Great interview - lots of honesty and information from Scott. I love the gear talk, too.

This part was of interest (last sentence particularly) because I know a young guitar player who doesn't even want to take lessons because he's afraid it will change his style and the way he feels when he plays:

“Emotion and dynamics are two things I find to be so important, but unfortunately [they're] something that’s not talked about too often with music and guitar playing. Often technique kind of rises to the surface because it’s something we can understand– it’s tangible.  It’s scientific evidence of guitar playing as opposed to emotion. I guess you can measure dynamics a little more, but emotion is very hard to measure.

'It’s interesting you say that because in Flamenco, true aficionados often measure performances by whether or not they have duende (a difficult term to define – but intense emotion or the “goose bump” moment in a performance).'

That’s great! I think that’s wonderful, because in the American/scholastic world of music that’s something that’s really passed over. I looked at Berklee, and then kind of checked out some other music schools.  Something that really scared me away from those heavier schools was the emphasis on technique which seemed to suck something else out of the music a little bit…”