Meet Benjamin Caleb cgp

We were lucky to catch up with Benjamin Caleb cgp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
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Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?


I’m a fingerpicking guitar player from Africa since 13 years now, something that is initially rare, and as an african solo guitar player, the hard thing was to have a successful career, so my challenge ever since, was to make my name beyond African borders, see if my hard work could be recognized by the best in the field.

The most exciting thing in my career is to see how my dream comes true in an unexpected way, it always surprises me, seeing how my efforts pay off as my work progresses, is a blessing, given the number of failures that sometimes discouraged me. Now I’m friends with several great guitarists around the world who have contacted me with congratulations, my work is now recognized by major organizations like THE GRAND OLE OPRY, and by greats artists like TREY HENSLEY, JAMES TAYLOR, JOE ROBINSON ADAM JONES, TOMMY EMMANUEL etc… And i am so glad to be considered and perceived as an important ambassador for COUNTRY MUSIC and FINGERPICKING MUSIC in Africa. It’s like living a dream while waiting to wake up and go back to reality, it’s just unbelievable.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

When I was much younger, i never thought about success or how to be successful, i was just following my heart and my instincts without asking any question, all I wanted was to be a great player, nothing more and nothing less.

But if I can name 3 of my qualities it would be:
1) I always listen to my heart (even if it didn’t make sense to other people, I’ve always knew that my heart knows what my brain is trying to understand)

2) Working hard was naturally my daily life (with 12 hours of work on my instrument)

3) Tommy Emmanuel (there are many things to say here) short, Tommy was, is, and always will be my biggest secret to success.

And my advice is « never do a thing if there is no love, never accept boredom, work is a blessing if you do what you love, be ready to sacrifice everything for that, follow your heart you can’t go wrong »

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
They bought me a nice guitar, well i know that it’s normal elsewhere, but in Africa it’s so rare to have a nice guitar, especially if you are a young player, so the best gift you can give to a African guitarist, it’s to buy him a good guitar. So others didn’t have this chance, I had some, thanks to my parents

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Cgp Africa

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