Clinton 'Rock' Jones ~ Serious Guitar Skills Click, Play and Join Its Braap Official on YouTube!
I've always had a passion for music as long as I can remember. I had more access to the guitar than other instruments and picked up the neighbours old guitar when I was twelve years old. It was practically on its last legs but to me it meant a lot. At the time I was listening to the Hollies, the Beatles and the Stones. For me, playing the guitar is a form of expression that can be emotional and soulful at the same time.
I played for about two years and decided I wanted my own guitar. I had a paper round as a kid and saved up enough to buy a second hand guitar from a music store. I practised and practised and practised. During that time I asked two professional guitarists for tips but they weren't interested, so I ended up listening to music on the radio and teaching myself.
From there, by the time I was seventeen I was good enough to start playing professionally and started with a garage band. I call it a garage band because with these guys we practised in garages and sometimes pubs in exchange for free gigs. Rehearsal rooms were costly and none of us had that much money anyway, so it was a good solution as we were just starting out and didn't know how well we would be received. It wasn't about the money, it was about going out there and doing what we wanted to do. The great thing was that people were enjoying it and dancing. We never really got paid, we were given drinks and the chance to perform.
The paid gigs started to come when one of the band members started scouting around, looking at working men's clubs, social clubs and pubs. We began going further afield and this is when we actually got some money for the gigs. We started to be a lot more serious and began to develop as musician's and entertainers. We started to understand what people wanted and the music to play. As time went on I developed my playing ability which was improving, so I just wanted more of everything, gigs, excitement, recording and being busier. By this time, word was getting around about my playing ability to the point that one of the guys that refused to teach me came to me for lessons!
I started to look for bigger bands to play with as I was feeling a lot more confident now. That got me into performing at colleges and universities in and around the country. From there, the crowds were so big it was nerve racking at first. Going from pubs with a handful of people at age seventeen, to a crowd of two hundred in around two and a half years was a big step and I realised that it was more rewarding and there was a lot of hard work involved in that. Obviously it got bigger going further out and hitting the big time. I joined another band, 'Xodus' who were a Reggae band and we were signed to a label and started touring up and down the country.
After that I moved to London as I wanted a change and left the band, which was in the early 80's. I started to work more closely on the Electric Jazz scene and the Soul scene in the underground circuit. When I was up North I was told my style was English and I felt quite honoured by that. Obviously from the transition where I came to London, having done all that work, my style had matured and now I was told that I sounded American because by that time I was doing a lot more Jazz and Soul. During that time I was doing sessional work with Soul and Jazz artists in London, so my ears were listening to a lot more Jazz and Soul.
As I got more involved with music my style became more personal as well as emotional, whether I was playing Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Blues or Country music- my style was becoming more distinctive. Whatever effects I add to the guitar tone isn't going to make my playing sound better, the sound would just be more intensified and enhanced. I moved on to do a lot of session work with Jazz, Soul and Reggae artists and musicians. I was also composing music at the time.
From there I did lots of different musical projects and my aim isn't to be famous as I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I don't want to get into the position of trying to be the best, loudest or the fastest because every player has their unique style that is comfortable for them. Like everyone else, when I started out, I copied and styled myself on almost every guitarist I listened to. We all do that in the beginning because of the influence and admiration we had for the musicians that came before us, and we still do.
Where I am now, I'm so honoured to have worked with so many major artists, played on countless recordings and performing around the world as a session guitarist as well as a musician in my own right.
Check out my videos and content on;
YouTube; Clinton Rock Jones
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Tiktok; @clintonrock59
A BIG 'Thank You' to Clinton Rock Jones for submitting this article.
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Jaz McKenzie~ The Word Magician
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