Peter Thorn Mentions Melissa Etheridge in Premier Guitar

Peter Thorn contributes articles to Premier Guitar. In this issue, Peter answers questions, and talks about working with Melissa Etheridge.

Source: Premier Guitar

Last month, I solicited questions from readers on the online forum thegearpage.net regarding being a working guitarist. This month, I’ll provide longer answers to two great questions I received from readers about staying creative on tour and how to manage a number of different gigs.

How do you keep from getting stale as a player when you're on tour playing the same tunes night after night? Do you maintain a practice schedule or at least block out time to push yourself musically/creatively? – Andre Timothy

Great question! It really depends on your band and situation. If it’s up to you and your band, you can consciously choose to not be stale. My buddy Jorgen Carlsson is the bassist in Gov’t Mule, and those guys are constantly pushing themselves musically. They have a massive repertoire, with something like 14 albums out, and in addition to their own material they are always doing covers and having people sit in, which always creates challenges. Every Halloween they do a theme set, like when they performed the entire Who album Who’s Next at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California in 2010. They asked me to perform an entire 12-song set of Seattle grunge classics with them on New Year’s Eve in 2008, and it was an honor for me. We had one rehearsal—hardly enough time to hit each song once. But they are such good musicians, so tuned in to listening and playing with one another, that you realize when jamming with them that mistakes don’t really exist in their world. They see mistakes as musical opportunities! The gig was a total blast. My point is, no two Mule gigs are ever the same, and that is a conscious choice on their part. I find their approach inspiring.

Now if you aren’t in a situation like that, maybe you can at least vary your set a little from night to night, and/or create moments in the set where spontaneity is the goal—moments to just jam and stretch. We have lots of these moments in a Melissa Etheridge set. She really likes spontaneity and creativity on the gig. You could also suggest to your bandmates to try setting aside 20 minutes to jam or work on new material at the end of each soundcheck.