We all need the proper tools to create music, and by "tools" I don't mean a certain brand of instrument or amplifier, but rather the music we hear inside. Now, what we end up hearing on the inside is directly related to what we expose ourselves to and learn from on the outside, much like the way we learn to speak a language fluently. What we imitate and study we eventually become, and that means the good as well as the bad.

Though I was a relatively late starter to both playing (19 years old) and composing (36 years old), nowadays my colleagues and students continually applaud my work, often saying "where in the world do you get all of these ideas from?" Well, I know exactly where I got them from, as well as the process that led to using my acquired tools in a creative manner. The two main areas of study that resulted in this knowledge were arranging and transcribing.

Arranging, mainly for solo guitar, was something I was drawn to almost from the day I began playing. Not being a vocalist of any stature to speak of, I was simply fascinated by the fact that I could have my guitar "sing" a song if I knew how to combine a chord progression with the melody of a popular song. My early efforts? The desire was certainly there, but without a teacher to pave the way my first arrangements were sorely lacking. However, I was ambitious enough to continue, and I was also smart enough to realize that the more experience I gathered and the more tunes I exposed myself to, the better. I was right about that, and even though I still wasn't composing original material, I was setting the stage for the future.

Improvising was another issue altogether. Misled by early instructors and the false belief that scale knowledge was the ticket to creative freedom, I finally threw in the towel after playing 9-10 years and realized that something was really missing: the language. That's when I made a conscious decision to begin transcribing in earnest, and abandoned my trust in scales for a newfound faith in solid licks (riffs) and solos. In retrospect that was the greatest decision I've ever made in my music career, because after all the smoke had settled from several, obsessive years of learning and thoroughly exploring this language, I began combining so many terrific lines and concepts with the "tried and true" chord progressions I had been absorbing.

What does all this add up to? Great lines (including bass) plus great progressions equals great music. It's not all that unbelievable when you think about it, eh? In a sense I'm still arranging, but you could make the case that composing really is just an extension of arranging, and how well you compose is a direct reflection of how strong the tools are that you're working with. Mine are very powerful, because my influences are very powerful, which is something I frequently point out when someone pays me a compliment. Strength generates strength.

Though I still come across those who profess a faith in scales as superior creative music tools, I've yet to hear one scalar player who inspires me. Why licks? Why not?