Greetings Friends!
Wow, so much has happened in the last week, I don’t know were to begin.
A friend of mine recently gave me a copy of a Tony Robbins CD (sorry Tony, don’t worry – I’ll be buying stuff from you soon!) and I gotta say – the man is a genius.
The expression “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” was exemplified when I heard this cd.
A typical frustration that I bump into (and many of us do) is “why can’t I be further along than I am”. Whether it is financial, career, family, skill at something, one’s physical appearance – it is easy to be dissatisfied with the present circmstances.
Eckhart Tolle would say it is the experience of saying “no” and pushing against what is that brings us unhappiness. Absolutely true.
But Tony said something so real, so obvious that I just perked up.
He said, “maybe you’ve planted seeds and just have to wait until they grow”.
Bingo. This really chilled me out!
I often get comments on youtube and audience comments amounting to “why aren’t you more famous, you’re as good as ……(pick a well know guitarist)”. And then, I find that I am walking around, irritated slightly at the perfect unerring response of the universe. I am where I am, but want to be “further ahead”.
Add to that the financial pressures of life, a little bit of ego…and away we go!!! 🙂 The frustrated ideas bring about frustrated emotions, and then I roll down the slippery slope of negativity. Hmm….how can I avoid this?
Now I see. My little seeds of my acoustic guitar direction have had much less time underground than some other people’s “seeds”. It is natural, perfect for me to be right where I am. The seeds are sprouting, and I gotta “keep on keepin on” to make sure the water and sunlight is consistent. That means ongoing touring, practicing, writing – and WAITING PATIENTLY to let nature “do it’s thing”!
I am writing about this so that you can take a look at your life and see if you are frustrated that “little seedlings” are causing you upset because you want them to be more grown up than they are.
A farmer knows if he want’s a harvest that he has to prepare months ahead…..
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Adam Ihave brought the Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson DVD’s, I have Overjoyed and Sir Duke memorized and play them once a day and I am working on I Wish. Being an older person and pretty much self taught, I feel my playing is choppy. i really hope you can recommend a method to would help me improve. At age 58 and nearing the end of my firefighting ceaeer, I hope to play guitar for first my own satification and then for friend and family. Having started playing at age 13 as a bassist in a pop band in the 60’s. I taught myself guitar learning chord and various chord solo’s varios teacher and friend wold show me. Various firend and relative did not encourage me in fact some people were very rude and told my to find a job that would make money. Well after knocking around for several years i became a firfighter and did not play for 15 years the guitars I own collected dust. In my forties I studies classical with a teacher and because of family and job advancement I stop the lessons. i love your playing Any suggestion on techique improvemnt and how to arrange guitar solo’s as well as a book which would help me understand guitar music theory would help. HELP
Henry,
Advice –
1) go slow and enjoy
2) chunk down tricky passages
3) call me – I made I WISH a little easier, but stil work on what’s on the DVD
4) if you are retired – RUN and maybe audit a music theory class at a community college…it aint’ guitar but it wil expand your vision!
Please stay in touch my friend!!!
Adam
Thank you I will call when you return from your tour on I wish, Will you ever release a transcription of “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers”. Can you describe what you mean by chunk down trcky passages.
Henry
By “chunk down” I mean if a 4 measure passage is hard, practice one measure ata time. If that’s hard, one beat at a time.
Don’t let big complex pies fool you – break them down to small challenges.
Just like eating…cut your steak into bite sized pieces!
– AR