The School of Feedback Guitar Blog

My highest apologies about the lack of blog updates. September 2010 has been especially busy for the School of Feedback Guitar, and as the saying goes: Feast or Famine. Part of what has been making life a bit more spicy is that I am performing quite a bit more; lead guitar for my friend Gonz, and my own folksy music as well. It's been hectic to say the least, but also a learning experience. Quite by accident, I stumbled upon a very interesting ratio about the amount of fun I have when I was performing. The quality of the enjoyment of playing music is directly proportional to how unaffected I am by time.

I've always known why I do not have any clocks visible in my office. I refuse to look at them! I know I'd best do my job as a teacher if the buzzer rings and the person I am working with is just dumbfounded that the time is up. I love that feeling too; it's one of the many reasons why I still teach guitar. In performance, a person can lose track of time only if they can do their best to stay away from being conscious of it. It's partly that and a game of learning how to let go of any self-critiques we have about ourselves, because it keeps us from being in the moment. The more we think about guitar, the less fun. Poo on that.

The ability to shut off the brain when playing guitar or music is easiest when a person is by themselves, harder when they are around different people, hardest when they are on the spot playing for an audience. Here's a key point in any situation: The people who are most able to let go, trust their own ability, and shut-off their critical thought, are the ones who can get off of a stage and be completely unaware they played two hours. This has awesome implications for everyone. If we learn to bypass any mental chatter, we can break through to that timeless space far easier. Remember, our enjoyment of music is directly proportional to how unaffected we are by time.

Part of breaking through to this timelessness is playing to the best of our abilities. It takes a little bit of practice. Since this is a guitar blog, I felt it might be a good place to give some helpful pointers to get there.

1. If you are working on strumming, find other people to play with--or a good teacher who can help you get even stronger rhythmically. A guitarist's most direct tool to access that zone of timelessness is through strumming.
2. If you are working on chord progressions and feel you already have a grasp on strumming, try to not stop, pause, or let your strumming drop as you are changing chords. You'll find that the best guitarists in the world mess up far more than you think they do, only because they keep on strumming.
3. If you are working on soloing, or lead guitar, get more creative with your sound. Nothing ventured nothing gained, so stack five distortion pedals on top of each-other and then mix in three delay pedals as well. Just try it, it's fun. Another idea: Close your eyes. You'll be surprised.
4. If you are working on performing, find something to focus on. This is usually an internal feeling or an action. One of mine is the feeling of the pick across the strings.

To directly access this suspension of time, knowing the techniques involved is necessary, but eventually one needs to let go of practicing too much. Trusting our own ability to play music is an important part of losing that sense of time, and a nose-to-the-grindstone approach doesn't help. On a very personal note, I giggle every single time I help someone get to where they first have access to timelessness in guitar. It's one of the many reasons I keep on doing what I do for a living. It's quite a perk.

As the title of this blog suggests, the mindset a person gets into when strumming a guitar is analogous to Harry Houdini. We sort of dissapear into the music, and magically reappear after the song is done. The more that time stops when you or I are playing guitar, the more fun it probably was. Even more so, perhaps we become like Guitarzan.

Pretty much everyone I know can imagine what a mother does for a baby when he is crying. She rocks him back and forth, and usually (although not intentionally) in a rhythmic manner. I can't prove it, but I really do have a strong hunch that the sensations we pick up on as children is directly correllated to the way we, as adults, perceive rhythm. That rhythmic motion is soothing to a child, somehow just as the beat or the rhythm of a song is soothing to adults. Just like a heartbeat, too. Therefore, as my hunch goes, breaks or gaps in the rhythm are far more distracting than playing wrong chords.

When it comes to playing guitar, again, I would rather hear someone play the wrong chord and the right rhythm, as opposed to the right chord and the wrong rhythm. One of the things that happens to people when they first start playing guitar is that they often will neglect the rhythm in favor of playing or in striving to play the correct chord. This is jarring. Yes it is important to play the right chord. Yes it is important to strive to play "correctly" (if that's the desired outcome, of course). But no, it's not so important to neglect the rhythm for the right chord.

Rhythm in music is soothing to adults like rhythmic patterns (like rocking, or hearing a heartbeat) are soothing to babies. So if the chord is wrong, I won't care. Just as long as the rhythm is there, my suggestion is to smile and keep playing. That's advice given to me from many dance teachers.