Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher was asked by UG interviewer Justin Beckner to single out “the most common mistake you see students making when they sit down and try to play your music,” to which he replied:
“A lot of the fingering of stuff because we play a lot of open strings.
[metalwani_content_ad]
“Almost every single song has 10 or 12 open notes. Almost anytime I want to play a note that’s also an open string, I’ll go for the open string.
“Not everyone notices that or picks up on that up but to me, if it seems like it’s way too hard to play, you’re probably playing it wrong.
“All of our stuff is around the same areas – you’re going up and down the strings rather than up and down the fretboard. All those notes are underneath your fingers as well. You just have to find them.
“Just keep it to where it’s not too difficult to play.”
Asked to share a few words of advice for all the folks interested in learning some Mastodon stuff, Bill replied:
[metalwani_content_ad]
“Take a lesson with me. I do clinics but I also give one-on-one lessons every day on tour except for big festivals – it’s too difficult to arrange all that but it’s like 4 or 5 kids at a time we do an hour lesson.
“Anytime we have a headlining show I do it, because there are a lot of times that we’re backstage not doing much and I’ll just be playing guitar and if there are kids who want to learn stuff specifically, it’s for all levels too, it’s very laid back.
“We go over some easy stuff and cover some advanced stuff – usually everyone in the group is about the same skill level. It’s really cool.”