An Interview with Nick Granger

Hi all, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Granger, a phenomenal guitarist who successfully made the move from Phoenix, AZ to a professional life in the country music scene Nashville, TN. Enjoy!

rp: Hey Nick, thanks for taking the time for this interview You’re originally from Phoenix, how did you reach the decision to move to Nashville?

Nick Granger: Thank you for inviting me on. I am originally from the south, and I still have a lot of family in Alabama. So that helped in my decision to move to Nashville. But mainly I made the jump because of the folklore of the place. They say Nashville is the music city, and it’s where the best of the best are. I wanted to see if I could cut it.

rp: Before you left Phoenix, how did you specifically prepare your guitar skills to be competitive?
Nick: well, I guess the first thing I would say is “not enough!” lol
umm, I tend to be a technique geek, so I practice too much and don’t apply it enough in real situations, so the best thing I did was to put a show together to play out live. I created a set of songs I could make my own. So every show was different. It was a improvisational group that could react to whatever I was feeling or when I wanted to take the audience on a journey. 
That showed me what the crowd was wanting and reacting to. So, I learned a lot!

rp: So then, what would be a list of songs would you put together?

Nick: I built the set to have a cool relaxed vibe so the crowd would be very relaxed in a zone. Artists like Ray LaMontagne, Gavin DeGraw, and James Morrison. Then I would pepper in some Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and some old funk from The Meters. It was very soulful, and left a lot of room for improv. We would take a song into 10 minutes sometimes. It’s all about the pocket. Allowing the music to expand and contract like that takes you on a journey where even you don’t know
How it’s going to end. To me that’s making music.

rp: So then when you Improv, say over a progression such as The Meters –“Cissy Strut”, what type of scales/modes are you using?

Nick: Minor pentatonic, and Dorian mostly. I’ll also throw in the major 3rd and flat 7 to create a mixolydian sound. You can rely on the flat 5 as a passing tone as well.

rp: How does that differ from how you would approach a classic country tune like Merle Haggard’s “Sit Here and Drink?”

Nick: Well the Cissy strut is more of a vamp. Meaning there are two sections that just repeat. Country music like haggard has an arrangement to it. Like a basic 1,4,5 progression similar to a blues progression. They are both typically leaning on a dominant tonality. Meaning there is a major third and a minor 7th. So you could use a mixolydian of course. But also ionian (major) and major pentatonic. The difference to me between the two styles, is in country you’re telling a different story. The melody lines are longer and need to say musically what the lyrics and song are about. So if the song is about a guy saying to a girl, I’ll just stay here and drink… I would add some whimsy through pedal steel bends. In the blues, you’re motives are typically shorter.

rp: How did your playing style change when you moved to Nashville?

Nick: Being here in Nashville at first was overwhelming. If you go down to broadway and watch these old cats just tearing it up, you’re like “wow!” But the coolest thing to me is that you can approach them and talk to them. I have met a ot of players that I never dreamed of like Brent Mason, Tom Bukovac, and my favorite Johnny Hiland. I have been studying with Johnny for about 6 months now. He has completely opened my mind on how to look at the fretboard. So, my country playing has grown by leaps and bounds!

rp: How has your mind opened to how you look at the fretboard?

Nick: The way I look at the fretboard now is more laterally. Not so much in the context of shapes and boxes. I have been studying to see the notes as connected rather than in confines of A minor, for example. Because in country, you use a lot of open strings. so you have to be aware of what you’re playing over. I guess the biggest breakthrough for me is that I am starting to see notes in context to what chord I’m playing over, rather than what key am I in, or what scale am I playing.

rp: How did your rig change when you got to Nashville?

Nick: When I came to Nashville, my rig was totally overblown and almost pretentious. It was a 24″ x 36″ monster board with boutique pedals and 100 watt amps with huge speaker cabs. Well, the fact is, you can only use a rig like that if you’re out on a national tour and playing huge stages. When you’re playing regular shows, and on the road, the key is to be compact and efficient.

My current setup is really simple and small. I run a Mesa Boogie 5:25 Express w/ a 10″ speaker, through a Boss ME-50, Exotic RC Booster, and a Zendrive.I plug into a Line 6 wireless that all mounts to a Pedaltrain board. I use a Sennheiser e906 mic w/ an Ampclamp so my sound is always consistent. So my stage footprint is very small, and everybody always comment on my tone ans they can’t believe how much sound the little Boogie puts out.

The reality of live playing these days is that everything is mic’d. Stage volume is very low. 50% of the time, I run my Boogie on 5 watts which is class A power and turned up gets incredible tube goodness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rp: What is one piece of advice you’d give to guitarists wanting to move to Nashville?
Nick: My advice to aspiring players that want to come to Nashville is, “drum roll”…. 
1) Be Humble. 
Nashvillians can smell the amateur in you if you act cocky. And, no matter how good you think you are, there’s players here that will mop the floor with your dreams. Oh, and some of them look like your grandpa. 
2) You have to know the number system. 
all musical communication is through the Nashville number system. Learn it. 
3) Know what you do, and don’t oversell your talents. 
acoustic guitar, and electric guitar are referred to as separate here. As well as electric lead. When someone asks you, what do you do? You tell them exactly what you do. Pros will know you’re full of shit when you say you play all styles. “I play rock, jazz, r&b, country, bluegrass etc…… Bullshit. 
Just because you know how to make a 7th chord doesn’t mean you know how to play jazz. Just because you recorded in your friends studio or with your band in a studio, doesn’t mean that you are a studio guitar player. What I’m saying is, if you oversell what you do, you are actually holding yourself back. Because the seasoned players, and industry people will know how green you really are.

rp: Thanks Nick! You’re the man!

Check out Nick’s EPK. He is so impressive and destined for amazing things.

Read More: Effective Gig Preparation for a Country Guitarist