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Certified Guitar Player

montesada

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Mar 21, 2008
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713
Certified Guitar Player. A title given by Chet Atkins to a very select group of guitarists. The world should not be a place without Certified Guitar Players... so, I propose that CGPs that Chet named should be able to bestow the title on those they feel worthy. Thoughts?
 

Ed Driscoll

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Apr 24, 2002
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Certified Guitar Player. A title given by Chet Atkins to a very select group of guitarists. The world should not be a place without Certified Guitar Players... so, I propose that CGPs that Chet named should be able to bestow the title on those they feel worthy. Thoughts?

Why not? Since it's something that Atkins made up, nothing is stopping them.
 

Triburst

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Feb 12, 2006
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4,353
That's as silly as a martial artist registering his hands as lethal weapons. :hank
 

Ed Driscoll

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Apr 24, 2002
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I would be interested in who was on Chet’s list of CGP.

From a 2018 Acoustic Guitar magazine interview:

As a record label executive and producer, Atkins was the prime mover in transforming Nashville into a music industry mecca. He was also the founder of the most exclusive guitarist club in the world. The only way in was to be anointed by Atkins himself. Just four got the nod during his lifetime, three of whom survive to this day.

Tommy Emmanuel, John Knowles, and Steve Wariner share the distinction of being Certified Guitar Players (CGPs), along with the late Jerry Reed and Atkins’ longtime guitar partner Paul Yandell, who was invited into the group by Atkins’ daughter Merle after her father’s death in 2001.

* * * * * * * *

All three guitarists recorded and performed with Atkins and parlayed what they learned from the master guitarist into their own unique styles. The one thing they hadn’t ever done was get together as CGP honorees to discuss Atkins—not until the day they gathered at Nashville’s Gruhn Guitars for a few hours of picking and reminiscing about their mentor and friend.
 

gmann

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May 26, 2003
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6,147
It was Chet`s decision and there will be no more.
 

SpencerD

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Mar 11, 2016
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910
Mark Knopfler is certified motherfuckers. :yah:dude:

Vince Gill is too. Certified :yah:dude:

{ I saw Tommy a few weeks ago, just as laid back as he always has been.]
 

gibson-r8

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Jul 15, 2004
Messages
574
Interesting, I would have thought to see Les Paul's name on the list, and Chet seemed to like Mark Knopfler as well. I bet there were a bunch of 'unofficial' CGPs in Chet's world.

I am a CPG myself, but that has to do with my Geology registrations... Would that I could trade CPG for CGP...

Thanks for the follow up. Chet was probably the biggest influence on guitar players of my generation... At least in my part of the world.

Steve
 

S. Cane

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Dec 10, 2014
Messages
656
This thread got me curious.

Do professional musicians in the US have to be registered somewhere in order to practice (like lawyers have to be registered at the Bar Association)? What do you need to do to join? Is there a test or something?

We have an "Order of Musicians" here in Brazil but our Supreme Court ruled that musicians don't need to be registered in order to play professionally if they don't want to.
 

Triburst

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Feb 12, 2006
Messages
4,353
In some locales, local "musicians unions" used to have a bit of weight, but that ended (at least in my area) decades ago.
 
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