Belated record for future reminder.
I had lunch with themuser 3 days before I registered my marriage. As usual, I was complaining (You may be amused to know that my best friend once bought a shirt for me that said “Official Member of the Piss & Moan About Everything Club”). That time I was complaining about the lack of any achievement in my life. About how I can’t play the guitar as well as I wanted, about how tough and pointless working through Ted Greene’s Chord Chemistry and Modern Chord Progressions seem. About how I could only say I have a degree, a job, a wife-to-be and good friends.
And then themuser reminded me that what I had was all the things that some people wanted “That’s all some people want!”. And it put things in perspective for me for a while. And so that I’ll continue to remember it, I’ll blog it down as a reminder.
As for Ted Greene and the guitar, themuser (echoing my wife) reminded me that some things just have to take time and won’t happen overnight. As for seemingly pointless exercises, he reminded me that such exercises were how we learnt language and math way back when we were much younger.
Anyway, here’s an appropriate place to insert some reminders from Mick Goodrick’s The Advancing Guitarist: Applying Guitar Concepts & Techniques, a book I borrowed from the library.
It’s important to understand how very complicated the guitar really is. Also, how vast are its possibilities. This way, we can cultivate patience and stop worrying because we think we arean’t learning fast enough. (To really know the guitar has to take a lot of time. Why be in such a hurry?) If you truly love what your’re doing, you can handle failure or you can handle success. (In fact, I would think that’s the only way anyone could handle success.) Don’t be afraid to look at the musicians you are playing with. Don’t be afraid to look at the people you’re playing to. And even if you are afraid, look anyhow. You’ll learn much. Everyone may not have the ability to become a great guitarist; but everyone does have the ability to improve, to get better. To me, that’s more important. Playing “beyond yourself”: When you play great for other people, (especially when it’s with other musicians) it’s a gift (for everyone!). Be thankful. Realise not so much that you did it, but rather that it must have been needed at the time (or at least, possible at the time) Musical materials and the guitar are somewhat inert. A person’s learning process is very organic. When we forget about our own learning process, we run into trouble. Sometimes we expect too much of ourselves. Music can become a very neurotic activity. When this happens, it’s no use saying that it should be different from what it is. Don’t think about what it should be. Look at what it is! When you see sometheing very clearly, it practically changes itself: Attitude A:
Practicing even 8ths. “Those aren’t even! That sounds terrible! I can’t do it! Got to try harder! Maybe I don’t have what it takes…?”Attitude B:
Practicing even 8ths. “Those aren’t even. Let me study very closely exactly how they aren’t even. Hmmm! Very interesting…!”Patience is so important. We can’t help the fact that we usually want everything right now. However, experience usually teaches us at least not to expect it. Things unfold at their own pace; they take time. Just hang in there. Do what you see needs to be done. Work on what you see needs work. Make it as interesting as you can for yourself. Who cares how long it takes? Don’t look for results. (If you work on what needs work, results will take care of themselves) Let them surprise you! Music is infinitely perfectable. It just takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and as much love as you can find.
Regarding the last two points, of course it’s way easier to doubt yourself and say that you don’t have what it takes, so that you can spare yourself the serious effort and just give up. Which is why success is only for serious practitioners, it only comes after much hard work, requiring “patience and determination” as Ted Greene puts it. It’s tough to be scientific and objective about improving my guitar playing but it’s necessary. No other choice if I want to improve, I guess.
Which brings me to a 4 month old Scientific American article Secrets of the Expert Mind. I quote:
The one thing that all expertise theorists agree on is that it takes enormous effort to build these structures in the mind. Simon coined a psychological law of his own, the 10-year rule, which states that it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others....Ericsson argues that what matters is not experience per se but “effortful study,” which entails continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond one’s competence. That is why it is possible for enthusiasts to spend tens of thousands of hours playing chess or golf or a musical instrument without ever advancing beyond the amateur level and why a properly trained student can overtake them in a relatively short time. It is interesting to note that time spent playing chess, even in tournaments, appears to contribute less than such study to a player’s progress; the main training value of such games is to point up weaknesses for future study.
Even the novice engages in effortful study at first, which is why beginners so often improve rapidly in playing golf, say, or in driving a car. But having reached an acceptable performance—for instance, keeping up with one’s golf buddies or passing a driver’s exam—most people relax. Their performance then becomes automatic and therefore impervious to further improvement. In contrast, experts-in-training keep the lid of their mind’s box open all the time, so that they can inspect, criticize and augment its contents and thereby approach the standard set by leaders in their fields.
Hmmm, I reminded of a conversation with my friend YY, he said that it’s possible to be within the top 5% or 10% of any field with hard work but to be within the top 1% requires some innate talent or genius.