Interesting, Dan, I began being instinctual. I was a mostly self taught guitarist. My style was derivative of the primitive. I learned fingerpicking by listening to records of people like Mississippi John Hurt, Bert Jansch and Chet Atkins. When I entered college, I was the only music major who didn't know how to read music. So I applied classical education to what I already knew. Scales and chords were shapes on the guitar neck.

In reality, music literature is a history of people analyzing the primitive and then creating a derivative. The work of Beethoven started with someone in a cave carving a flute out of a bear's femur. No one is independently original. At the very least, we derive from our ancestors. Mostly we copy each other.

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music