An Ethereal Guitarist's Path

Sunday, November 28, 2010

INSPIRATION...FINALLY

Inspiration is a funny thing, yet it is very simple. Humans, by nature, tend to be very structured creatures of habits. Going by that, inspiration sounds hard to come by. Inspiration, creative inspiration, generally comes from doing things. The more you do, the more differently you do, the more inspiration that comes. This isn't the be all end all truth of inspiration, but I am finding it rings true within myself. Stagnation is no good! So what am I changing to be inspired? Well for once, I am making myself read! Reading has always been a weak point, and I tend to focus on my strengths more than my weakness, I guess that is pretty natural for many people. My comprehension skills are pretty behind, but it's never too late to improve. I am starting to read about my hobbies more. I want to expand my knowledge in depthly about them so I can have even deeper conversations or more well sophisticated and educated conversations. I also just read a start of a story that my friend wrote which has inspired me again to start writing....moving on

I am watching a Joe Haley interview (guitarist from Psycroptic, a technical death metal band). He is an amazing guitar player and song writer. Anyway, that isn't the point. One of the questions was what advice would he give to people wanting to learn guitar. I thought about the question too, and my answer is completely different, hehe. So I will try to answer that question now.

Want to learn to play the guitar? Here is my advice. Learn music, learn how to express yourself in many ways and practice practice practice. Do not look at the guitar as just a guitar, a 6 stringed instrument that plays musical notes. Do not limit yourself. Learn to be diverse and strong with what you play so you have an infinite range of possibilities in which you can express yourself. Practice slowly, analyze, and learn the guitar and music as if it were anything you love.

That is a very short answer and given the time I could make that into a long essay with much better organization and coherency. But my point is that everyone looks at the guitar as a "guitar" and they get caught up in typical cliches and expectations of it. I am guilty of that too. My advice to everyone is to break away from that.

Well, that's that for now. Bottom line is, if you want inspiration...do something, change something, dont stagnate. THE END