Hi Treblemaker,
I agree with you wholeheartedly about Paul McCartney, who is often underrated as a musician - just being seen as the bass player in Beatles. His creative inventiveness and overall musicianship are taken for granted. He never made a big deal about his talent for composition, songwriting and melody. Though there are rumors that John Lennon was envious of Paul’s talent to pluck charming melodies from thin air - I think John may have even belittled Paul for not being raw and rock and roll enough. Being a bit too educated, polished and nice.
I should imagine if you were able to hear Ben freely improvise one of these tunes he would be able to astound you with what he can create and you would have no idea where he drew his ideas from.
What’s even more incredible is that what Ben presents to us are simply lessons. They are extremely good lessons, but they will not showcase Ben’s complete talent.
He’s spent a great deal of time working out a version of his playing that almost anyone could achieve with some hard work. He’s not trying to impress you with virtuosity or ego. He presents good technique and tasteful ideas.
Also teaching is hard - coming up with good lessons that will benefit players of all abilities takes a lot of thought and effort. So Ben as has a talent to distill important elements to his style of playing in an accessible way.
If I compare Tony Rice’s Homespun DVD or some Albert Lee’s DVDs - both of whom are amazing players it’s very hard to grasp what they are showing you and you really struggle to learn - I ended up guessing and making stuff up - which can be interesting too. What Ben has here are note for note perfect examples that you can follow along in the TEF player. If you have the time to practice and persevere you can get there, which is quite reassuring. So Ben also has the gift of communicating his music to students.
Ben is extraordinarily talented player, who could have followed another path with his music, and we are all lucky to be able to benefit from his teaching.