjust lay out where the piano or
the you know the keyboard orwhatever might be happening,
even though there's chordswritten there, maybe that's a
really good spot for me to duckout.
Well, how do I know?
Well, I listen to a number ofdifferent performances to see
what other uh other people havedone, right?
Other performances have donefrom Broadway to you know across
(07:15):
the world and see kind of howtheir approaches are.
And that way I've got a littlemore ideas.
So what I do, well, not thatyou're really gonna be able to
see this, but um, so I'll createthese charts that are charts of
kind of an overview.
So for instance, the firstsong, there's another guitar
(07:36):
player that's gonna be playing.
So uh in the overture of this,and it's again, it's perfectly
fine if you don't know what thisis, but I'm doing this lead
guitar part, and then thesepunches come in.
Well, of course, the otherguitar player is gonna be
covering those punches.
And then he's playing some ofthese other things.
And what I'm doing is I'mcovering some of the horn parts
at that point because we don'thave a horn player, right?
(07:56):
So I I've learned the hornparts.
Now I know the guitar chordsunderneath, but I also know the
horn parts up on top.
So that way when we gettogether, if we say, hey, this
could use a little more, youknow, something up there,
because that part's missingbecause we're nobody's covering
it.
I can cover that part.
Or I could double maybe thekeyboard player if that keyboard
(08:16):
player is playing that.
It all depends.
But I like to go in with thatidea.
So I'll create these kind ofcheat sheets, if you will.
It isn't about G or C or Bminor or this scale.
It's it's about what's thewhat's the music doing?
Are there parts where I shouldlay out?
Are there parts that are moreintense?
Um, you know, uh, you know,because some of these songs are
(08:39):
are kind of complex in theirstructure, I'll write down
structure hints and differentthings like that on these
sheets.
Um, and that way I've got alittle bit better idea of how
I'm going to approach it.
Then I take the actual chartsthat I was sent from the college
to play the songs, and I'llstart going through that and
looking and seeing is everythingcorrect?
(09:00):
Like, are the keys correct?
Are the courts correct that I'mhearing?
And I'm not just using oneresource, like again, because I
am kind of an overachiever, I'mlooking at two or three
different resources here.
And yes, whether we like it ornot, there are some mistakes in
the book that, you know, whetherthey say there's no mistakes,
that there are.
(09:20):
There are some things thataren't right.
And so we've talked about andwent, no, no, no, that chord is
wrong.
It's supposed to be this chord.
Or you'll be listening andthere'll be a you know no guitar
written, but you can clearlyhear these guitar parts playing.
Now, again, maybe it's okaythat the guitar isn't in at that
spot.
But maybe it, maybe it wouldthicken it up if it wasn't, if
there was something there.
(09:42):
Um, I don't remember which songit is off the top of my head,
but there's a song that hasthese tritones that sounds
really great.
Um gosh, I don't remember whichone it is.
Maybe it's no, it's not thatone either.
I don't remember which one itis, but it sounds really cool
and it's really, really dark.
And um, and so, you know, itsounds cooler with some guitar
(10:04):
parts written underneath thereas opposed to just the piano
doing it.
So these are things that I'llwrite down.
So these are opportunities.
And then I'll go to my actualcharts and I'll start marking
down what you know, quiet downhere, don't play here, play loud
here, you know, change whateverit is, make any, you know,
marks that will trigger thoughtsin my head.
(10:26):
Oh, yeah, here comes that part.
There it is, that's that part,or here comes that that scale
thing, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Right.
So I'll see those on there so Ihave a better represent
representation of what I'm goingto do.
Now we're only gonna get acouple of rehearsals together,
and then we have rehearsals withuh the other performers.
We'll have a couple of those,and then it's the shows.
(10:47):
So there's not a lot of time toget ready.
So I like to have, you know,multiple options available.
So as soon as we startpracticing, I can go, nope, I
don't need to do that.
Obviously, that's covered, soI'm gonna stay out of the way.
Or yeah, that sounds kind ofempty.
I should probably add this inthere and see how that sounds.
And for me, it it moves themusic off of the chart into my
(11:10):
thought process, into my body.
So yeah, I'm still gonna usethose charts because there's a
lot of information here.
I have not memorized everyaspect of Jesus Christ
Superstar, but I have a reallygood sense of flow of things.
And so if I need to flip apage, I know what's coming on
the next page.
And sometimes I'll even write acheat on the bottom of the
previous page so I can get readyfor that page flip or whatever
(11:32):
it might be, um, or memorizethat part.
The point being though, I'vegot a plan.
So I'm not just relying onthis.
Because if I do that, theproblem is I'm not aware of the
dynamics.
I'm not aware of how to makethis thing ebb and flow in a
more musical way.
Because if we think aboutmusic, for me, that's what
(11:53):
music's really about.
It's not whether or not youknow the G chord or you know the
C chord or you know a B flatminor seven flat five chord.
That's great.
We need to know those.
That we have to know those.
If we don't know those things,we can't play those things.
But the music doesn't end withthe knowledge.
The music is in theperformance, it's in the
approach.
And so the more I can listen tothings and get a sense of what
(12:16):
it's supposed to sound like.
So if we back up and I go backto church, for instance, okay,
and play in church, a lot oftimes the church songs will have
some broader dynamics.
And, you know, maybe there's aguitar part that I should be
covering, even though thisguitar part seems like it'd be a
lot more fun.
This is what really needs to bethere because without this, the
music sounds kind of empty.
(12:38):
And I don't want it to soundempty.
So I need to make a, you know,adult choice and play this part,
or maybe change the the chordof this, not the the quality of
the chord, but where I'm playingit or how I'm playing it, so it
sounds a little bit the voicingsounds a little bit better.
Okay.
Now these things take time toget to that level.
I'm just saying, if what I seea lot is people will go, I can't
(13:02):
play along with this, it'smoving too fast.
And and you you try and explainto them, look, if you learn, if
you first listen to the tune,get a sense of what it is, and
then go into your toolbox andsay, well, what do I need to
play this?
Well, I need G and A minor andC and blah, blah, blah.
Okay, do I know these?
If I don't know these, I stillcan't play the song because I
need to learn these things.
I need to get not just learnthem like I know what it is, I
(13:25):
have to learn how to do them andI need to do them well, right?
I have to have confidence andcontrol in the things that I'm
doing on the instrument.
Strumming is another big part,or picking, or whatever it might
be.
So with Jesus Christ Superstar,I can't be, I can't be stifled
by I don't know this chord, or Igotta know this stuff.
(13:47):
Otherwise, I wouldn't be ableto do this.
This is a much bigger projectthan than you know, just
learning how to play knocking onheaven's door or something like
that.
And no offense to that.
It just is.
It's a lot more stuff.
So for someone like me who's abit obsessive compulsive, you
know, I really want to know, Iwant to know the music.
And so I went from not havingever listened to Jesus Christ
(14:09):
Superstar to my wife and uh,well, myself, and unfortunately,
I suppose my wife havinglistened to it 85 billion times
when we're in the car.
But we've both uh, you know,developed a sense of
appreciation for this musicalfor Jesus Christ Superstar.
And now I find myself like Iwould listen to it even when
(14:30):
this thing is over.
I would go back to this andlisten to this because I've I've
found that I really enjoy it.
The version that I found that Ireally enjoy is the 2017
version or whatever it was withJohn Legend.
I I just think that that isamazing.
If you ever get a chance toactually watch it, it's it's
incredible.
I love it.
Not that I haven't watched andlistened to other ones I think
(14:52):
are amazing.
Um, there are, but this is theone that I find myself really
sinking my teeth into.
And so when I make some musicalchoices, you know, out of all
these versions that I've beenlistening to, I find myself
gravitating more toward thatone, going, I like how they did
this with this particular partor whatever it might be.
(15:13):
You know, there's there's someparts in this Jesus Christ
superstar that has some reallygreat saxophone lines.
Well, one of the gentlementhat's playing with us, he's a
really good friend of mine.
He's an amazing musician onmultiple levels.
Just can't even stress thatenough.
But he's an amazing, amazing,amazing saxophone player.
And for me, there's no reasonwhy he shouldn't play.
(15:36):
Now, I'm not in charge of this,right?
I'm just playing this.
But in my mind, I'm thinking,man, that's gonna elevate that
musical moment if he can playsax on that.
Even though this is of, youknow, drums and bass and guitar
and keyboard, right?
That's what this is.
I think that that would beelevated huge if he could play
(15:58):
saxophone on those things.
Because I can already cover theguitar parts that are
underneath that.
And he should shine on thatpart and elevate that thing.
And so again, it's just asuggestion that I'll have.
If if if the leader says, youknow, the the director, whoever
says, no, we don't really needthat, that's fine.
That's listen, I'm not incharge of this.
These are just things that I'vegot written down to be able to
(16:20):
present and go, this would beamazing.
And if they're interested inlistening to any of our ideas,
including mine, that woulddefinitely be one of my ideas.
So anyway, I just thought it'dbe kind of interesting to tell
you how it works for me.
I suppose part of the reasonwhy I've I've done it this way
is because when I was growing upplaying guitar, there weren't I
didn't have chord charts orthere was no internet and
(16:44):
magazines weren't even popular,like those early guitar
magazines weren't even a thingin Fargo, North Dakota in 1983.
Like, sure, they came out, butthey weren't around ear.
You know, it wasn't until alittle while later that we
started getting more of thatkind of stuff.
And even a guitar magazine isonly going to tell you whatever
it tells you in that month'sedition.
That's all you get.
Like whatever song is in there,and whatever lesson might be in
(17:06):
there, and whatever interviewsare in there, or whatever.
So I learned to play by ear,like a lot of people my age did.
I learned by putting the needleon the guitar or on the um on
the record and listening andfiguring out what I was doing
and take the needle off and workon that, put it back down,
learn the next part, take itback off, and just keep going.
But I think there's somethingthat happens in your head where
you start learning to visualizeconnectivity and colors of
(17:32):
things, like chords and youknow, different kinds of stuff.
And so that's the way my brainworks.
So I would strongly encourageyou if you are the kind of
person that just really kind ofjust reads the chart or tries to
learn things note for note.
And please don't get me wrong,some things do need to be note
for note.
There's no doubt about it.
You can't go changing thebeginning of Crazy Train, right?
(17:53):
But there are other elementsinside Crazy Train that have a
little bit of flexibility.
They just do.
I guarantee you that Zach Wildedoes not play Crazy Train
exactly the same way that RandyRhodes did.
And I can also tell you thatRandy Rhodes didn't even play
Crazy Train the exact way thatRandy Rhodes did from the
recording to the way he wouldperform it live.
(18:14):
So there's always some grayarea in there.
That doesn't mean we cancompletely revamp the lick or,
you know, different kinds ofthings like that.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is there's realapproaches to things that we
might change because this is alittle more comfortable for us,
whether it be in technique,approach, visualization,
memorization, whatever it mightbe.
(18:35):
So, anyway, hopefully thathelps you a little bit.
Um, you know, always rememberthat guitar playing isn't just
about putting your fingers onthe guitar and playing some
exercise.
There's a lot more to this thatyou want to be thinking about.
So you're expanding yourpalette of daily engagement in
the world of music, the world ofguitar.
So you're getting a biggerpicture of everything, not just
(18:58):
I'm getting faster.
That's great.
I'm, and that would bewonderful if that's if that's
true.
But there's a lot more to thisthan just an exercise or a scale
or learning these chords orwhatever it might be.
So the more you can become kindof, you know, tuned into that,
the better you're going to be.
So if for some reason you haveany questions, you know, you're
looking for better direction,you're looking for assessments
(19:20):
if you're playing, you don'treally have a game plan, you
want to start actually workingwith some instructors that I
mean, we have this thing calledGuitar Zoom Academy.
We work with people on a dailybasis.
You and I connect daily andtalk about whatever.
We have conversations about allkinds of things, assessments of
your playing.
Um, there's a whole thing tothat.
And it's worth looking at ifyou're interested.
(19:41):
All you got to do is uh checkout Guitar Zoom Academy and, you
know, get on a call to havesomeone kind of explain to you
how all of this works, see if itfits your world, and go from
there.
So take care, stay positive,and I'll talk to you soon, okay?
Hey Steve Stein from Guitar Zoom Academy here.
I just want to talk to you alittle bit about how I prepare
for gigs and musicalopportunities that I'm presented
with.
And I'm sure my uh my approachis going to seem a bit overkill,
which feeds right into my OCDand uh perfectionist sort of way
(00:22):
of approaching things.
But so my example for you todayis going to be starting that
right now, it's it's October,all right, October 2025 when I'm
filming this.
In November, I'm going to beperforming Jesus Christ
Superstar for one of the localcolleges.
And it's going to be myself,another guitar player, uh
(00:44):
drummer, bass player, and apiano slash key slash synth
player.
And if you know anything aboutit, which I did not, I've, I
mean, I've heard of it before,but I've never actually listened
to it.
There's a lot of stuff going onin that musical.
Lots of, there's, there's a tonof songs, there's a ton of
music, and just a lot ofdifferent things going on in
(01:04):
there.
And the performances that I'velistened to and watched online,
things like that, there'susually more than just a band.
You know, you'll have kind ofan orchestra set up where
there's different kinds ofthings.
So my point is the first thingthat I like to do when I try and
get ready for some sort ofperformance, be it one of the
(01:25):
rock bands I play in, uh playingwith symphonies, playing a
church, playing in a musicallike this, is I want to get
comfortable with the music thatI'm going to be playing.
So this is something that maybea lot of people don't do, and
it's okay.
Everybody's got their own way.
I just wanted to talk to you alittle bit about how I do it.
I like to listen to the musicand get to know it in my head.
(01:47):
Um, you know, not the chordsand the scales and the solos and
the whatever.
Just, you know, as a verybird's eye view, like what does
the song, let's just talk aboutone song to begin with.
What does the song sound like?
Like, is there an intro of somesort?
Is there some sort of guitarthing at the beginning?
And then the verse kicks in.
Is there palm muting going on?
(02:08):
You know, what happens in thebridge or the chorus?
What changes there?
You know, just generalizedthings that I'll get out of
listening to a song.
Where, you know, somebody whomay, maybe doesn't play an
instrument might listen to thelyrics and memorize the lyrics
and that sort of thing.
For me, it's less aboutmemorizing the lyrics and it's
more about kind of what I callgoing underground or going deep.
(02:28):
Like I'll start listeningholistically to the structure of
the song.
Again, from a very bird's eyeview, just getting used to
things.
And then as I've listened to itthree or four or five or six or
seven or eight times, orwhatever it is I need, then I
start zooming in a little bitand start getting a little bit
more.
Oh, it sounds like there's alick here.
Oh, it sounds like there'ssomething here.
(02:50):
It sounds like I don't playhere.
Sounds like this is quiet here.
Like I'll start creating, youknow, an idea in my head of when
do I play?
When do I not play?
Am I playing loud?
Am I playing quiet?
You know, is there what's goingon there?
Then I'll kind of zoom in evenmore.
And and this is where it reallyhappens more with situations
like the musical, situationslike church, where I'm not
(03:14):
exactly sure what theinstrumentation is going to be.
So, in the the way I approachthings is I'll start thinking,
well, what are generalisticallythe guitar parts, right?
G and whatever and whatever.
And maybe there's a pickingthing underneath there.
So I'm already thinking, well,there's probably got to be two
guitar players to do this.
And if I wind up only being,you know, the only guitar player
(03:37):
at church or something likethat, I'm gonna have to choose
one part or the other.
Or maybe there's two guitarplayers, but there's a really
important piano part, butthere's no piano player this
weekend for church.
So I might give considerationof how I might, you know, cover
that part.
I don't do that most of thetime if I'm in a rock band
situation because, you know, anACDC song is kind of an A C D C
(04:00):
song.
Now, I might not be able tocover, you know, the rhythm and
the solo at the same time, but Ican have more of a generalized
approach to these songs and Ican learn them more kind of in
the vein of what they are.
Although, you know, if if ifyou're playing Queens Reich and
you're the only guitar player,and most of the time that music
has two guitar players, youknow, doing harmonies and
(04:20):
different chord, you know,arrangements and things like
that, you're gonna have to dothe same thing.
You still have to make someadjustments on what's the best
thing I could be doing at thisat this point.
So the the bigger picture hereis you can't just learn a guitar
part necessarily, you know, atab number one versus guitar one
versus guitar two.
It depends on the circumstance.
(04:40):
It depends on the ensemble thatyou're playing with, whether or
not there's enough people tocover everything.
So because I've played in threebeat three-piece bands a long
time with one guitar player, onebass player, and a drummer, and
then everybody sings, you getvery used to how to approach,
you know, carry on wayward sunthat's got all these different
(05:00):
parts, like different kinds ofthings like that.
So you make the music sound asfull as you can without missing
things, but it's impossible tonot miss things.
You just try and pick the bestthings at that time.
It's a lot more work to do thatthan it is just learning a
guitar part.
So moving into this um JesusChrist superstar, there's a lot
(05:21):
of music.
So, you know, I started offjust listening to trying to get
comfortable with, you know, thethe musical in its entirety,
kind of getting used toholistically what everything's
doing.
And I have charts from the thecollege that they've given me.
The the problem, though, is wearen't able to cover all of the
parts that I'm hearing in thismusical, watching the one with
(05:45):
John Legend, watching the oneback from 1992, I think it was.
There's a London one, um,there's the original from 73, I
think it was 72 or 73.
Like trying to get a sense ofwhat's different between these
and what what do I see myself asa guitar player, as a musician
bringing to the table?
You know, I need to play what'sneeded of me, but are there
(06:08):
other things that I could do aswell to maybe thicken this
experience a bit as opposed tojust what's written on the
chart?
So this is a conversation thatyou need to have with the other
musicians that you're going tobe playing with.
I'm I'm not trying tonecessarily be an overachiever,
although I'm sure I am.
What I'm trying to do is thinkhow can I give the best musical
(06:30):
experience to the performersthat then, you know, may feed
them to the audience.
And of course, the themusicality you're you know,
connecting directly to theaudience as well.
So it's not just what's theleast amount that I could
possibly do to read the chartsand get through the thing and be
done.
It's what can I do to try andmake this as big as I can, as
(06:53):
full as I can, or the opposite.
Are there spots where I shouldjust lay out where the piano or
the you know the keyboard orwhatever might be happening,
even though there's chordswritten there, maybe that's a
really good spot for me to duckout.
Well, how do I know?
Well, I listen to a number ofdifferent performances to see
what other uh other people havedone, right?
Other performances have donefrom Broadway to you know across
(07:15):
the world and see kind of howtheir approaches are.
And that way I've got a littlemore ideas.
So what I do, well, not thatyou're really gonna be able to
see this, but um, so I'll createthese charts that are charts of
kind of an overview.
So for instance, the firstsong, there's another guitar
(07:36):
player that's gonna be playing.
So uh in the overture of this,and it's again, it's perfectly
fine if you don't know what thisis, but I'm doing this lead
guitar part, and then thesepunches come in.
Well, of course, the otherguitar player is gonna be
covering those punches.
And then he's playing some ofthese other things.
And what I'm doing is I'mcovering some of the horn parts
at that point because we don'thave a horn player, right?
(07:56):
So I I've learned the hornparts.
Now I know the guitar chordsunderneath, but I also know the
horn parts up on top.
So that way when we gettogether, if we say, hey, this
could use a little more, youknow, something up there,
because that part's missingbecause we're nobody's covering
it.
I can cover that part.
Or I could double maybe thekeyboard player if that keyboard
(08:16):
player is playing that.
It all depends.
But I like to go in with thatidea.
So I'll create these kind ofcheat sheets, if you will.
It isn't about G or C or Bminor or this scale.
It's it's about what's thewhat's the music doing?
Are there parts where I shouldlay out?
Are there parts that are moreintense?
Um, you know, uh, you know,because some of these songs are
(08:39):
are kind of complex in theirstructure, I'll write down
structure hints and differentthings like that on these
sheets.
Um, and that way I've got alittle bit better idea of how
I'm going to approach it.
Then I take the actual chartsthat I was sent from the college
to play the songs, and I'llstart going through that and
looking and seeing is everythingcorrect?
(09:00):
Like, are the keys correct?
Are the courts correct that I'mhearing?
And I'm not just using oneresource, like again, because I
am kind of an overachiever, I'mlooking at two or three
different resources here.
And yes, whether we like it ornot, there are some mistakes in
the book that, you know, whetherthey say there's no mistakes,
that there are.
(09:20):
There are some things thataren't right.
And so we've talked about andwent, no, no, no, that chord is
wrong.
It's supposed to be this chord.
Or you'll be listening andthere'll be a you know no guitar
written, but you can clearlyhear these guitar parts playing.
Now, again, maybe it's okaythat the guitar isn't in at that
spot.
But maybe it, maybe it wouldthicken it up if it wasn't, if
there was something there.
(09:42):
Um, I don't remember which songit is off the top of my head,
but there's a song that hasthese tritones that sounds
really great.
Um gosh, I don't remember whichone it is.
Maybe it's no, it's not thatone either.
I don't remember which one itis, but it sounds really cool
and it's really, really dark.
And um, and so, you know, itsounds cooler with some guitar
(10:04):
parts written underneath thereas opposed to just the piano
doing it.
So these are things that I'llwrite down.
So these are opportunities.
And then I'll go to my actualcharts and I'll start marking
down what you know, quiet downhere, don't play here, play loud
here, you know, change whateverit is, make any, you know,
marks that will trigger thoughtsin my head.
(10:26):
Oh, yeah, here comes that part.
There it is, that's that part,or here comes that that scale
thing, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Right.
So I'll see those on there so Ihave a better represent
representation of what I'm goingto do.
Now we're only gonna get acouple of rehearsals together,
and then we have rehearsals withuh the other performers.
We'll have a couple of those,and then it's the shows.
(10:47):
So there's not a lot of time toget ready.
So I like to have, you know,multiple options available.
So as soon as we startpracticing, I can go, nope, I
don't need to do that.
Obviously, that's covered, soI'm gonna stay out of the way.
Or yeah, that sounds kind ofempty.
I should probably add this inthere and see how that sounds.
And for me, it it moves themusic off of the chart into my
(11:10):
thought process, into my body.
So yeah, I'm still gonna usethose charts because there's a
lot of information here.
I have not memorized everyaspect of Jesus Christ
Superstar, but I have a reallygood sense of flow of things.
And so if I need to flip apage, I know what's coming on
the next page.
And sometimes I'll even write acheat on the bottom of the
previous page so I can get readyfor that page flip or whatever
(11:32):
it might be, um, or memorizethat part.
The point being though, I'vegot a plan.
So I'm not just relying onthis.
Because if I do that, theproblem is I'm not aware of the
dynamics.
I'm not aware of how to makethis thing ebb and flow in a
more musical way.
Because if we think aboutmusic, for me, that's what
(11:53):
music's really about.
It's not whether or not youknow the G chord or you know the
C chord or you know a B flatminor seven flat five chord.
That's great.
We need to know those.
That we have to know those.
If we don't know those things,we can't play those things.
But the music doesn't end withthe knowledge.
The music is in theperformance, it's in the
approach.
And so the more I can listen tothings and get a sense of what
(12:16):
it's supposed to sound like.
So if we back up and I go backto church, for instance, okay,
and play in church, a lot oftimes the church songs will have
some broader dynamics.
And, you know, maybe there's aguitar part that I should be
covering, even though thisguitar part seems like it'd be a
lot more fun.
This is what really needs to bethere because without this, the
music sounds kind of empty.
(12:38):
And I don't want it to soundempty.
So I need to make a, you know,adult choice and play this part,
or maybe change the the chordof this, not the the quality of
the chord, but where I'm playingit or how I'm playing it, so it
sounds a little bit the voicingsounds a little bit better.
Okay.
Now these things take time toget to that level.
I'm just saying, if what I seea lot is people will go, I can't
(13:02):
play along with this, it'smoving too fast.
And and you you try and explainto them, look, if you learn, if
you first listen to the tune,get a sense of what it is, and
then go into your toolbox andsay, well, what do I need to
play this?
Well, I need G and A minor andC and blah, blah, blah.
Okay, do I know these?
If I don't know these, I stillcan't play the song because I
need to learn these things.
I need to get not just learnthem like I know what it is, I
(13:25):
have to learn how to do them andI need to do them well, right?
I have to have confidence andcontrol in the things that I'm
doing on the instrument.
Strumming is another big part,or picking, or whatever it might
be.
So with Jesus Christ Superstar,I can't be, I can't be stifled
by I don't know this chord, or Igotta know this stuff.
(13:47):
Otherwise, I wouldn't be ableto do this.
This is a much bigger projectthan than you know, just
learning how to play knocking onheaven's door or something like
that.
And no offense to that.
It just is.
It's a lot more stuff.
So for someone like me who's abit obsessive compulsive, you
know, I really want to know, Iwant to know the music.
And so I went from not havingever listened to Jesus Christ
(14:09):
Superstar to my wife and uh,well, myself, and unfortunately,
I suppose my wife havinglistened to it 85 billion times
when we're in the car.
But we've both uh, you know,developed a sense of
appreciation for this musicalfor Jesus Christ Superstar.
And now I find myself like Iwould listen to it even when
(14:30):
this thing is over.
I would go back to this andlisten to this because I've I've
found that I really enjoy it.
The version that I found that Ireally enjoy is the 2017
version or whatever it was withJohn Legend.
I I just think that that isamazing.
If you ever get a chance toactually watch it, it's it's
incredible.
I love it.
Not that I haven't watched andlistened to other ones I think
(14:52):
are amazing.
Um, there are, but this is theone that I find myself really
sinking my teeth into.
And so when I make some musicalchoices, you know, out of all
these versions that I've beenlistening to, I find myself
gravitating more toward thatone, going, I like how they did
this with this particular partor whatever it might be.
(15:13):
You know, there's there's someparts in this Jesus Christ
superstar that has some reallygreat saxophone lines.
Well, one of the gentlementhat's playing with us, he's a
really good friend of mine.
He's an amazing musician onmultiple levels.
Just can't even stress thatenough.
But he's an amazing, amazing,amazing saxophone player.
And for me, there's no reasonwhy he shouldn't play.
(15:36):
Now, I'm not in charge of this,right?
I'm just playing this.
But in my mind, I'm thinking,man, that's gonna elevate that
musical moment if he can playsax on that.
Even though this is of, youknow, drums and bass and guitar
and keyboard, right?
That's what this is.
I think that that would beelevated huge if he could play
(15:58):
saxophone on those things.
Because I can already cover theguitar parts that are
underneath that.
And he should shine on thatpart and elevate that thing.
And so again, it's just asuggestion that I'll have.
If if if the leader says, youknow, the the director, whoever
says, no, we don't really needthat, that's fine.
That's listen, I'm not incharge of this.
These are just things that I'vegot written down to be able to
(16:20):
present and go, this would beamazing.
And if they're interested inlistening to any of our ideas,
including mine, that woulddefinitely be one of my ideas.
So anyway, I just thought it'dbe kind of interesting to tell
you how it works for me.
I suppose part of the reasonwhy I've I've done it this way
is because when I was growing upplaying guitar, there weren't I
didn't have chord charts orthere was no internet and
(16:44):
magazines weren't even popular,like those early guitar
magazines weren't even a thingin Fargo, North Dakota in 1983.
Like, sure, they came out, butthey weren't around ear.
You know, it wasn't until alittle while later that we
started getting more of thatkind of stuff.
And even a guitar magazine isonly going to tell you whatever
it tells you in that month'sedition.
That's all you get.
Like whatever song is in there,and whatever lesson might be in
(17:06):
there, and whatever interviewsare in there, or whatever.
So I learned to play by ear,like a lot of people my age did.
I learned by putting the needleon the guitar or on the um on
the record and listening andfiguring out what I was doing
and take the needle off and workon that, put it back down,
learn the next part, take itback off, and just keep going.
But I think there's somethingthat happens in your head where
you start learning to visualizeconnectivity and colors of
(17:32):
things, like chords and youknow, different kinds of stuff.
And so that's the way my brainworks.
So I would strongly encourageyou if you are the kind of
person that just really kind ofjust reads the chart or tries to
learn things note for note.
And please don't get me wrong,some things do need to be note
for note.
There's no doubt about it.
You can't go changing thebeginning of Crazy Train, right?
(17:53):
But there are other elementsinside Crazy Train that have a
little bit of flexibility.
They just do.
I guarantee you that Zach Wildedoes not play Crazy Train
exactly the same way that RandyRhodes did.
And I can also tell you thatRandy Rhodes didn't even play
Crazy Train the exact way thatRandy Rhodes did from the
recording to the way he wouldperform it live.
(18:14):
So there's always some grayarea in there.
That doesn't mean we cancompletely revamp the lick or,
you know, different kinds ofthings like that.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is there's realapproaches to things that we
might change because this is alittle more comfortable for us,
whether it be in technique,approach, visualization,
memorization, whatever it mightbe.
(18:35):
So, anyway, hopefully thathelps you a little bit.
Um, you know, always rememberthat guitar playing isn't just
about putting your fingers onthe guitar and playing some
exercise.
There's a lot more to this thatyou want to be thinking about.
So you're expanding yourpalette of daily engagement in
the world of music, the world ofguitar.
So you're getting a biggerpicture of everything, not just
(18:58):
I'm getting faster.
That's great.
I'm, and that would bewonderful if that's if that's
true.
But there's a lot more to thisthan just an exercise or a scale
or learning these chords orwhatever it might be.
So the more you can become kindof, you know, tuned into that,
the better you're going to be.
So if for some reason you haveany questions, you know, you're
looking for better direction,you're looking for assessments
(19:20):
if you're playing, you don'treally have a game plan, you
want to start actually workingwith some instructors that I
mean, we have this thing calledGuitar Zoom Academy.
We work with people on a dailybasis.
You and I connect daily andtalk about whatever.
We have conversations about allkinds of things, assessments of
your playing.
Um, there's a whole thing tothat.
And it's worth looking at ifyou're interested.
(19:41):
All you got to do is uh checkout Guitar Zoom Academy and, you
know, get on a call to havesomeone kind of explain to you
how all of this works, see if itfits your world, and go from
there.
So take care, stay positive,and I'll talk to you soon, okay?
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