An Interview with Jason Vieaux
Jason Vieaux needs no introduction. He’s a fantastic musician, and it was truly my pleasure to do this interview.
Part 1:
- How Jason got started on the guitar
- About Jason’s Pat Metheny recording, Images of Metheny
Part 2:
- About Jason’s Bach CD
- When Bach Volume 2 will be out (and other projects)
- A discussion on recording and how Jason does it
Part 3:
- A discussion on learning music
- What Jason’s typical practice day looks like
- About his teaching
Part 4:
- Tips on practicing
- General tips for guitarists
- Jason’s ping-pong ball thumbnail
- How social media has affected Jason as a classical musician
Did you enjoy this post? Check out:
- An Interview with James Piorkowski, part 2
- An Interview with Petar Jankovic
- An Interview with Heike Matthiesen
Connect
Thanks for tweeting me a link to the interview. Jason is an amazing teacher. Regarding the 3rd segment, I was one of his early students, and I can personally attest to the attention he gave to helping students with technician. I was also one of John Holmquist’s final students at CIM and I used to call John the philosopher and Jason the technician. Jason was finding his stride as his teacher while I was there, and the year I graduated was when he John left.
Regarding Jason’s teaching on efficiency, he would always drill me about the ‘efficiency of motion’. His process is extremely analytical and precise looks at every aspect of the learning a piece holistically. Jason’s approach coupled with John’s musical thinking was amazing. I am glad to see Jason’s success, he deserves it. One of the hardest working musicians out there.
Thanks for posting the interviews, Chris. I enjoyed hearing more about how Jason got started and what tips he had for guitarists. He certainly sounds like he keeps busy!
Lots of good stuff in this interview. Jason certainly gave us all a lot of inspiration and some thoughts to chew on for a while.
His discussion of the Metheny material was most interesting to me. One thing that this revealed is what an accomplished musician Jason is. I was thinking in particular of an interview I read with PMG bass player Steve Rodby who referred to classical musicians as little more than secretaries who are more like typists than musicians. He was trying to make a point that Jazz musicians have so much more to learn and playing Jazz is much more demanding (at least that’s what I think he was trying to say). Well after hearing Jason discuss his early listening habits and his ear training (which apparently involved extensive dictation and transcribing), I think we can lay this criticism of Rodby’s to rest.
But I wish you could have asked Jason about doing a future project with Metheny. We have seen recent collaborations with Sharon Isbin and Larry Coryell as well as Barrueco and DiMiola. How about Vieaux and Metheny? Wouldn’t that be exciting? Of course they are both touring junkies who are probably so busy with their schedules mapped out for years that they couldn’t find time to do it. But it would be an exciting project don’t you think?