Johnny Smith
Impeccable Technique, Impeccable Taste
On an archtop guitar with twenty or so frets it is possible to play the same pitch in as many as five different places with the character of the
resulting sound varying accordingly. So a guitarist playing a two octave scale could remain in one position or combine both vertical and horizontal
motion to build a scale that moved across the neck diagonally, producing a more consistent sound. Chords also can be voiced with vertical or horizontal
structure again with resulting changes in sound.
Johnny Smith employs vertical movement like no one else. His chords also tend to be vertical allowing a tight voicing more reminiscent of a piano. Smith's right hand technique is also somewhat unusual. He employs strict alternate picking with the motion originating at the elbow instead of at the wrist. The product of this disciplined approach to technique is a very clear and clean sound with blistering arpeggios and tightly harmonized chord melodies, frequently with the chords voiced on only the second, third, and fourth strings. All of this from a soft spoken, unassuming man that loves the out of doors, piloting his airplane, and who for years, ran a music store near the base of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a place that Smith described as being "as far as you can get from New York without being too close to Los Angeles".
Johnny taught private lessons for years and even today there are many of his former students active in the Colorado music community. Amazingly, the humble Mr. Smith would teach promising youngsters even though he could draw the most advanced of students.
Smith had a hit recording of Moonlight in Vermont in the early '50s, a Gibson Guitar model built to his specifications in the '60s and recorded many other albums culminating with a solo recording of mostly classical pieces made in 1976 in a Colorado Springs studio. My favorite of his albums is 1967's "Johnny Smith" on the Verve label. Perhaps my most treasured Smith product is "The Johnny Smith Approach to Guitar" from Mel Bay Publications. This book, like the man himself, is unassuming yet yields many unexpected treasures. To the best of my knowledge album was released on CD but is no longer in print while the method book is still in print at this time. There is a lot to be gained by studying both.
