The Guitarist EVERYONE'S Talking About

hey everybody I don't know if you recognize this gentleman here but if you are on the internet you have seen Nathaniel Murphy on Instagram [Music] he's a dear friend of mine and I always think that I've had you on my channel before Nathaniel because we we talk all the time we video chat we've been friends for years but he's actually never been on my channel but you've seen him if you ever watch any Chicago Music Exchange videos he does many of the demonstrations has for a long time I do welcome yes well thank you so much for having me and thank you for quite the intro as well that was a well and and we are at Chicago Music Exchange downstairs where they film their your demo vide demos and videos you know so it's uh it's my second home essentially you know I've got a sleeping bag in the corner over there you just can't see it you know okay so when I'm looking for a guitar like I bought a couple guitars when I turned 60 and I would call Nathaniel and say I'm looking for a pelum blue SG I saw that you have a couple in can you play them and and I want to buy the best one that one that plays the the best yeah so he's a phenomenal player and he plays the stuff and I was like he this is the one you want or if you have anything that I see on the website yeah I have you check it out and if you if you think it's something I wouldn't like you'll tell me that too yeah I I've kind of I kind of know what you're into now to an extent you know but yeah you ended up getting those ones that I demoed right I must be doing something right that's right so so it worked out um I mean we probably going to demo some more stuff later on we're going to we're he's going to demo some stuff so I just just have to say this so he's playing this guitar here and I was thinking about kind of pushing it over just as a joke no I wasn't this is a 1959 uh Les Paul it's a burst and it's worth how much Nathaniel roughly 400 $400,000 roughly roughly you know it could be worth more if someone's willing to pay it obviously you know it's uh it is good though it sounds amazing and it's in such good condition that I thought it was just a custom shop yeah you were genuinely shocked I was shocked I had no idea I was sitting here and I had no idea I thought I was that's a custom shop because there's a bunch of custom shop guitars around here I mean it looks great obviously there's uh there's like snake bites there was a Bigby on it at some point shout out to uh Josh klinghofer as it used to it's on a consignment for him well yeah it's pretty cool you've played these before right I have yeah come across them often or just well I anytime I come across them I I will play it for about 20 seconds or so I get nervous right even though I've never dropped a l PA I'm going to knock on wood is there any wood anywhere I can knock knock on wood for me here some people have broken head some people that I some people you know there's some people in this room that have broken a headstock no yes believe it or not so uh it's it's uh but they make me nervous because people have asked me why don't you have these really you know nice yeah like sell some of your stuff and buy a a one of these expensive guitars or something not anything that expensive but uh so because they make me nervous well I I completely get you about kind of being afraid um it took me a while like you know I've become comfortable these I don't wear Zips or buttons obviously out of you know trying to be respectful but I completely understand where you're coming from cuz it can be it's like [ __ ] H that's worth more twice as much as my house you know so it's right you know it's uh it's like two Ferraris or something easily easily you're one of my favorite guitar players and I I told Nathaniel I mean I always say this to to my friends it's like I interview people that I respect and people that are my friends on my channel and you happen to be a little bit of both a little bit a lot of both well thank you and people that that know you that have seen you uh play online know that you do these really killer Arrangements solo guitar Arrangements yeah um I I just have fun with it and people seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it I mean I like I like the challenge of arranging songs um I mean obious it's nothing new in the Guitar World you know arranging songs whether it's you know Jo virtuoso you know obviously bit different which is you know incredible album as we all know but there's so many players out there who do it and um I just have fun with it I like the kind of problem solving aspect of it which well you do all these different techniques and you're really faithful to The Melodies and the harmonies of the songs which is really yeah really great I mean I I try to be obviously you can take you can arrange songs in a way that you prefer you know make it your own so to speak I don't do it too often um because like I said I like this to kind of stay true um I mean I could play some a queen Arrangement if you wanted I would love to love to hear and we'll try and get it in one take as well but no no no right I might need your help later on you can click your fingers right I click my fingers yeah [Music] [Music] woo kind of let's talk about some of the challenges of coming up with that well if I take say one part of it day now obviously does uh maybe it wasn't the most perfect taking of but it it was decent perect if you take for example the uh there goes my bab now why on Earth would I play it that way it look a bit odd and some people might think it's a bit of a gimmick course it's like oh you could just play it an easier way the part the reason why I'm doing it that way so I need that Melody not now if I play that D there you can't get the F I'm not I'm not getting all the way down there you know um so options could be it doesn't have the it's too high too high it's active too high exactly or I could do the harmonic there but that's weak it's weak and also if I miss that harmonic it's which is easy to do very easy to do at speed as well it's going to be pretty [ __ ] yeah um so um the problem solving aspect is right well I'm running problem pretty much solves itself because there's really only one way to do that yes now I could do and let the note disappear but it's not as good no no you have to hold the note you have to hold the note so slow it down now obviously that allows my thumb to do the the Baseline going down now why would I do that so obviously I need that that E7 I could do that but there's nothing in the background that's right you know which is kind of cool you know and again I could do it that way it's not as cool I think also that it's thin if you played it on the E string it sounds thin exactly that that can be the case certainly a lot of times so it's a lot of like I said kind of problem solving and it's it's cool the way he said that the problems can solve themselves right sometimes you know well so you run out of options you do yeah and you try and find the one thing and this is what what I think is brilliant about these when you did your version of ramble on oh yeah okay now this one has its own host of problems because this has such a signature Baseline yeah now again the problem solvent issue so if I'm if I'm trying to keep the pages guitar part [Music] so and so on okay so John Paul Jones does some of those slides that you're doing too yeah and obviously like you said I'm trying to be get as close to what he would have done yes and I'm very limited I've literally just got the EAS string and I I am kind of aware that you know I'll say it again people might think of it as a gimmick it can be a little bit gimm I can I can understand it but I'm just having fun like you know if you a't got a Basse player handy why not challenge yourself to absolutely now on that one when you're playing the baselines are you doing your your pinky sometimes you have to use the pinky you have I've got no other option really so if I down now you know the funny thing with this is this finger gets in the way the bar cord so I've only got that much space get you can't if you touch that string you're done ex [Music] right and you're also getting those things going on yeah you're keeping that you have like the little drum part yeah try trying to mimic it a little bit yeah um I don't know why I decided to do it one day but it was just fun you know I'm just having fun that's that's the best way I can describe it it's there is more to it um I I tried to arrange the whole thing where obviously trying to make Robert planton as well and I just it didn't work I think it's it's important to know when something doesn't work as well I was trying what it leaves are falling all around it's just that yeah time you know so Ian if I'm doing and it was kind of impossible really now another one of your uh Renditions In My Life The Beatles is another one of my favorite ones that you do and that one's got its own set of challenges yeah yeah [Music] [Music] okay so on this song we talked about this earlier the the one bent note that you do on the B string there be the bridge yeah why there I've got you kind of got to look at the left hand what I'm doing so I've got I've got the minor six chord minor six yeah now I need to get that and if I'm holding down that full chord how am I going to do it so you could do it behind here unlike a Les Paul or you know most Gibsons on a Telly do it up here of course now again why am I doing that it's because it requires it and to be honest I want that big chord to be sounding you know nice and full that's like well how am I going to do it I've got no over option there's one other spot in there where you do those harmonics oh yeah so uh [Music] um now obviously I need to go up to that g there yeah and with the way I'm doing it obviously I'm using my thumb over the top but I want the chord again to the sound big and full y um yes yeah now what I want I want that I could do this no sounds [ __ ] right yeah I want the notes to kind of ring out for as long as POS almost dare I say I'm cautious to saying this dare I say piano like but you know I'd never want it to be a case of oh why don't you just play the piano guitar's cooler than piano right just I love the piano um but yeah um [Music] that's amazing that's beautiful [Music] yeah I mean it's a couple ways you could do that um um is nice you can do up there so a little the trick you're doing it that way [Music] yeah that that seems It's actually easier to play like it's easier to play and I think it flows a little bit nicer using the Rhythm pickup on this Les Paul sounds amazing that's another thing that gives it more of a bell tone yeah just to show people what it would sound like if you were on a different pickup why like the lead pickup for example it wouldn't quite have the same it wouldn't be as nice ESS yeah so I mean if I if I did [Music] [Laughter] [Music] dare I say it's a little bit harsh right yeah so yeah I completely agree I mean I was like a lot of Base uh for Arrangements you know not not to fill in the gaps just like we said just so it sounds nicer essentially you know now you're playing through a offender twin people don't know this but on your videos that you do at at your house at home you have kind of a different setup uh uh it's it's pretty different it's a secret do you want to do you want to talk about what your amp setup is there do you reckon they'll send me one if I give a sh use your powers I need a new one uh it's a Rolland Street Cube and sometimes a uh fisherman or Fender acoustic amp you know so all I'm saying so well I live in an apartment I got neighbors below me neighbors above the neighbors below me Nightmare yeah I can't be loud I just simply can't and I imagine there's a lot of people out there who are the same thing rolling Street Cube there you go rolling Street Cube yeah in all seriousness is it's helped me out um I know maybe it might not be ideal for some people but it's probably wouldn't play a $400,000 dollar guitar through itbe it's been done it's been done I have I have no shame um yeah so obviously there's times where I'll use a fair few extended techniques uh nothing that hasn't been done before obviously um but there's times where you know it doesn't require it which is kind of cool so I mean I I was playing again some more Beatles kind of like the Beatles um I was doing uh saw her standing there yeah so essentially obviously we it's just trying to combine the two again this stuff has been done but I just find it a lot of fun so essentially and then so obviously that's kind of uh Paul's kind of Baseline yeah and then over the top now you got to try and combine the two of them [Music] [Laughter] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hi of right great well thank you yeah okay now that one yeah so one of the things to me when I when I hear that and when I watch you play it when you're doing the walking Baseline when you're actually playing and you have to play that G sharp with the index finger yeah um that seems like a real challenging part to do now funny enough when I'm doing that on that E7 I'm not actually playing the G string but I'm just so used to having that shape you know I imagine most stuff so yeah I'm kind of I mean could you play that with your thumb uh no no cuz you have to get back changing position but unless no that doesn't quite have the uh it's a bit much plus I think there's a bit of there's a bounce to it there's probably some unwanted noise if I was to use a something yeah I mean it's okay so how do you decide though that uh about how to use if you're going to use your thumb for something um one of the arrange in the fir what did you play first um cuz you use your thumb in that in some really um oh in the in the queen thing oh in the queen well on the solo part I assume yes I think it was yeah yeah so obviously for for that solo part um that kind of thing a little bit cleaner do you find that awkward to do that because that that that to me holding the thumb like that and then moving above and then below the thumb I mean for me what boils down to I've got no other choice if I'm trying to do um so obviously now he's not playing it there of course OB so obviously it sounds a bit weird on those higher strings there which I get but I've got no [Music] way of getting that base line going at the same time and then I've got to obviously do that [Music] and so on so yeah it's again it's purely a necessity thing okay so Nathaniel you also do things where you'll do where you're doing a down strum with the sand because you're combining so many different techniques to do these things I suppose I haven't taken much notice you know it's one of those things where it's one of those things you kind of do without realizing I suppose not in a like I'm so clever type way I'm not saying that it's just you know when you learn things and they become part of your plane um yeah I [Music] mean yeah so there is a little bit that in there I've never really noticed when you did your fast arpeggio line in that Beatles sing yeah yeah so now that's that's a little bit easier maybe are you sweeping any of that no um you know funny enough I'm a huge fan of Tim Miller and we've spoken love Tim Miller uh I've got both his books I would love to meet him one day um but his his whole method but um so all I was doing in that beatles thing uh just so just E7 RPO just from the seventh so what I'm doing so I am doing a little sweep the second so so it's going to be pick Hammer pick and then I'm using my hybrid pick hybrid picking yeah y so if I slow that [Music] down and then it's just taking kind of that you go through the different sh arpedio exctly so really [Music] slow which is kind of a nice little run [Music] yeah but it's the same U same shape same technique same technique with the with the every time U so it's nothing crazy it kind of it sounds kind of cool though you know when you put it in there what you'll find or what I found sometimes so obviously for the straight E7 fine for the next shape starting on Route I actually put in the ninth cuz it's a little bit n a little bit more comfortable cuz if I do I've kind of got a shift on it doesn't sound as good the ninth sounds better I mean I'm probably a little bit guilty of using those shapes a little too [Music] much uh or whatever you know uh so there's a few of them [Music] okay would you say that you're playing is uh that you play with economy picking a lot or do you alternate pick a lot or or or does it depend it depends I mean you know I won't even how know how to describe my plan to be quite honest with you um which is good and bad when you're playing single notes well I'm playing uh I'd say more alternate picking yeah although my right hand I haven't worked on it a lot lately unfortunately um just kind of messing around but it would be mostly alternate picking and I would love to get more into the economy picking if you haven't done it yeah it's hard to do it and play with the right kind of feel that's what when I when Frank andali plays it's amazing Frank is so good at it going between alternate and doing that and sweeping and stuff I don't know how he does it obviously just you know a lifetime of yes practice um just incredible it do you find that uh as you get older how old are you now 31 I'm 36 getting do you find it's it's difficult to uh learn new techniques or becomes more difficult cuz you're playing get so locked into certain things you know I I've thought about that yeah and now that you mentioned it because I thought in the back of my head am I just being lazy or can I just not do it I think that is definitely the case you know for example I can't do but I'd love to so when I do a lot of tapping I kind of took uh the the the pick away yeah a lot of people do that but I see a lot of people who are able to to tap tap with the other fingers and that now obviously having long nails you know it's not going to it's not the end of the world people still do it right but I find it so difficult to do like some of the Guth stuff I see I see Andy Wood doing it I see I see loads of people doing it it's like [ __ ] why AR I doing that but I have to agree that maybe it's just me but I'm I struggle a little bit more now because I'm getting old right so but no I get it though how do you decide what guitar to play these pieces on like what would you play on a Telly completely defense you know uh should I get out yeah let's do I am a big T Telly fan as well you're not a big Telly player are you I love Telly but I I don't play Telly very often but I have um I have two or three Tellies yeah that I used to play all the time when I was producing ah okay because I always found that parts that people didn't play that I would do as overdubs I would always do on my Telly and I played my I played my Telly almost all the time I played it more than anything else wow yeah okay what is this guitar exactly this is a 58 Esquire um but someone had put a pickup in put a pickup in it and thank you know I personally want to thank them for that because I just love a neck pick now wait is this guitar for sale or not not at the moment well to the right person maybe okay and how much would a guitar like this be so I you know I asked him that the other day I think he said about was it 40 or something like that to quot him roughly $40,000 40K it's a 60 oh was it I thought it was a 58 oh well then it must be about 4,000 yeah well I I asked him the other day and he said roughly 35 to 40 anyway um this is a wonderful guitar the neck on it you know this is this is my favorite guitar in the entire shop wow that's saying a lot because there's how many guitars you guys think you have here thousands in this in this building alone thousands yeah yeah and um it's the neck it's the feel of it I I just love it it's uh it's one that I use quite a lot maybe too much okay but it's it's it's it's very cool um now you you mentioned about you know kind of uh Telly stuff uh what in terms of arranging yeah um and do you find that uh the with the pickup uh configuration on it that is it easier or less easy to do tapping stuff with the right hand or are there certain things that come out what are what are the challenges with this or what the advantages of this guitar over Les Paul for example uh well my main guitar is a Telly so I mean straight away I'm just used to the to the shape of this and how it feels and the neck and everything yep um the next thing would be you know you hear it you hear it you can hear it straight away now I'm that's not a pretty minor home though yeah now I'm not at a crazy volume and obviously when I'm at home through the street Cube I'm not allowed either right um so that would be a factor but again when for when I'm arranging things it'll be I want a nice warm sound so more often than not it will be with a humer you know um but in terms of the Tellies like I just love stuff that you can't do or you know just that has that sound I kind of raised on kind of country music as well so I mean I can't do you know all that kind of stuff you know [Music] yeah can't do all that stuff on a yes [Laughter] [Music] [Music] wouldn't sound as good on a can only do that on a tell you to make it sound authentic exactly well even like uh like steel licks it could be you know say let's [Music] say you know little things like that might might not sound as good on a Les Paul or even just like a mimicking more [Music] steel little things like that which is kind of cool you know uh you can kind of get your Adrian leg or whatever you know yeah um the over extreme would be kind [Music] of uh or whatever you know so just kind of having fun um is's a main thing just for me just messing around on and what about playing sing just straight single note stuff on it if I'm doing country obviously this this this would be the one uh that I would use I I love Tellies with a hooker if I'm if I'm trying to do kind of Ja stuff if I'm doing um [Music] [Laughter] [Music] now obviously just kind of messed around um you kind of said single note stuff I didn't do a lot of that there but [Music] um yeah I mean it's just that twang for me that I really love and it doesn't have to be a country type of thing obviously I kind of went overboard with a country but even just with a little bit of overdrive Stones kind of but even just [Music] like that sounds good to me let's talk about your background a little bit talk about where you're from yeah you're obviously not from the United States how' you guess uh yeah so I'm actually Irish um I don't sound it obviously uh I'm from a place called County Mayo in Ireland little town called B mullet um but I moved to Manchester probably age of three or something like that I think we went to London first but I grew up in Manchester um place called Lev Zoom just on the edge of burnage which is where the Gallagher brothers are from you know that's right grew up about a mile away from them so and that kind of I suppose affected that's the reason why now wait a minute n was in your si picture with you and N together did you talk about that we did you won't believe how much well I want to say we had in common because don't get me wrong we're not mates I don't have his number anything he was the nicest guy the nicest guy you could beet and you know the same can be said for his band uh Russ and Channon and a whole lot of them um all the nicest people uh but yeah we grew up less than a mile apart now he obviously he's he's Fair he's a fair bit older than me he's 20 years older than you yeah uh went to the same schools um okay so that's that's my now did you say that when you met him you said hey he he he knew where I lived I mean he could tell from your accent though yeah well the first thing he said to me he goes you're from Manchester you aren't you said yeah so yeah um again the nicest guy you could meet and he was uh yeah he was cool but he he's the reason why I started playing the guitar um because you want to learn wonder wall yeah why I'm trying to think what's the first o song I learned you know the first o song I Le was live forever actually nice just as cord practice you know but yeah he's the reason why I kind of started playing growing up in the same in here just out of the blue no no we knew we knew he was coming in um cuz I think he was possibly shopping for something so he let us know when he came in on a Monday um and when not open on the Monday to the public so you know you had the free reign of the place just wander around um but yeah cool guy a whole lot of them very nice so and obviously personally a huge moment for me you know personally without kind of trying to Fanboy too much I don't think I did anyway you know well when I saw the picture I was like well thank you yeah it was uh it was cool very very cool for me personally so I want to just talk a little bit about the demos that you do here right in the space before I knew you I'd seen you do demos here how long have you been working here full-time as a full-time employee uh three years but I was doing videos off and on roughly six years ago and kind of how it happened I just came in one day and I you know I was playing and I got chatting with some of them I got to become friends with them and then over the course of maybe a few weeks couple of months it was like hey do you want to you know would you mind doing some videos with us I like I would love to you know I'd be honored it is you know you walk into this place it's like [ __ ] hell it's crazy this is a great place I'm not one to talk about music stores typically but I've bought a bunch of instruments from here yeah and uh but this is actually only I think the what the second time I've been here to the best of mine I think so yeah second time I've been here yeah but it's pretty cool place to work right place it's not bad obviously um got a nice room down here we can be as loud as we want and we do get loud which is good yeah um I get to play guitars that I can only dream of having so I'm very lucky and just in general I think I'm very lucky that I get to do videos for such an established place and obviously everyone's cool here all the employ always get along it's cool place to be so lucky well Nathaniel this has been great it's a it's a pleasure to have you on and uh like I said we've been friends for so long I forget I always think that you've been on my channel before but you have not no I'm I let me tell you I am hugely honored cuz I see the people that are on your channel and for me to be hon it is pretty huge you know that's an understand so thank you and thank you for all the great videos that you do you know I've got so many screenshots of you know some of your lessons that you did in the past it's like oh [ __ ] I've got to learn that a week later you're doing the [ __ ] hell I've got to learn that as well you know so but it's cool though it's inspiring cuz I mean you know it's like you open up Instagram and there's so many amazing players out there you'll take screenshots but yeah there's a lot of screenshots of your I'll FaceTime Nathaniel and he's I was like are you playing right now always like I'll FaceTime about 9:30 at night or so he's typically will be sitting and watching watching football yeah and practicing on the couch right just kind of like this just playing which ain't the worst it's not bad not it's great but no thank you so much it's a huge honor

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 657,477

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, Chicago Music Exchange, Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Led Zeppelin, Nathaniel Murphy, Ramble On, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Telecaster, Fingerstyle Guitar, Guitar Arrangement, How to play guitar, The Beatles, In my life, I saw her standing there

Id: 74PNzXO6-Gc

Length: 34min 7sec (2047 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024