Interview with Franco Morone by Marco Bellei

How the passion for the guitar and subsequent musical experiences born

Do you remember how your passion for music and guitar was born? Did you have someone in your family or with your close friends who approached you and started you on the instrument? 

 Noting my great passion for music, my parents led me to the guitar lesson. Even before reading, I could recognize the 45 laps from the colour of the label, spending whole days listening to songs on the radio. It was the late 60s/early 70s music. My paternal uncle played the drums on a cruise ship. When he decided to quit, he asked me if I wanted his battery. I was shy, so I did not say ‘yes.’ Fortunately, otherwise, I might have become a drummer. My family at that time was near deciding to emigrate to the United States. So they took the chance to a first trip to test the ground. My father told me about this new jazz music that was starting to be shoot also in Italy. But the economy was running well also in our country. So they decided to stay in Italy.

Tell us about your subsequent musical experiences. 

 My teacher was an accordionist who rounded up with plectrum guitar lessons; in those years, he taught me to read the pentagram, the basic chords and some of the most known melodies. I had become quite good from a rhythmic point of view, so with my first band, I had a role. As I began, I started with my first solos. I also recognized the basic chords and the main intervals by ear. This period did not affect me so much musically, but playing live, I got to know the stage and started to have different experiences. I was playing the electric guitar, taking into consideration the acoustic-only towards the 5th year of high school, when the experience with the groups was over, and I was preparing for the university. In those years, it was a real shock to find the fingerstyle of Leo Kottke and John Fahey. I found other folk revival recordings and could listen to emerging fingerpickers in Bologna. They would become afterwards colleagues and friends like Duck Baker, Woody Mann, and others.

When he starts to compose and his sense of the melody

When and how did you start composing? 

 I immediately started composing songs, but I was not as good as a singer, and even the lyrics were not very good. However, I felt that the commercial genre did not excite me very much. I then began to develop the fingerstyle technique learning more from the records than from the score. Only later, when the first Grossman’s tabs or the Unterberger or Carpi’s manuals arrived, I found familiar types of arpeggios at that point. I started to study music more seriously, and it was so exciting to look for new contacts to compare with different musicians in Bologna. I began to compose just fingerstyle as soon as I acquired the necessary techniques that allowed me to do it.

Your sense of musical beauty seems strongly linked to the melody: the melody is one of the strong points of your music. Are your compositions always born of a melodic idea? 

Almost always. But do not forget that the notes of a melody are in a rhythmic context: it is mainly from the meeting of these two elements that something interesting is born. Not less crucial is the harmony, that is, the chords you build around the melodic line. It is essential to choose the correct pitches with the acoustic guitar, partly because of the frequent use of open strings. But this is also a weak point because you get into the habit of playing and reading only in specific keys. But since you insist on composition, I want to tell you this: everyone today is in a hurry to compose. I cut my teeth first and gained some experience with other artists’ compositions, not just guitar. It is needed to play a lot, say at least a hundred or more pieces by great composers or musicians you like; this sharpens sensitivity, taste and much more. Even before composing, it is good to experience a minimum of arrangement to know better the potentials and limitations of the guitar at the same time. Playing scales is very useful in the consideration that melodies come from scales. Unfortunately, not many acoustic guitarists love to practice them. Too many then get into the habit of reading only tablature, so they have a rough knowledge of the staff. This delays, if not detract, from learning harmony. Finally, playing alone too often leads to slow growth with the risk of not resolving possible metronome faults.

Which musicians have stimulated his creativity

A time ago, you told me that often a composition can arise from listening to someone else’s idea, that you can develop differently, opening new paths. In this sense, were there any musicians who stimulated your creativity that you think had a relevant role in your musical personality development? If so, can you mention some? 

 In music, it is hard to find or have interesting original ideas. When it happens, it is a miracle. More often, it is easy to find various influences a musician can develop and make his own. There are many influential musicians. In your youth, you play everything. Afterwards, you begin to select the one you like. The first illuminations came with folk, ballads, blues, and jazz. Even today, I feel stimulated by phrases and melodic improvisations from blues or Celtic music. I also like authors related to the new age from the Windham Hill catalogue. Musicians who somehow had experience in folk music like Alex De Grassi, George Winston or Michael Hedges, Philip Aaberg, and Metamora.

Use of alternative tunings

In arranging your compositions, you make very often use of alternative tunings. In these cases, does the musical idea arise from the standard and then you develop on a different tuning?

It depends. To start, you must feel a particular condition that usually comes after intense practice with the instrument. Then a personal sensitivity, in which you want to communicate something. You may feel good or not. That has a lot to do with the desire to externalize. I use tunings in traditional music, where you can imitate the style of another instrument and where the harmonies are not very complex anyway. There is more research on the sonority that enhances the instrument a lot. There is a lot more research to improve the instrument sound. 
For blues, jazz and harmonically more complex pieces, I usually develop them on the standard, but the sounds of alternative tunings often help. One important thing I want to tell you is foremost that, on tunings, it makes sense to play only in the primary keys. For example, on the DADGAD, I use the keys of D major, D minor, G major, and G minor. It doesn’t make much sense for me to play everything on one alternate tuning as I see some of my colleagues do, then better the standard one.

Approach to the study and the recording of tunes

When you embrace the instrument in the intimacy of your home, do you study in a structured way, or do you prefer to play and have fun more freely? Since when you started playing, your approach to practice has changed? 

Sometimes I practise the songs that I think I’ll play in concert. For some others, I train on new songs under construction and definition. Other times I still like to practice on particular scales, exercises or arrangements. However, the longer you stay away from the instrument, the more time it takes to get used to a certain mastery.

When are you going to the recording studio, it’s all clear? Do you think that the registration phase is a further opportunity for creativity? 

Better if your creative moments you had them before. It is risky to create new things while recording. Better to write everything in the same way as record playing with maximum security and fluency. You must get there after a long period of study.

Do you prefer to be free from “tic” or use the metronome in the studio recording? 

Better to study the songs with the metronome and use it even when you record. It is not enough to play in time. 

You must also be able to use the right accents and have expression and dynamics. Without a metronome, there is always the risk of increasing or decreasing speed, especially in complex divisions. Then it’s better to pay attention also when you play songs with simple divisions. Easier to do well but also be wrong when you think you are good.

What Morone thinks of improvisation in the solo fingerstyle guitar

Your first two teaching methods deal with blues and jazz guitar. Those texts are a mine of ideas in the form of exercises, studies and original songs in fingerstyle that I believe have set the school. Limiting ourselves to jazz and blues, what do you think about improvisation in the solo fingerstyle guitar? What advice would you give to those looking for an improvisation approach? 

Thanks for the appreciation. When composing and selecting material for these books, I often tried to combine different fingerstyle techniques with beautiful phrases that could make sense even on their own.

Maybe that is why many fans found them of interest. Several exercises, as well as teaching, those two or four bars remain examples that can be useful in other contexts; think of the turnaround, a typical two-bar phrasing at the end of the blues round. Improvisation is a very demanding and almost impossible practice when talking about polyphonic fingerstyle, i.e. played in two lines (bass and melody). Of course, if you do not play the bass, you can play with your fingers or a plectrum. At that point, you are free to play on every part of the keyboard. But if you want to accompany your improvisation with a bass line, it becomes very engaging. I bypassed the problem by preparing solos with ad hoc bass lines like in my CD Miles of Blues. Of course, at that time, it becomes a – prearranged improvisation – but it renders very well. You can also improvise more freely, like Lenny Breau or Duck Baker tried to do with alternating results, but because in the ordinary case, let’s say it’s a gamble.

What is music for Franco Morone

I believe that music is a rather important part of your life. I will like to say goodbye with an easy or difficult question-you will tell us! What is music for you? 

For me, and I am sure it is the same for many others, music is a language that conveys feelings, emotions and different moods and, most importantly, is a culture that becomes part of our existence. It often accompanies our days in line with our state of mind, so it is also up to you to add content around the music you play or listening. That is why it is always better to personally choose what you feel like listening to or playing and not passively submit to what others offer us. There is music and music! Just turn on the radio to realize that. It is good to know then that even when music becomes your job, it is not always possible to play what you like: to be capable of doing that, you have to play or compose something worth to listen.

Enjoy your music!

See you soon.