Ron Jarzombek: I never practice riffs or licks by other guitarists

Yes, as a matter of fact, playing my stuff can be a bitch. I had to re-learn a bunch of stuff when I started to put my instructional DVDs together and some of it was a headache to remember and get tight. Just to do the Blotted Science rehearsal nearly a year after we recorded the CD was a real bitch. Most of the stuff that I put together these days is written on computer, then is learned on guitar. If things are too fast to play, I have to modify things. And at my age I barely remember anything. Also, a lot of licks that I play on current CDs are barely rehearsed. I get them learned well enough to record them, then hit the record button. Then move on to the next part.

I think an even better question might be, do you ever practice any riffs or licks written by OTHER guitarists that give you a lot of trouble? Jeff Loomis, Marty Friedman, and the guys in Gordian Knot and Obscura are some of the musicians you’ve collaborated with; were there ever moments around them when you felt like a guitar student as opposed to a scholar? On the other hand, did you teach them a thing or two?

No, I never practice riffs or licks by other guitarists anymore, simply because I have enough going on between teaching, gigging and doing my own stuff. Back when I was in my late teens I did that all day. Now I don’t figure out anybody’s licks unless I have to for a student or if I’m playing it at a gig. The times where I figure something out because I dig something happens once in a while but is rare. Obviously I did have to learn some of Marty’s songs for the tour(s) I did with him, and his stuff it not easy to get down, at least the nuances of it because Marty is an unorthodox player. But the guest solos and stuff I’ve done for Loomis, Obscura or Gordian Knot were just writing my own solos, and I didn’t have any idea of what licks the other guitarists were going to play. Coming up with really cool lines, to create something out of nothing, is more of a challenge than copying what other people do. To me anyway.

If there is one moment where I felt like a student it was when Marty and I played the World Guitar Congress in Baltimore back in 2004 and Allan Holdsworth was also on the bill. Now Allan is someone who can teach anybody a lesson – I don’t care who you are. Talk about being from another planet………….

full post from spinlanguage.com