TIME FOR A TEST (Nov-08-03)

[moved from old forum:]

Great guitar playing technique is a way of accomplishing your desired aim; of producing a desired emotion or effect in the easiest and most efficient way possible.

-JF

[moved from old forum:]

"Great guitar playing technique is a way of accomplishing your
desired aim; of producing a desired emotion or effect in the
easiest and most efficient way possible."

Hi JF
contemplate: what way?

All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

I see the way as being the shortest route from your mind or heart to the physical mechanics it takes to perform the function required. Essentially, you feel it you do it.

It seems that the work to achieve this ability would be the greatest part of guitar technique. The years of work to fulfill a fifteen second musical moment to its greatest potential.

-JF

[moved from old forum:]

"I see the way as being the shortest route from your mind or
heart to the physical mechanics it takes to perform the
function required. Essentially, you feel it you do it."

CONTEPLATE: Feel and do what?

All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

Music is expression, a type of language. And like in spoken language, a person uses music as an expression of his ideas and feelings. This includes his loves, pain, and nostalgic response to his past. So, what am I doing when I play guitar? I'm trying to express myself. How do I fulfill this expression? I must know the language of music. Yet this language is made up of the abstract as well as the literal. For feeling is an abstract thing, while playing the guitar is very literal.. Again using the analogy of spoken language, we can remember how it was that we first went to school and began to learn our letters. We were shown the physical requirements in making a specific sound. That sound represented something that others would understand. The same goes in guitar, we must fulfill our expression through the physical requirements it takes to make the sound we that represents our emotion so that others may understand.

So then, the question is what are the physical requirements for fulfilling my expression?

-JF

[moved from old forum:]

In playing the guitar, what are our goals? We want to make specific sounds or series of sounds that express an emotion or an idea. We want to make these sounds in the quickest, easiest, and safest way possible. We want to be able to do this without thinking about it, as if it were second nature. Great guitar technique seems to truly be the work done prior to performing said expression. Spending as much time as neccessary to find the correct way to make a motion. Then throw away what you've learned while still keeping it in mind. Then see if you can again find the correct motion. Is it different? Is it simpler, easier, safer? For each expression we wish to make there will be a different physical way of interpreting it, and the possibilities are infinite, because our expressions are infinite. Knowing this we find that we never stop learning and that there is no technique other than to move to the next step.

Is not constant improvement the true goal?

-JF

[moved from old forum:]

In order to define what "Great" technique is, we first have to define what technique is.

Simply put, technique (in our sphere) is a set of physical skills that allows us to express, or sometimes create, music.

It must be understood that everything is technique. Vibrato, picking, fretting, standing, and just about anything that you do physically on the guitar is technique.

It should be understood that everything works. Everything. A person could probably play blazingly fast licks with one shoulder raised. But, the truth is that some things work better than other things.

Finally, it should be understood that every being on the face of this planet has technical issues that they have to work through. People that are considered virtuosos still have some issues, however slight. There is noone without an achilles heel.


Understanding this, what makes for "Great" technique? In my opinion, great technique is simply that which facilitates the creation of music to the greatest degree.

Great technique has certain characteristics:

1. Ease - A person with great technique does not struggle or strain. They master tension on the level of the whole organism, understanding that the body is not a collection of parts, the body is a whole. As one increases ease in sitting, one has less tension in the shoulders. As one allows the feet to widen, the quadraceps will find more ease.

2. Efficiency - A person with great technique generally avoids wasted motion. Wasted motion is defined by the activity in the moment, and has no common denominator. A person playing an acoustic guitar may have to use more motion to sound the strings vs. an electric player, but since physics dictate that there must be more motion, the effort is not wasted.

3. Consistency - If desired, a person can duplicate a musical idea over and over. Great technique carries through between stage and practice.

4. Cross applicability - Great technique uses solid exercises and principles so as to create a base to build upon for further advances. As an example here, I knew a guy who (in order to impress girls) learned to play Van Halen's "Eruption". That was the only thing that he learned, and could do nothing else. His specificity was so complete as to preclude playing as a whole. This is not great technique, because there is no cross applicability.

5. Deviation - Great technique allows for deviation from optimal forms without the organism falling apart. A person could raise their shoulder to do a bend for drama's sake, but neither they as a whole, or their playing would fall apart.

I think that this is a good start.

JS

[moved from old forum:]

HI JS,

A very good start indeed.
Now contemplate: the list above is a list of consequences and results of having great technique.


"5. Deviation - Great technique allows for deviation from
optimal forms without the organism falling apart."


contemplate; great technique is ...in part... optimal form. Deviating from it automatically distances you from great technique.


All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

Great Guitar Playing Technique is a higly developed collaboration between the soul, the mind and the body. Being able to play effortlessly and communicate with ease with your fingers/hands etc. what the mind hears and what the soul speaks. The music originates in the soul and it's spark is pure love. It's in the soul that what we want to communicate is born. The mind is where we hear what we want to say in context, it's where we have the feel for rhythm, certain pitches etc. It's also where the movements of the fingers/hands originate. The fingers/hands etc. is where we fret notes, pick strings etc. to actually produce the sounds we want to play on the instrument.

Great, highly developed guitar playing technique comes out as an individual voice speaking through the instrument.



Best regards,

Jónsi

[moved from old forum:]

Borrowing from Webster's: 1. the method of procedure (with reference to practical or formal details) in rendering an artistic work or carrying out a scientific or mechanical operation; 2. the degree of expertness in following this, as: the pianist had pleasing interpretation but poor technique

I guess that puts me in the JS camp. Technique is the combination of picking, vibrato, bending, pull-offs, etc. etc. that we seek to improve. I don't believe it is the emotions we are trying to communicate. Rather, good/great technique is the avenue through which we can express our inner self and impact others. The "better" the technique, the more effortless the communication of more complex messages to the listener. It is similar, in some ways, to the expanded vocabulary that an adult possesses compared to a child. The child may be able to adequately express themselves with a more limited vocabulary, hence, their technique is adequate for the message they are conveying. But a similar vocabulary would limit the communication of a more developed adult.

JL