•  Feature Article - "Conductor's Mind"
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When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time educating myself about music. I used to read a lot of the excellent educational material produced by Leonard Bernstein. I remember reading an essay of his describing the role of the conductor in an orchestra.

He was talking about the fact that a lot of people really did not think the conductor had any use. A lot of the time the musicians are not even looking at him, so what is the use of him standing up there waving his arms around while everybody else does the real work of making the music!

Bernstein then showed a musical score for a symphony, and of course it looked extremely complicated, twenty or so lines of music one on top of the other, all for the different instruments of the orchestra, all written in different clefs. Just looking at it boggled my mind; I was still working hard to be able to read one little line of music for guitar! He then explained that the conductor is responsible for knowing every single note that every single instrument must play, and he must be able to look at that score and actually hear it all in his head!

Further, the conductor must have an overall vision of how all that music is going to sound, and how every one of those notes is going to come together and form a musical whole. How loud, how soft, how slow, how fast, the tone colors, everything must be in his "inner ear", and then he must bring it out of the musicians, and make sure it is shaped into what he has heard in his inner ear.

The conductor, therefore, is the embodiment of what I call Intention. Intention is the complete knowledge of what you desire, and how to obtain it, and it is also the desire itself. Intention is our inner power to create, and there is no creating, there is no accomplishing of anything, without it. Great artists have this, whether they know they have it or not. Whether it is Andres Segovia, or Jimi Hendrix, there is intense and overwhelming desire to hear on the outside, with the outer ear, the music that is heard inside, in the inner ear. That desire is the fuel that leads to the knowledge and ability necessary to manifest it.

The conductor, like the director of a movie is responsible for being the primary source of those twofold aspects of Intention: the vision, the conception itself of the final result desired, as well as the desire for that result. As the director of a movie has the final responsibility, and is held ultimately accountable for the pictures that end up on the moviescreen, so the conductor has the ultimate responsibility for the sound that is painted in the air.

I remember around that time of my life having an experience which made me realize how weak my Intention was in playing. I was listening to Nicanor Zabaleta play a piece on the harp that I played on guitar. I noticed that I was hearing the bass line in a very clear and distinct way, and I had never really heard it that clearly when I played the piece myself! Then, I realized that this was because I was not bothering to pay enough attention to my own music when I played it, and I did not bother to study the music carefully enough to realize what the bass line actually was!

As I began to correct these weaknesses, I became a better and more musical player right away.

Music is emotion, music does not just express emotion, it is actually the same energy as emotion (e-motion, energy in motion). This energy exists inside of us, and can only be accessed and brought out of us through our own "emotional awareness", which is often called in today's popular terminology "Emotional Intelligence". Our inner emotional energy is able to be brought out of ourselves in the form of music when we intensely feel the desire to hear it. The great Pepe Romero tells us in his method book for guitar that the "desire for the note" is the origin of the actual note we hear. It is combined with two other things to produce each note we hear. It is combined with a mental and physical "feeling awareness" of the finger of each hand that is to be used to play the note. Remember when you hear these words that these are the words of a master player, who is generously trying to enlighten his fellow players as to the inner mindset of a virtuoso. So if it sounds a little strange, do yourself a favor and think about it for the next twenty years.

This desire that Pepe talks about is what you see on the face of a Santana, a Hendrix, a B.B. King, a Julian Bream, etc. It is a powerful emotional and mental concentration, combined with a complete mental and physical awareness of what we desire, and what needs to be done to get what we desire.

I call this state of complete awareness "Conductor's Mind". Like a conductor in front of an orchestra we must have this complete awareness when we play. If we are playing a composed piece of music (as opposed to improvising), we must really know every note that is to be played, and we must emotionally desire that note before it is played. It must be born in our inner ear before it comes through our fingers or pick. (This is why one of the things on my list of "10 things you can do right now to become a better player is to imagine each finger as a player in a band. It helps to strengthen your Conductor's Mind). We must hear, really hear, everything, before it is played, and while it is played. We must be completely one with the process of creating the music, and the music as it is created, just as is the Conductor standing in front of an orchestra.

We must be able to sing what we are going to play. If you can't sing it, you are not hearing it with your inner ear. The great prodigy of the piano Glen Gould always sang when he played, and you can hear him in his recordings over the Bach fugue he's playing! George Benson is famous for it, and is a good example of Conductors Mind at work in an improvised style.

If you are a player of an improvised style, rock, jazz, blues, you must have a complete awareness of your own inner musical reality, and also how you fit in with the larger context of your fellow players. The more the guitarist understands the role of the bass player the better guitarist he or she will be. The more the guitarist understands what the drummer is doing, and why, the more powerful a contributor to the overall sound and musical creation they will be. While playing, the guitarist must be completely one with the music being created by his fellow players, hearing and feeling everything as strongly as his own contribution, standing inside and outside at the same time, just as is the Conductor standing in front of an orchestra.

Andres Segovia once said "don't work to become guitarists, work to become musicians". Of course, we must work to become both, but he was trying to make a point about the supremacy of the one over the other. Our true worth and ability as a guitarist depends upon how much of a total musician we are. In this sense, every player of an instrument should consider themselves in essence a Conductor, whose awareness operates on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels as the overseer and center of Intention for the music being created.

Hi Jamie!

This is Dennis. I just had my 1st classical guitar lessons today. Its confusing.

I showed your book to my classical teacher since he started to teach me his way of holding the guitar and using the right hand and what he tells me is very different from what I read in your book and of other guitar book I signed out at the school library. From your picture he says that's very "Segovia" and he insists me that's not the only way to play the classical guitar. For example: he tells me that my right elbow can move when moving right hands from string to string, but from your book the right elbow should be like screwed down when moving string to string. From your knowledge, Is their a style of playing classical guitar which allows the right elbow to move? Or it should be kept on the guitar the whole time (relaxed of course).

Thankyou.. dennis

Hi Dennis,

A very good and logical question. You read one thing in my book, another thing in another book, and then your teacher tells you something different altogether. Welcome to the wonderful world of learning an instrument!

Here is the deal. Yes, an advanced player will most likely move their elbow and arm all over the place in order to move the hand into position over the strings at different locations. This is done to get different tone colors from the strings. Notice I said an advanced player. You and your teacher are making an unfortunate assumption that because I START to train a new player in the way I have described in the book (having the arm placed in a position that doesn't change, and building certain reflexes into the musculature from that position with the Foundation Exercises), it means that this position is the ONLY one you will ever use!

You must understand something about the process of learning. It very often happens in learning a new skill, one that is very complex, that we take things in certain logical, necessary steps. Sometimes, those steps, especially the beginning ones, will take us to certain places that are quite different from where we will actually end up as the learning process develops.

For instance, when I was in the 1st grade and learning how to write, the teachers first made me use a pencil. Later, I was allowed to use a fountain pen. I was told not to use a ballpoint pen. That was confusing. I certainly saw lots of older students using ballpoint pens, so what was wrong with that?

The reason the teachers made me use first a pencil, then a fountain pen, and not a ballpoint pen, was because to start out with a ballpoint pen would have made the process of training my muscles to perform the fine motor control movements involved in writing very difficult. This is because the ballpoint pen offers very little friction with the paper, so it slides easier. Greater skill must be used to write well with a ballpoint pen than with a pencil or fountain pen that offers greater security because of better contact with the paper. To use a ballpoint pen in the beginning would actually prevent the development of the skills that would eventually lead me to be able to use a ballpoint pen! Obviously, the use of a ballpoint would come later, after the greater freedom allowed would not be harmful to the learning process.

It is the same here. Moving the arm around is a lot more difficult in playing. There are so many other skills to be learned in the hand and other muscles that I believe it is best to keep a stationary arm position in the beginning stages of training the right hand. This will actually make you much more able to have the freedom of moving the arm later on.

I try as much as possible to let the student know that the way I am saying to do something does not mean it is always the ONLY way, but sometimes having to explain it every time interrupts the very thing you are trying to teach. So, I guess it comes down to what it always comes down to. Listen to what everyone says, think for yourself, experiment. Then, take your confusion and turn it into questions that you try to get answered. Begin to figure things out for yourself based on your growing understanding. In addition, always return to your common sense and your basic understanding of what the learning process is itself, far as learning anything is concerned. And finally, find the people whose judgment and perspective you trust to be able to lay out the right steps, in the right order, to take you where you want to go.

Hi Jamie,

I'm not making any progress in feeling like I'm learning how to play anything. What do you think the best way to find out 'what' to learn to play now that Ive read your book many a time and feel fairly certain that i know 'how' I should go about trying to learn.

I can't stop listening to your Spanish Romance and I know that style is what I want to play, I've always liked the flamenco (sp?) sound, but I know I shouldn't rush into anything, and just wanted to know what you think would be the best way to learn how to play to actually be able to play something, and not just have a bunch of little pieces all over the map and not be able to put any of it together?

Thanks a bunch for everything so far... I'm still not giving up!

Chris

Hi Chris,

When I have a student in your position, I require them to immediately start to build a repertoire. I pick something out, with or without their consent, and require them to come in next time and play it for me as a piece of music.

You are having a "failure of Intention" here Chris. It doesn't matter so much WHAT you nail down as a complete piece of music that you can play. It is much more important to just nail down SOMETHING, ANYTHING. This will give you the feeling you are missing, the feeling of being a musician. You don't feel it now for a very simple reason: you aren't one yet! You're not a musician until you have made some music, and like falling in love, you won't need somebody to tell you whether it has happened or not!

I can't tell you, with great specific certainty, WHAT would be best for you to learn. I work this out with each person depending on what they love most. Maybe it's a rock song, a blues solo, a folk song. Of course, it depends on your level of development also. In general, everyone should be able to strum simple chords and sing along. Can you do that? If not, start studying my Beginner Path Lessons, and accomplish those goals.

You ask: "what do you think would be the best way to learn how to play to actually be able to play something, and not just have a bunch of little pieces all over the map". This shows that your obstacle has nothing to do with learning the guitar, it has to do with understanding how to learn ANYTHING. Take these steps:

1) Sit down with a piece of paper and write down three things that you are going to learn completely, in fact, you are going to record them. Make sure they are things you feel reasonably confident you can master at your level. If you can't decide, go to my Beginner Path Lessons and use those.

2) Make yourself an organized practice schedule, and get to it. Do it. Master those pieces as completely as you can. Record them and play them for somebody, anybody. Your dog, your cat, your mother, your father, anybody.

Chris, you must realize that you have everything you need to start developing as a musician and guitarist. You HAVE everything you need, but you are not DOING everything you need to do. You are paralyzed, like a deer caught in the headlights. You are confused like a person who walks into a messy room, with things all over the place, and feels helpless to begin to create order. It is done by focusing on one thing at a time, one goal at a time, accomplishing it and moving on. You are in a place I call "doing anything is better than doing nothing". It doesn't matter what you pick (except for picking an impossible goal), just pick something and do it. If you want to end up playing Spanish Romance, you had better be with a good classical teacher, and I would recommend getting my "Practice Secrets For Spanish Romance", and studying the many resources I have on the site to help those working with it. Do not make this one of your short term goals.

In addition, make sure you read and understand the essays in the "Getting Better" section on "The Importance of Having a Repertoire", and "Practice Organization".

This letter just in:

"Let me add my name to the long list of people who have found in Jamie's book an answer to questions and dilemmas which have threatened to permanently end their quest to play music. After a 20 year quest to learn to play, I reached a brick wall which I had no idea how to overcome. I stopped playing for five years due to the frustration that I felt. Jamie's book has rekindled my love of music and the guitar and I'm finding the pleasure of playing has returned."

Thanks again,

Moises E

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