Chris Feener: petrucci forum interview

Trev from Petrucciforum has put together an interview with Chris Feener.

Q: You have a fabulous technical profeciency on the instrument yet you are still only 21! How much work do you put in to maintain your chops? From the point of view of music theory, scales, harmony etc, how did you build up your knowledge and how important to you is improvising in improving as a player?

I have never set any sort of practice regimen, I just play for the love of playing. If I notice I'm sloppin' it up on things that I could once do well, I will make a point to achieve at least that level again, if it's important enough. When it comes to theory, scales, harmony, etc., I'd have to say that I learned 95% of what I know from simply playing. I'd learn solos and examine why it is that they work, and eventually developed a mindset where I would only learn solos to gather a greater ability and greater knowledge to contribute to my own playing. Eventually, I sat down with a rudiments book and began putting those "la-di-da" names to everything. Although, I'd still consider myself an ear player over anything else. So to answer the question, yes, I owe what ability I have to improvisation and believe it's the most important part of developing as a "player".

part 1 and part 2