Guitar Heroes: John McLaughlin
- The American Guitar Academy
- Jul 23
- 5 min read
In each and every genre of music, you will find gatekeeping fans that immediately dismiss a musician purely for the fact that they are not what they like. Some people do not like Yngwie Malmsteen because he “plays too fast”, or David Gilmour because “his solos are too boring” - these are statements I have heard from people in the past. However, the subject of this blog post is a player that is well known for straight ahead jazz guitar, Indian-inspired music and Latin and despite this, he is adored by metal musicians, rock guitarists and other players the world over - we will be discussing the legend that is John McLaughlin.
Alternate Picking
John McLaughlin is the undisputed king of blistering, intense alternate picking. What makes this interesting is that he employs a similar technique for playing an ordinary steel string acoustic, nylon-strung guitar or electric - the limitations or benefits of these variations of these types of guitar do not seem to be a hindrance to him.
Take a look at 3:36 in this video of a show that he did with the equally legendary Paco De Lucia and Al Di Miola. The whole performance of ‘Mediterranean Sun Dance’ is worth watching, but for a masterclass in alternate picking, check out the timestamp above.
Paco De Lucia, Al Di Miola and John McLaughlin - Mediterranean Sun Dance
McLaughlin is able to craft long alternate picked lines that seem able to keep flowing, long after other players would have either run out of steam, or run out of ways to develop what they were playing.
Skillset
Quite often you find that some players are so talented in one area that they neglect other areas of their playing. This is not so much the case with modern guitar players like myself, or session players of old, but John really does have other skills that do not befit a straight ahead jazz player. For example, I know guitarists that can play Joe Pass style arrangements flawlessly yet they can’t bend strings convincingly. Or metal players that can shred circles around nearly everyone they meet, but they do not have the ability to control their dynamics or accompany someone in a funky context.
In the song I have linked below, McLaughlin is playing with his fusion outfit the 4th Dimension. This particular live performance is at the Leverkusener Jazztage, an annual jazz festival where up to 20,000 people make the yearly pilgrimage to Leverkusen, Germany. The song at 10:48 is called ‘Little Miss Valley’ and has strong blues format undertones, but within the song John demonstrates great proficiency in funky comping techniques with a high level of dynamic control during the other solos, with considerate and accurate bending in his own solo - coupled with his famous alternate picking too! Throughout the rest of the show, you will also see tasteful and melodic use of the tremolo arm on his guitar, ending phrases with a higher or lower inflection of the melody.
John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension - Leverkusener Jazztage
I have been lucky enough to see John play with the 4th Dimension twice at the Barbican Theatre in London. Both times were special performances, but the last time (only a few years ago as of writing this blog post) I was sitting right at the very front - have a look at the picture below, right at the front by the backstage door.
At this particular show, there was a technical fault that turned out to be coming from the keyboard equipment. The resulting noise was not exactly pleasant, but John turned it around and just… played with it whilst it was being fixed. A true performer!
High Praise
A true fire way to determine if someone has achieved legendary status as a musician, is to see how many other musicians praise them or cite them as a major influence. Just a tip, if you are looking to discover new music, see who inspired your favourite artists!
Here are some quotes from three of the top names in music, just so that you can get a glimpse of how many people McLaughlin has inspired.
Jeff Beck
Hailed by many as the best guitarist that ever lived, the late and great Jeff Beck was an inspiration to us all; there are many lessons people learn from him to this day. In an interview with Uncut magazine in 2010, Beck had many nice things to say, however, this excerpt is perhaps my favourite quote:
“ - by blending Indian music with jazz and classical. I'd say he was the best guitarist alive.”
Pat Metheny
Metheny is one of those rare guitarists who transcends many of the norms that come with playing the guitar, and as such has become one of the most highly respected guitar players in modern history. In a Q&A section of his website, he said the following:
“To me, John is one of the most significant figures in the modern history of the guitar. It is usually enough for someone to affect the evolution of their instrument once in their career - John has done it at least three times.
He is a giant - one of my favorite musicians and composers ever.”
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr was one of the key figures and a major songwriter for English indie-rock back, The Smiths. The band are estimated to have sold in excess of 10 million albums, and Marr also boasts an illustrious solo career. Many a young indie guitarist worship at the altar of Johnny Marr!
This quote is short and sweet, as was included in an article by Music Radar magazine.
“He's the greatest guitar player that's ever lived, John McLaughlin”
Gear
Following in John’s footsteps regarding his approach to gear, I will also aim to keep this section of the blog post short and sweet. Reading through the ‘equipment’ tab on his website, that you can see for yourself here, you will see how sparse it actually is.
It appears that he likes to focus more on some nice guitars than he does on effects. His effects chain is very simple (see the picture below), but it consists of a wireless receiver, a tuner, a pre-amp pedal, delay and a chorus - extremely barebones by modern standards. This set-up has not changed for many years, except for maybe swapping the pre-amp pedal around!
He also does not use amplifiers, see the video interview he did with Premier Guitar in 2011 here, where he says:
“It’s more of a convenient thing, I stopped using amps years ago. Simply because the louder the volume on stage, the harder a job it is for the engineer out front to get a good sound”
If you ever watch a live video recording of his, in any of the formats in which he has played, or maybe you have been lucky enough to witness a live show, you will notice that he keeps to the same guitar for the whole show. I am sure that he has spares, but would rarely need to use them.
Final Thoughts
A few things stand out to me as important lessons from John McLaughlin. This first is that not only does he always seem to surround himself with world-class musicians, but people that genuinely love the music as much as he does.
The second is that he always seems to follow the direction that his heart takes him. I do not see any signs of him performing for anything other than a love of music, and he appears to have bowed out from long touring schedules gracefully as a result of his arthritis - not that this is the end, far from it I’m sure!
Many of his albums are great listening experiences, but be prepared for a hard time if you are looking to learn some of his tunes. If you are interested in this kind of music, I would suggest speaking to your guitar teacher, or some of the great teachers at The American Guitar Academy, for an introduction to jazz and fusion music.
Keep rocking!
