Chords for Eric Johnson on Acoustic Finger Picking Style, Songwriting, and Recording | Reverb Interview

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_ I [G] started on electric and was a music master fender, [F] _ [G] three quarter [F] second when I was 11 years old.
[G] And then I really didn't start playing [Db] acoustic until _ I think I was about [D] 17.
So about [E] six years later I started [Bb] playing.
I think [E] what happened is I had a [F] couple of songs that got a little bit of recognition
and [Abm] people, oh Eric, he does, he plays electric guitar, which I love doing and I want to keep
doing, but I think when that happened it was like, well, okay, I'll just go with this.
But I've always, ever since I was a kid, I was a big fan of Joni Mitchell's records and
Carle G.
Stills and Nash and James Taylor and Michael Hedges.
I guess a few [G] years ago I started thinking, you know, I want to make an acoustic record
and kind of bring out [Em] this other stuff that I do.
[G] And then you [F] get busy doing this or that and kind of time rolls on.
At [E] some point I just decided to sit down and [Eb] say, I want to do _ [E] this.
And it's kind of stuff I've always done.
I've always _ played songs [F] and played piano.
I just haven't shared it as much [N] with my public career.
And I've always played piano on my records and maybe put one acoustic piece on the electric records.
But _ I've kind of built up a lot of other type of music that I just never do.
You know, when you're playing by yourself, [Eb] _ _ _ or maybe even in an association, if you don't
have a lot of ornamentary thing happening with the music, [F] it becomes more about the
song and your presentation and your performance of the [D] song.
You know, not necessarily whether you play it _ perfect or not.
It's not that.
It's just whether you play it in [E] such a way that it conveys an emotion to the listener
[Ebm] and they get an impact [F] from it.
So [N] when I made this record, I thought, you know, if I'm going to make an acoustic solo
record, I don't want to _ _ _ fabricate the record.
I want to go to the studio and try to cut it as live as [Eb] much as possible.
And so as I did that, _ I noticed this thing happening just with the vibe of [B] the performance.
When you capture a performance, it has [E] this chi energy to it that's just really, it has
an impact to it, you know?
[Eb] _ And so I got kind of, I was like, that was exciting to me.
And it also, it kind of made me rebalance.
Like, well, yeah, it's got that great chi energy from being a performance, but it's
[G] kind of [F] glitchy here and there because you perform it a lot.
[Gb] But yeah, but who cares because you get this [D] other thing.
It's like everything has two sides to it, right?
It's kind of an irony because all my heroes [Eb] made records those ways, you know?
You know, the [Gb] left hand is pretty [Dm] much the [E] same if I'm _ _ _
[Abm] just playing stuff here, but the
right hand is where you have to do all this [E] kind of, _ _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] there's all this finger picking stuff.
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[A] And I usually play with fingers when I play [Gb] acoustic. _
_ So it's a [G] lot of just trying to get that together.
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[E] Which is kind of a challenge for me because I usually play with a pick.
But I play a little bit with my fingers when I play electric.
So I was kind of, I had a little bit together, but I've had to work at it.
And I'm still working at it to get it [Bb] together.
Yeah, [F] it's like a whole other world, you know, the [E] finger picking and that whole [A] thing.
But [G] it's always [E] been part of my world.
[F] But when you dive in [E] a little deeper, it's like traveling into the deeper [Eb] part of the
pool and watching these guys.
And it's kind of humbling [Eb] because there's just so many great players out there.
And [N] any style of music.
I think there's a certain thing you get from _ performing a piece of music _ [E] _ _ _ [A]
that's hard to
get if you're [F] not performing it.
So there's another kind of heartfelt [B] impact.
So yeah, it made me kind of re-look at what I'm doing.
It's like, wow, I want to try to [C] carry that pulse into [Gb] whatever I do.
I [E] kind of want to rethink about the way I make an electric record too.
[G] You know, we're playing to smaller audiences.
It's more intimate.
It's more of a balanced kind of client thing, you know, where all sorts [F] of people come out
and see it.
Not just people that want to hear 120 dB for [Gb] eight hours, you know.
[B] But it's been going well.
[G] It's challenging for me because it's just a [Gb] little different technique, a [F] little different
[Gb] way [F] you have to posture [E] the song and do it and stuff.
And then [Bb] playing solo is kind of challenging.
But yeah, it's a little bit of a challenge.
But I'm enjoying it.
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