John Hall: Imitating other instruments

Cris Cohen: You have a very subtle touch with the guitar. Is that just your personality coming through? Was it a conscious choice, your particular approach to the guitar?

John Hall: I would like to say it's totally my own choice. But, you know, I'm not the shreddiest guy in the world. I've played some pretty complicated leads. Some of the early Orleans stuff was, I think, pretty athletic lead playing by me and my partner Larry Hoppen. But I really think of the guitar as a melodic instrument. And I try to play like a singer would sing or play it like a sax player would play. I've always found that one develops a more interesting style -- to my ear -- by imitating other instruments. Just listening to guitar players, you'll wind up playing kind of the same notes that everybody else plays. But I've done a lot of listening to everybody from Michael Brecker and David Sanborn and to Junior Walker. Playing Junior Walker sax licks on the guitar is a very cool thing. I mean, look, I don't play like John Coltrane, but I listened to him. And I think everything that I listened to it comes out in my music. I try to do what I do best. And what I do best is not shredding. It's playing melodic leads.