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Blues / Learning Music — No Comments
30
Dec 10

Learning from Listening to Music

When I was focusing on learning to write short fiction and took several writing workshops, the writer-teachers often expressed dismay that aspiring writers didn’t read enough good fiction. How could one learn to write without reading a lot?, they wondered.

If you’ve ever spent any time around young children, you know that one of their primary paths to learning is imitation. They pay keen attention to what’s going on around them and soak up every detail. It seems natural for them to “practice” the behaviors and activities they see adults doing–until they can do them as well.

Adults who want to learn any art form or creative activity would do well to remember the example of children. Instructional media, teachers and classes contribute to learning, but a key element is paying attention to good examples of the art one seeks to master.

Just as aspiring writers need to read, study and deeply experience good writing, so do aspiring musicians need to listen widely and deeply to the music they care about. Since I started taking guitar lessons, I’ve listened to music much more often than I used to–even though I’ve always enjoyed and loved music. Listening to music, especially blues by the masters, nurtures and encourages my love of the music and also helps me learn to play the music better.

Now that I’ve learned to play a little, I hear music in a different way. The more I know how to play, the more I can hear in the music I listen to. At the same time, I’m also trying to hear new things. What is that riff? How is the guitarist playing that passage? Could I play that?

My teacher has had me do Music Listening Analyses to encourage me to focus on certain elements in a song. In the process, I’ve listened to songs over and over. There is always more to hear. Even a relatively “simple” song has so much going on in it that it requires multiple listenings to absorb it deeply.

Whether listening for an analysis or just listening, it’s important to pay attention to the feel of the music. Music isn’t an intellectual exercise, nor is it just a matter of good technique. The ultimate goal is for “technique” to fall below a conscious level and simply play out the feelings.

Since I started taking lessons, I’ve also gone to hear live music more often. I find it helpful to see what a guitarist is doing as I’m hearing the music. However, I often can’t tell what is going on even as I’m looking, because it happens too fast.

Before I took guitar lessons, I hadn’t given any thought to ear training, but it’s obviously as important to playing music as finger training. Fortunately, listening to music I enjoy is never an onerous assignment.

In a sense, listening to music is also a form of goal-setting. I don’t expect ever to play at the level of blues mentors like Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker or Hubert Sumlin. However, as I sail over the wide seas of music, they are like the North Star, a point of orientation that guides me and keeps me on track.

Blues / Electric Guitar / Learning Music — 1 Comment
04
Oct 10

How long does it take to learn to play music?

The Zen answer is “forever.” That runs counter to our culture of instant gratification, which leads you to believe you could be a “rock star” overnight (just learn a few chords). I believe music is a spiritual path that one follows, ideally, without regard to any destination. I know of no creative activity that one can truly master. The great painters, writers, composers, musicians were always striving to develop their art and scorned the notion that they had “arrived”–regardless of any public acclaim they might have received.

When I started taking guitar lessons, I naively imagined that learning to play wouldn’t be as challenging as it has been. I don’t know if I had a specific time line in my head, but I didn’t realize how much there was to learn. Even after more than two years, it feels like I’m still at the awkward toddler stage, at best.

I recently ran across two different sources that mentioned a more proximate time frame. In a 2004 interview with Bill Wyman, Muddy Waters’ son, Big Bill Morganfield said that after his father’s death (April 30, 1983) he wanted to do a tribute to him. He bought a a guitar for himself and for his brother Joseph. “I knew my dad was great, but I didn’t realize how great he was until I tried learning how to play the same stuff he was playing,” Morganfield said. “It took me eight years or so to even get within the ball park of being good enough.” (This interview is one of the extras on the concert DVD Muddy Waters: Messin’ with the Blues [1974].)

In a 1994 interview with Guitar World, Hubert Sumlin said that he had been playing guitar for eight or nine years when he approached Howlin’ Wolf and wanted to play with his band. Wolf said he wasn’t ready. Sometime after Sumlin went home, he had a realization that he didn’t need to play with a pick. “I started playing with a lot more soul. I never used a pick again. My tone, my sound, everything happened right then,” he said.

I can’t even guess how my playing may have progressed after eight years (That’s 2016!). So much depends on how much and how well I practice each day.

In his book, Zen Guitar (1997), Philip Toshio Sudo (1959-2002) says that when beginning students ask how long it will take to learn, he tells them “as long as you live.” He adds, “The Way of Zen Guitar is learned day by day, minute by minute, second by second, now to eternity. There is no faster way.”

George Leonard drew on his knowledge of Zen philosophy and the martial art of aikido in writing his book, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment (1992). He stresses that mastery “brings rich rewards, yet is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, a journey.” He says the best way to move toward mastery is to “practice diligently,” but also to “practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself.”

I’m committed to the path of music and plan to continue playing guitar as long as I’m physically able to. I’ll do my best to accept that it will take “forever” and focus on the present moment and what I’m able to play in it and to play that with all my heart.