Hello everyone, Kev Iverson here. Bit of a different video today. Um, I want my channel to be guitar related and everything and I thought this is actually quite a good topic to bring up and it was inspired by a few of you commenting on on some previous videos, you know, with discussing pedals and how to get guitar sounds and um, guitar playing and everything guitar related, you know. Um, and there’s been a few comments where uh people have been super nice, but a few of you have said, "Oh, I’m a bit crap on guitar or um I, you know, I practice once a week or or any of that." Um, and I thought it’s quite interesting because a friend of mine called Gary Owen, if you’re watching, Gary, hello. Um, he phoned me up. He’s the Gary, some context. Gary, my friend Gary is a singer and he’s been singing around Kent for many years. There’s a village called Elsham that I play I play quite a bit in and I’ve played there going well 25 30 years and I got a phone call from him a little while ago and he and he asked me um he had a question for me which was uh do you ever get nervous before a gig? And what it what it was that someone else asked him the same question. They said do you ever get nervous before a gig? And they were surprised when he said yes because he’s been playing and singing for years. And he asked me the same question because he was just interested. And I said, "Oh, 100%. I always get nervous before a gig." You know, a lot of the time is because I just want to be good. If I play a gig, I really want to be good. Um I’ve had many situations um that that have been important where I want to be my best. But the thing is is you can only be as good as you can be on the day of the gig, you know. Uh but self-doubt runs through a lot of people if you especially when it comes to playing guitar, you know, with the YouTube world, it’s easy to go on a rabbit hole where um you’re looking at really good guitar players online, you know, your Joe Bonamasses, you know, even players like Eddie Van Halen, and there’s a bunch of great players that I’m missing out on. And it’s easy to sort of go, "Oh man, I don’t want I don’t want to play guitar or not that you want to give up, but you just feel like I’m never going to be as good as that person or whatever." And the thing is, there’s all levels of that as well. So, some of you might know one or two chords. Some of you out here might be watching know hell of a lot more than what I do. But for me, the way I get my confidence levels to not not, you know, no one wants to be, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to be cocky. That gets you nowhere. You want confidence, um, but you don’t want to be cocky, of course, but at the same time, you don’t want to be riddled with self-doubt because it is a horrible feeling. And sometimes you just can’t help it. So the way that I I look at it is if you take one end of the spectrum to the other end of the spectrum, which for me was say take Joe Bonamas, right? I I could sit and listen to that guy play guitar all day long. He’s phenomenal. He’s fantastic. He knows how to get guitar sounds and um he’s faultless. Right now, if we look at the other end of the spectrum, let’s take Richard Ashcraftoft as a guitar player or even uh null Gallagher, right? And a lot of people slack can slack those guys off. But the way I I’ve always looked at it is when I was single uh and living in a flat with me mate, we come home from, you know, a Saturday night out and we want to hear songs that that really uh just cut through your heart. you know, and I didn’t want to listen to a Joe Bon master solo at that time, you know. I wanted to listen to We can take the Lucky Man by the Verve, right? Um, and I thought I’d bring the acoustic with me as well, cuz you know, Lucky Man is uh four chords all the way. Well, four chords, but you know, you’ve got three chords in the verse. So, you know, if you know three chords or four chords, should I say, you know, you could write a song that’s going to cut through someone’s heart. Do you know what I mean? Um, and all of a sudden, for me, that’s that’s for me when I get my confidence about what I what I do and how I achieve things. There was an interview with Damon Mchella who’s the bass player who works with uh Richard Ashcroft and I think he said he Richard Ashcrooft doesn’t know how to play B minor you know and you think about all those great amazing songs that Richard Ashcraftoft has written and all right he’s got an amazing voice amazing songwriter but yeah if you if you’re self-doubting yourself self-doubting yourself having self-doubt I think it’s always good to get some perspective Because um even I was listening to the Black Keys, an interview with those guys and the drummer said uh the thing is with Virtuoso, I’ve never heard Virtuoso with a really great song. They’re not great songwriters, which I think is true. You know, like Joe Bonamasa, I love Joe Bonamasa. I think his work with Black Country Communion is really good. Uh but his solo stuff I’m not actually that bothered with. You know, I love hearing him play guitar. I respect the guy massively. Um, if you take uh James Blunt, you know, a couple. Um, what’s that big hit? I mean, the song, the big hit he had, I think he’s got a couple on the second or third or fourth fret even. But my love is brilliant. My love is pure. I saw an angel that I’m sure, you know, it’s those classic chords he put together. And uh I actually really respect and love James Blunt purely because of his e Twitter ex page and I followed him the other day on um Instagram because he was basically saying this song has bought me this house this you know all these bits and bobs. So you know you only need a couple of chords if you know a couple of chords you know there’s so much enjoyment you can get from one or two chords. I mean, if you take uh now I know there’s a lot of twiddly bit going on there, but if you knew know a D and an E minor, uh I wish I uh wish that I knew what I knew now when I was younger. I can’t think what that song’s called. But, you know, that’s two chords and you’ve got a hit song that that touches people’s heart, right? So, I think getting some perspective is always good. Try not to put yourself down so much because the other thing as well is it helps pre it helps avoid you know if you’ve got if you’re if you’re going through a tough time uh you know mental health you’ve got family work stress um like when I you know I been when I was in had a three-piece band years ago or not that long ago I’m sort of doing stuff by myself now but when I used to have a rehearsal with my And for that two hours we rehearsing, I forgot about work, I forgot about, you know, bills that you had to pay or um arguments you may have had. And for that two hours, you just you you play your music um you know, and if you if you find it hard to practice the guitar, you know, just just take five minutes if you if you you know, don’t think you’ve got to sit there for an hour or just five minutes. put a stopwatch on five minutes and even if you’re trying to learn a chord, you know, like learning a D chord or an E minor or whatever it is, just take that five minutes out for yourself and just wholeheartedly put your head into that cuz you might forget about some crap in your day and then, you know, once you put the guitar down, you’re like, "Oh, okay." It just just clears your mind out a bit. you know, I think it’s definitely therapeutic. Um, but I mean, other guitar players I think of is like Simon Fowler from um Ocean Color Scene, you know, when you watch him play guitar, he’s very basic, but he wrote The Circle, you know, and you know, if you’re into Ocean Color Scene or that kind of music, I don’t know anyone who’s no one’s ever said to me, I hate that song, The Circle. I’ve never met anyone who said that. or uh Robin Hood, you know that song, Robin Hood. And he plays guitar chords really like the basic way. And if I play Robin Hood, sometimes I’ll play it the basic form I can play, you [Music] know, you know, it’s just simplicity and it’s beautiful. So when you’re looking at um I mean maybe some of you look at me and go he’s really good but you got to remember I’m I I’m looking at someone else and going oh man he’s really good you know. So it happens to all of us whether you’re a uh you know well seen seasoned musician or a starter. So please, you know, it’s I sometimes get a bit upset when some someone says, "Oh, I’m crap." You know, cuz it’s all uh what’s the word I’m after? Subjective. It’s all subjective. So whenever you’re feeling bad or you’re going down that rabbit hole of, you know, really good musicians and and you you feel bad about yourself, take um even as a vocalist, you know, whenever I’ve I’ve been at a gig and before me is a great guitar player or a great singer, uh who’s the guy from the Pokes? can’t think his name, but again, you know, you listen to him and and technically his voice isn’t very good, but he was a poet. Um, trying to think of other people. [Music] Um, there’s loads of people out there, right, who it’s more about every word they spit out their mouth, they mean. And that that I think lasts forever. Whereas I think that’s why you get like when you see the X Factor like a lot of those singers, you know who who won the X Factor in 2009. I have no idea. And if you do know, probably shouldn’t be watching this channel. That’s a joke, by the way. But but yeah. Um but you know what I mean? Like so all these great singers, it’s it’s good to be a great singer. It’s good to be a great guitar player, but if you I for me it’s all about having a really good song, you know, and um I could play, you know, I could sit there and try and write and play some great guitar licks or whatever, but one of my favorite songs is um that I’ve written myself is a song called um Dancing in the Sound. Shameless plug. It’s on Spotify and iTunes and all that, but that song I’ve got, it’s like the verse is these three chords. This F major 7, A minor, and a G, but with a C there. I don’t know what that’s called. But I was playing that in my bedroom. And my wife sort of shouted out like, "Oh, what’s that?" I That’s one of your own. She’s like, "That’s quite good." You know, three chords. um [Music] goes, you know, I was just playing that and um even with something like that, you could just run around three chords and just get lost for a bit, you know, and I love that. That’s what I love about the guitar. Um, I mean obviously, you know, I’m into good guitar players and whatnot, but just to give myself some confidence, I just every now and then I just remind myself, you know, you know, look at Richard Ashcraftoft. Look at the confidence he’s got in the amazing songs he’s written. It’s amazing. And David Mella also said when he plays a B minor, I think he plays a D and the band will play a B minor because that works, which is me being geeky now. So if I play a B on a D on a D, you’ll hear B minor. So it goes actually quite a nice sounding chord, right? So that’s a that’s a B minor. B minor 7. That’ll be But Richard Assov could play a D and they’ll play a B and it’s it’s like a B minor. So that’s how he gets away with that. Um, I don’t know if there’s anything I want to add to it really, but just don’t put yourself down. Just take a look around when you Yeah, just take a look around. Don’t put yourself down. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Um, I mean, if you are a virtuoso, that’s brilliant. You know, if you’re really good at guitar, that’s great. what I love about the guitar. It’s a constant it’s a never- ending journey, you know, and that’s what why it’s so beautiful for me. Um, anyway, I’ll shut up there. Hope this video has helped. If you like the channel, please check out my other videos. Please like, subscribe. Well, I’ll hit the notification bell. I’m brand new to this, so hopefully as I keep doing videos, I’ll get better at it. But um I’ve also ordered one of those silly little mics off of Tik Tok because I wouldn’t mind doing a few more of these kind of videos where maybe I can offer some help, guidance or advice. And uh again, leave some comments below. If any of this has helped you or um yeah, just made give you a bit of confidence, let me know. Or if you’re struggling with anything, just write something in the comments. If I can help out or if someone else can help out, then that’s all great because the end of the day, we want to encourage each other, respect one another, and um the world will be a better place, right? So, um have a good day, guys. Thanks for watching.
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