Guitarist Nathaniel Murphy resides in Chicago and has been playing a variety of genres for almost two decades. This exciting, talented player has mixed a variety of music genres, influences and playing styles into his online performances. Throughout 2018, he has agreed to demo an assortment of Breedlove's as part of our Guitar Moments of Zen Series. Enjoy this new composition in the video above. More to come from this talented player! Follow him on Instagram and YouTube for the most current videos.
In this short video, Murphy demos an Oregon Concert CE Sitka Spruce – Myrtlewood acoustic guitar. We sent him this cutaway version of the super popular Oregon Series becuase we know he likes to have access to all of the fingerboard. The track performed here is called “Dancing on Michigan” and the full track can be heard here on bandcamp.
We asked Nathaniel about the origin and complexity of this track, and he explained, “Yeh it’s an original track. It’s a tricky one to play. Mainly just one particular section. Not just for the sake of it though. When composing, I always try and create a solid melody. I like to tune my guitar to lots of open tunings. Mostly ones I make up! I like and use standard tuning quite a bit, but sometimes the melody I have in my head lends itself better to an open tuning. I want people to be able to hear the melody and be able to hum it.”
When asked about his warm-up routine, he commented, “My warm up for a track like this is simply playing it slowly but perfectly. The power of that and being strict with it can’t be understated. That goes for working on scales, arpeggios, solo’s, etc. Play it slowly and perfectly instead of fast and sloppy! It can take quite a while to get a track ready for me, personally. Once the record button is pressed when I’m recording a video or in the studio, I make mistakes all over the place. Very frustrating. Murphy’s law maybe!”
Breedlove Interview with Nathaniel
Q. Did you grow up in a musical household? What was your learning process like and how long have you been playing?
A. I’ve been playing guitar for around 16/17 years. I started when I was 13. There was always music playing somewhere in our home. There weren’t instruments around the house, but there was an extensive collection of records, cassettes, CD’s littered around the house with a stereo/cd player in each room. Mostly old country, Rock, and Roll, and 60’s music.
My learning process was figuring stuff out by ear! I still find that to be the best way to learn (transcribing). We didn’t have the internet so I’d have to pause the CD, sing the notes and rewind to see if I was right. I still love doing that even if tab/notation is readily available. I didn’t enjoy reading music so gave it up. But, I would still recommend people learn the process.
Q. How do you define your musical style? Or does that change?
A. My problem is I want to play all styles of music! One week I’ll just play blues, jazz the next, fingerstyle the week after. I suppose if I were to narrow down, I’m an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist, but I like to jam on electric guitars, too.
Q. If you fire up your Pandora, iTunes, etc. Which artists are in your queue right now?
A. At the moment it’s a strange mix! There’s some Loretta Lynn, John Mayer, Zeppelin and Michael Hedges. Lots of guitar styles in there. Michael Hedges changed the way we look at acoustic guitar. And Jimmy Page is my ultimate Hero!
Q. When you sit down with a new guitar, how do you determine what you want to play? Can you hear suggestions from the instrument regarding the sound and tone?
A. I’ll usually play a mixture of things, depending on the action of the guitar. The sound and feel of the guitar are very important. If it’s a dreadnought, I’ll typically play bluegrass and just some basic strumming of the chords to hear how it sounds. I’ll then try some open tuning ideas with all the fingerstyle stuff.
Q. With so many acoustic guitars on the market – not just from a brand standpoint, but build standpoint – what do you like in regards to body shape, tonewoods, etc.? What style of guitars draw you in?
A. In terms of body shape, I tend to gravitate towards larger body guitars. I just love the big boomy sound. I think they work best for my style of playing. I particularly like a lot of bass and sustain that you get from larger body shapes. I’ll also get drawn in by some of the wackier body shapes such as the Breedlove CM. That thing looks amazing!
