Guitar Gear

I was listening to a radio talk show and the guest mentioned Toni Morrison, the great African-American novelist and Princeton professor. I’ve known of Dr. Morrison for years, as she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the early ’90’s, but I needed to refresh my memory, so I googled her name and came across this wonderful quote:

You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down!

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature 1993

What a GREAT quote! Gear slut that I am, when I read the quote, I immediately thought of playing guitar and my own journey with this instrument these past 50 years. And looking back, I realized that my most accelerated growth periods came from giving up my shit; that is, letting go of my preconceptions and old habits to allow me to explore new and different approaches to playing.

For instance, a few years ago I really got into playing reggae. At first blush, reggae’s predominant “um-chuk um-chuk” rhythm seemed so easy. And I figured that since I had be playing guitar so long, I could easily make the transition; after all, how hard could it be? But what I realized was that the “um-chuk” was merely a rhythmic foundation that belied a musical and melodic complexity that requires immense study to master. And singing and performing reggae can be incredibly difficult because many of the melody lines are sung against the beat. This forced me to overcome my rock-and-roll, four-on-the-floor approach to guitar. Once I let go my notions and approach to playing music was I able to play reggae with any sense of proficiency.

As you can tell, this article isn’t an instructional “how-to” article, but if you want to improve your playing or expand your musical palate, you have to let go of your preconceptions. We’re human. Humans love habit. But whether it’s a habit of action or thinking, with habit, we run the risk of letting habit metastasize throughout our entire being and fixing us into set ways, ultimately limiting our ability to grow and expand. To improve – in anything, not just guitar – we have to break free of our fixed notions.

Especially if you visit online guitar discussion forums, you’ll encounter and interact with many people who are fixed in their thinking. Look at the tube amp vs. solid state amp debate, for instance; or the preponderance of jazz and metal heads spouting all their shit about modes and major scales and dismissing any other forms of music. I was “that guy” with tube amps. But when I first played my BOSS Katana 50, all those old notions were completely obliterated! It’s now my main gigging amp.

This is not to say that we all become centrist in our thinking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with passion for something. But if we want to expand our experience, as Toni Morrison says, if we want to fly, we have to give up the shit that weighs us down!