Bob Zabek - an interview

• Adam Fulara: How and when did you start playing using two-handed tapping? Who was your first inspiration in that style???
• Bob Zabek: I started tapping the way I use it now 3 years ago, when I was studying in Rotterdam. I didn�t know players like Stanley Jordan, mr. Webster or other tapping masters so my approach towards tapping happened totally naturally I guess because I wanted to reach new horizons on guitar. I just started experimenting with the guitar and looked at it from a totally different, for me, new point of view. but you guys should check out Victor Wooten ;-)
  
  
• What do you think is the most important thing in that style?
• That it tells a good story!!! Catchy nice melodies combined with groovy chord stuff or totally weird things... I always say: everything is good as long is it is real!
  
  
• What do you think about other tapping recordings? Do You like some?
• I know mr. Wooten of who I actually love almost everything and I recently discovered Adam Fulara who inspired me a lot so I practise now every day with 2 guitars writing new stuff to reach total control and independence of both hands, which he can do greatly. I know some people who are also musicians and who sometimes come and say: hey man check this out etc... So then I of course do that. Sometimes I even search the internet for examples myself and see what I find. But although I try to see as much as possible on the same hand I don�t want to know anything or too much, so I can grow a musical castle on a totally pure, clean, real base... Sounds maybe a little bit strange but as an anology, I rather try to be and live like a child than be stuck in something like adults, and that is reaaaly difficult I know.
  
  
• Did you ever try to play the stick or other tapping instruments?
• I met a guy in Vienna (I live in Linz now) who plays chapman stick for a couple of years now, he invited a friend and me and I gave it a try. Chapman with a loop station, midi pickup and synthy stuff. I think the day will come I have to buy a stick but not yet, first a doubleneck guitar! but I like it a lot...
  
  
• What do you think about your music - and where is it going ?!
• I think that the stuff I do is original because it happened naturally, so I think that is good. Usually when I write a piece it comes from out of nowhere, at least it looks like that... I start playing, the thing grows and then the next part comes along I arrange it so it sounds good, I don�t know really, I just try to go for it. I don�t really know where it is going but i hope it progresses towards the way I imagine it to be ;-)
  
  
• Do you prefer playing solo or with the band?
• I prefer playing with a good band. I started doing this tapping stuff out of the misery that I didn�t have a band I think. and the thing is if you fix that style on let�s say a double neck guitar and combine it with some equipment like guitar synth, boss loop station and maybe call a guy who plays percussion you can make amazing music. Although I actually come from the blues-rock-genre I still love the feeling of jamming with a bass player and drummer, playing lead with high gain sound, creating dynamics with the whole band, up and down... I love this. My musical vision though is a mixture of both!
  
  
• What music do you want to play in 5 or 10 years?
• I want to be able to perform alone in any genre I like to, blues, jazz, whatever it might be, just a double neck guitar and me,totally free, then maybe create loops live, pickup another instrument with a different tuning maybe and play solo, melodies, comping,... But in the same time I wanna have a band who after having built up tension with playing alone they start playing and we rock the hell together ;-) but if you want to know which style, mh, I don�t know and I also don�t care, i think there is just good music and bad music, and even that is a matter of taste...
  
  
• What do you think about jazz? About classical music? About shred? Which style is most important to you? which ones are inspiring you? who are your "idols"?!
• Well, the older I get (I�m 23 now) the more I seem to like and dive into jazz. it really depends, smooth, cool jazz I like as much as avantgarde crazy stuff, it depends. I love Chopin, Mozart and Bach and whatever else touches my heart... Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, Guns and Roses, Johnny Lang, B.B. King and I also love electronic music like drum and bass, lounge and even hip hop. I think when it comes to musical styles and genres there shouldn�t be any boundaries, go with what you love! I am inspired by almost everything that touches me, no matter if shred, Mozart or John Scofield... Most important to me is the soul or spirit inside the music.
  
  
• Is improvisation important to you? Or do you prefer to learn each note from your solos....
• All tapped compositions I have so far are transcribed. so, I wrote them down, but before as they are born in an improvised process I play them over and over again until they reach their size, if that is possible ;-) but yes, I love to improvise, not knowing where it might go, especially with a band... and the best moments are those when you don�t know where you are taking yourself with your impsovisation until you feel it while you play.
  
  
• How do You practice? And how long (per day)?
• It depends also. If I have an idea before I actually start playing, I try to grap it and if it�s a good day I might spend the next few hours with composing a piece out of it. other times I plug in a drum machine, set the tempo to 100 b.p.m and work my way up to 220 playing 16th notes, also for hours. but I think the best practise one can do is play as much as possible either live or with other musicians, that is the only real thing I guess.... Also for hours of course. ;-)
  
  
• What would you say to a young guitar player, who just started learning two handed tapping style? What is your advice to him?
I heard that there are older guitar tappers who think that there is one correct way of using this technique. First of all I would say, forget that!!! Everything should be possible and allowed, so don�t restrict yourself to something that your imagination could overcome if you just let it happen. Play around, tap here, tap there, figure out what works best for you, which voicings for the chordal part, which hand position for the melodies etc. And then start making your own little songs out of these exercises or take a song that already exists and transfer it on the fretboard using that 2 handed tapping technique. And try to visualize the stuff you play in your mind... Kinda difficult in the beginning to think bi-polar, is that the right word?! lol


• Have You ever been in Poland? What You think about this country?
• I haven�t been to Poland now for 2 years, since my grandparents died back then. But before I came there with my parents and my brother every summer, sometimes even winter. We have a nice house in Pulawy and my aunt and uncle live in Warszawa. I love Poland and I am glad that I am not 100% pure Austrian, as I think it gives me a much broader perception on things and life itself.
  
  
• Tell us about Berklee College of Music - how did you receive a scholarship?
• I visited the homepage www.berklee.edu and read that they have a jury who travells the world every year visiting all continents with different stations usually in music schools where they award musicians scholarships for Berklee. there was no station in austria so I had to travel to Germany/Freiburg which is not too far away by train. There, 5 or ten minutes before it was my turn I was given some lead sheets with chords, melodies, etc. in classical notation. I played that when I came in then they checked my ears. one of them had a saxophone on his desk so he said:"boy, here�s an "a"..play the rest"..so he played an a and then another note.... then 3 notes , etc... I messed up at a melody of 10 notes but they said I was alright. then I had to play a composition of choice which was "For the love of god" by Steve Vai. Afterwards I played a little piece of mine and that was it... 3 weeks later I received a letter that I got a scholarship but god knows I still would have been forced to work my ass off so I could have gone there.