TIME FOR A TEST (Nov-08-03)

[moved from old forum:]

I have noticed some confusion in the forum about progress and learning.Most of it is due to skimming (anti-ATTENTION) and not really reading the book as well as not contemplating what is written.

This confusion rises from a basic need to go to the bottom of one's spirit and soul ( not your practice yet ,,,that comes after..). Anyone who really plays , form SLASH to SHRINIVAS has to do this.

What is lacking right now to many is clarity of what is intended.
Without clarity there will be no no clear signs of progress.

So to acheive the necessary clarity I will pose a question to all.

Everyone no matter how much a beginner is invited to answer. The answer will provide the spiritual tools to create brakthorughs when using the principles and participating in the BPA club..etc....

Your answers will reveal what you need to fundamentally know about yourselves and your current state of awareness in order to progress and attain your goal of the moment and your future playing goals.

Let's remember that all that is careless, complacent,unfocussed, narrow-minded, slovenly,undisciplined, self-agrandizing as well as vanity driven is going to stand firmly as a powerful and persitent obstacle to playing the guitar according to our fondest longings.


Here is the question:

WHAT IS GREAT GUITAR PLAYING TECHNIQUE?...DEFINE IT IN GREAT DETAIL AS THOROUGHLY AND PRECISELY AS YOU CURRENTLY CAN.


All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

Great question, Ney (as usual). I'm going to spend some time developing my response.

Well, I've done that, and will conserve bandwidth by inserting this as an edit:

WHAT IS GREAT GUITAR PLAYING TECHNIQUE?

As I have worked with the principles, my ideas on this subject have been continually changing. I suspect they are about to change again.

Recently I spent some time in the company of the masters of jazz guitar via the Vestapol Legends of Jazz Guitar videos. One of the things that struck me was that each of these masters had what appear to be glaring weaknesses in technique. Martin Taylor, one of the most awesome guitar players on the planet, plants his pinky on the guitar and holds his right hand in picking position while playing fingerstyle. Wes Montgomery does about everything wrong, but out comes some of the greatest music I’ve heard. While these guys may have limited themselves with these deficiencies, their playing is nevertheless awesome to me.

An even more challenging example is Django Reinhardt, whose left hand was horribly damaged by fire leaving him with only two functioning fingers. Relatively few guitarists with perfect hands can duplicate what he played and we would not want to embrace his “workarounds” into our practice.

So what I’m left with is that great technique is what produces great music. The objective is to express our musical ideas with our guitar. Great technique would be the ways we go about expressing those ideas. What Jamey and Ney teach is essentially the “easiest way” to do that, a way which maximizes our ability to learn how to express that which our soul feels.

-John Bushong

[moved from old forum:]

technique is a physical method

your fingers know what to do next to express your feeling with the same articulation you have when you have your feelings (assuming you know how you feel at a particular instant)

but do you have to interpret how you feel?

no, you just feel that way.

i mean, you can do analysis on your feelings, but you don't do that before you feel them, you just feel them.

so technique is great when you have removed it (and the intermediary, the *instrument*) from articulating yourself sonicly

so then the greatest technique is the technique thats not there, not noticed either by you or your hearers, when you can be the music, and your hearers are in the music with you.

so now i think that great technique is defined by the release of the note, the facility that makes possible the suspension of your physical self so that you release notes and the free the music.

-Drew

[moved from old forum:]

contemplate;why remove what is needed?

"so then the greatest technique is the technique thats not
there, not noticed either by you or your hearers, when you can
be the music, and your hearers are in the music with you."

contemplate: " it is not there.. not noticed"... really..?

"so now i think that great technique is defined by the release
of the note, the facility that makes possible the suspension
of your physical self so that you release notes and the free
the music."

contemplate: what does suspending the physical self entail in an activity which cannot exist whithout the full engagement of the physical self in the first place


All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

great guitar technique results in the synthesis of human and musical dimensions. the human work is the union of spirt, intellect, emotion and the physical body. the musical is communicated by means of an instrument.

since spirt, intellect, emotion and the physical body are the only elements an individual owns, synthesizing them means being responsible for everything you are, and therefore takes a lot of discipline.

the discipline is the combination of absolute focus and absorption on the correct thing to be done with a simultaneous detachment, allowing the artist to monitor and anticipate their execution. being in two places at one time is extremely difficult to manage, but that at least is consistent with my own experience.

the result of discipline is error free execution when we play the guitar. the content of that error free execution communicates the mix of ingredients defining its producer, their uniqueness.

great guitar technique is created by discipline and expresses the synthesis of the artist, his instrument, and their output, music.

the paradox is that that whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

-Drew

[moved from old forum:]

My understanding now is the product of watching the dvd and reading the Principles again, and still having this gnaw at me for days, wrestling with how to combine all the elements and insights into something cogent about it.

i have discovered for myself that everything there is to say about it is in the Principles, but having gone through the process, its as though the words are rocks from another planet...small pieces that used to weigh a few ounces, now weigh tons, words that have become super dense.

so at the risk of being reductionist about it, i can say that my new understanding is that great guitar playing technique is the combination of attention, intention and desire, or to paraphrase it, it is the discipline applied to our physical execution of our minds being informed of what our soul wants to communicate, voiced through our instrument.

i think i can be quiet about it now. thanks Ney, you were the perfect teacher for this, because you asked the right question.

-Drew

[moved from old forum:]

"Great guitar playing technique is the division of the
physical from the essential. There is an objective and
subjective aspect of great technique.

The objective aspect is observable by any and all, and is
comprised of the physical perception of the execution of the
performance; is it in time, in tune, smooth, articulate, and
finally, did it move the listener? Yes answers add to the
technical prowess of the performer. Out of time, not in tune,
inarticulateness and sterility contribute to No answers."

contemplate : isnt this the way for the listener to evaluate the results of technique

"The subjective aspect can only be answered by the
performer…did I communicate what I had in mind or not? The
answer to the subjective aspect goes to the definition of
great technique, because it is only the artist who can testify
to the success of the realization of their voice, of the
integrity of the transmission of their ideas."

contemplate: isnt this the way to ascertain with certitude the true results of technique?

"The paradox of great guitar playing technique is that as
performers, we concentrate on the physical aspect of music
making, executing with relaxation, economy, great melodic and
harmonic ideas, to remove the perception of the physical
aspect from the listener, so that they are unaware of the
physical dimension of making music, and are only aware of the
essential, that is, they are moved, touched, by the
realization of the performer’s voice."

comtemplate; isnt music in eesence also extremely physical in manifestation...? look at the organs of perception versus how a thought is perceived.

"This is why each great artist is immediately recognizable,
because they have removed the physical from the essential,
realizing their own voice, so that no one can imitate their
own voice."

contemplate: Havent they united the physical to the non-physical. Isnt the the physical essential to music?


All my best to you,
NEY MELLO

[moved from old forum:]

Great guitar technique is the motions of the body required to give voice to the music within with the greatest of ease you can muster. To the point where concerns about sounding good or being praised for your efforts drop away.
Where you have learned the movements for that music so well you don't have to think about them so the spirit can communicate as it wants to.

Great guitar technique is also where the listner doesn't notice if you have technique or not. All they hear is a beautiful sound, song, vibe, whatever it is that speaks to them in the performance.

Whoops, I just see that Drew said it far better than I did

Robert

[moved from old forum:]

On further contemplation I realise I don't know what great guitar playing technique is.
John McLaughlin and Jimmy Bruno can both play blindingly fast yet sound different where as I listen and wouldn't know if there was a mistake in it or not.

Robert Cray can play slow and make it sound like crying, so it's not speed of execution per say.

All I know at this time is I trust the methods Jamie teaches in books , newsletters, website and DVD. It speaks to me as the truth. So I try my best to follow that with results that vary day to day.

I am not even sure yet of what the spirit of it is to me, as an individual and as part of the whole of the world.

But some things just make me feel good, I don't know if I am hearing the souls of the performer or not. EG, I don't get Steve Vai at all, so many squeaks and weird noises to me but Steve Howe makes me smile and glow with happiness hearing his guitar playing.

Robert

[moved from old forum:]

"Great guitar technique is the motions of the body required to
give voice to the music within with the greatest of ease you
can muster."

contemplate: what if what you can muster now forces retirement next year.

"To the point where concerns about sounding good or
being praised for your efforts drop away.
Where you have learned the movements for that music so well
you don't have to think about them so the spirit can
communicate as it wants to."

contemplate: what if what you have learned so well cripples you with focal distonia.

"Great guitar technique is also where the listner doesn't
notice if you have technique or not. All they hear is a
beautiful sound, song, vibe, whatever it is that speaks to
them in the performance."

contemplate: a beautifull sound can and often is the result of bad technique.

All my best to you,
NEY MELLO