The School of Feedback Guitar Blog

Flow. I like to describe it as the feeling I get when time disappears. When I am not focused on anything except playing music and I am so drawn into it that someone new could walk into the room and I wouldn't know it, I am in the flow state. In my opinion, everyone who picks up the guitar has different reasons to, but flow is possible regardless. Flow, to me, is the reason everyone slowly gets pulled into playing, and all the better.

The following is a comparison between two types of guitar styles, namely classical guitar and pop guitar, and how long and dedicated a person must be to get into that flow state with either.

Pop Guitar

Usually, all it takes for a person to learn pop guitar from scratch is to learn chords comfortably, learn to strum, and learn how to change chords within a strumming pattern. Then comes the songs and learning how to play along and listen. That's about it. Getting to the point where time can absolutely disappear isn't really that difficult or far off. It's merely being comfortable enough with the instrument and those three skills. This is not very hard to do. I would guess that it can take anywhere from about one to six months of work.

Classical Guitar

It takes a minimum of at least two years of study with classical guitar to get to a flow state. A minimum, and it's not guaranteed! The skills? Well, learning the Andres Segovia or the Aaron Shear scales, finishing up the 120 exercises for the right hand by Giuliani, practicing Scott Tennant's Pumping Nylon, learning a lot of etudes by Sor, Carcassi, and listening. Then come the actual pieces. Choros or Preludes by Villa Lobos, Julia Florida by Barrios, or Capriccio Arabe by Tarrega.

So what are the implications?

First, classical guitar is not just something we can up and decide to do. Most people who do want to learn classical guitar already have a love of that music. Second, if anyone wants to teach classical guitar and wants to teach only classical guitar, they will have an uphill battle. Look at the hoops a person has to jump through! Instead, why not learn how to teach pop guitar and gradually introduce the student to the wonders of classical guitar? Third, flow state, the place we go when we are on stage or playing with friends, having a blast, etc, is the only reason we play. Flow is important, and it takes far less time playing pop guitar to achieve this state than it does classical guitar.

Finally, which sounds most fun? Perhaps there is an iconoclast out there who is working to soften the educational tradition of classical guitar so that flow is easier to achieve, faster? I hope to meet you if you are reading.

What pop music likes it will do over and over again, and sometimes ad nauseam. Often, it's a hook. Sometimes it's a drum fill (See Phil Collins). Sometimes this is a specific chord progression. The chords "D Major" and "A Major" for example are used over and over in pop music. The most famous example would be Tom Petty's Free Fallin' (Heard in shopping malls everywhere... Perhaps the reason why is because the whole video takes place in a shopping mall. Hmmm).

Phrases in pop music are often roundabout things. They are repeated because it's easier for the song to catch the listener when there are repeats. Often, there are four measures to a phrase. Take the Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers. This song's chords are D - A - G - D, and each chord gets a measure. You would think that the D chord at the end of the phrase is just the same thing as the first chord, but it's not this way. If you know this song well, try playing a D - A - G and singing it. It makes for a funny chipmunky rendition on the song.

Further along this query, the amount of repetitions of the chord progression makes is either equal to Four, or is a multiple of it. Take the first verse of Dead Flowers. D - A - G - D gets repeated exactly four times while the lyrics are being sung!

To me, one of the more perplexing things about pop music is how awesome it sounds when someone goes outside of what is expected. Like, what happens when someone creates a progression or series of progressions that repeats more than four times? In the very same song, the Rolling Stones did just that. Even better, it's in the chorus of the song. First, two repetitions of A - A - D - D (each chord gets a measure). Then, three repetitions of G - G - D - D, and finally one time around of D - A - G - D. In short, they made a slightly unpredictable chorus of six phrases, instead of four like in the verse. The result? Dead Flowers sticks out a little bit more from all the other pop music.

Shout out to Gary Sherman for playing me Dead Flowers first. I don't know if I would have discovered it on my own!