Just had someone tell me how to play the guitar.,,

I should add that the same person told me he played piano. But couldn't "get both his hands working at once".

Or his ability to understand irony.

Oh, I think he's had much more practice doing that. ;-)

The things I learnt that morning. ;-)

Edited by Davesax1965 - May 11 2022 at 08:07

^ most guitarists are

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy

Davesax1965 wrote:

- his had been bought from a shop, played a few times in 10 years and had a thick layer of dust on it.

So of course, I get a lecture on how to play and how difficult it is to form chords and how you should spend hours learning scales.

This was on a Zoom call for work. I let him go on a bit and then said I've got 9 guitars, I've been playing since 1975 and I'm an improvising musician.

So.

He carries on telling me how to play guitar. Without the first idea of how to do it.

...

Hi,

This kind of thing has been a problem for a long time, and not just in music and in this case trying to instruct someone about how to play an instrument, instead of helping the "student" get more enthused about the instrument itself.

Likewise, on stage, I ended up directing "new" students, instead of the higher level of acting students in the program, and just before I left it all behind, a professor (he had given me great marks for directing and what I did - he was English ... he understood what I did!) asked me why use the new folks?

It was an easy answer. The folks in the higher level of the acting program all had hundreds of ideas on how to do anything, and were not very good about listening to a director (specially one that supposedly was a lower level than they were in school), and ended up doing their thing anyway, regardless of what you worked on.

Some of them regretted it ... one show that I worked with a lot of (what I call) "psychic exercises" was a total success and the lead in the play, 2 months later? Was tagged immediately to play IAGO and he stole the show and got an outstanding review when the rest of the production was trashed. Another show, the girl was new and just started the Beginning Acting class. I rehearsed with a lot of fun stuff and improvisation and "interruptions" to make sure they could control their giggles and concentrate on the play and story, and also learn when to stop if the audience applauses and interrupts (happens all the time!) ... and she stole the show ... the same professor asked me how I did all that!

I will never argue for/against the well known greats, and I got to see Andres Segovia break a string in the middle of a piece, not flinch, and switched hand positions somewhere else, and continued playing the piece. When he ended, he quietly asked it if sounded alright. He got an ovation right there. He cried and said thank you! And then continued playing.

The problem, for me, starts just when you THINK that you know something. This is on par with a lot of the writings by PETER BROOK (highly recommended reading for you Dave) and his immense discussions on acting and working the art of the voice ... and how to use it, if only singers EVER learned an inch of that, I imagine that a lot of music would change, but somehow the "ego" associated with a "music degree" has nothing to do with "teaching" a student, and help sell something somewhere!

In time, I imagine that goon will be gone. he obviously does not listen to students, and then expects them to learn something ... try that on your child! You'll lose more often than not!

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

Hi,

Lovely to see you here. Yes, indeed, the work first ... always! Guitar or not ... please don't think Jimi ... you must think DAVESAX ... not Jimi!

I was surprised you did not respond to the other thread on difficult riffs to play ... but it was for me, some of the nuttiest times, in terms of theater, and film, and experimentation. The one film I did was handheld and even though I could not finish it, the professor (USC graduate with a bit of intelligence!) even told the class, that unfinished it was the only piece with a concept and ideas, and great music ... everyone else had done a bit of a living room, house scene, with no story ... I didn't worry about the story, even thought the visuals definitely suggest a relationship between the 2, but in the end, it is the words by Kevin Ayers (with permission) from "Once I Awakened" that did it all ... I simply put a visual to it and cut accordingly, with the girl "disappearing: after he screams "get out of my dream" ... the professor was impressed, but my major illness caused me to miss the finals and he had the film "party" a week later so I could show what I had ... a super 8 film (5 minutes) and the music on a cassette player ...

The whole thing was based on the visualization of the piece of music, and the far out thing was that the start looked very gothic as it was windy on an early morning in Santa Barbara and the high trees shook well ... the girl appeared in what seemed like a long dress/nightie ... sadly I have not been able to afford and do film ever since, though if I can find a decent camera/video player, I know that something will come up very quickly!

I film what I see, not what I find in my mind, because translating my mind is often more impossible than you can imagine, and causes a lot of misunderstandings, as if the words weren't right ... but the visuals (which also give me a lot of poetry) never die, and always "live" ... might you try that and see if you can create music off it, guitar or not!

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com