“I think the guitar is loaded with traps. Its very easy to start thinking about the guitar’s fingerboard as a world of its own.
But actually, the guitar is designed this way to accommodate the way its tuned, its strings, and the way its plucked. So, your lifelong task, if you care to be a guitar player, is to accommodate this sort of “bastardised” instrument, to the Real World of Music” (Charlie Byrd)

What is this “Real World of Music”, and how do we get there fast?
Is it engaged with MY world? and as real as THIS world?
Do i smell a Jazz Noise here?

Not just guitar players, but many other musicians have been pondering these questions for millenniums, only to find out, that they already possess the answer.

“Sing what you play, Play what you sing”

OK, you’ve got me.. So I can’t really provide a definition for “The Real World of Music”.

But, I, too, have seen the light. And I can tell you which things to do so that you raise your chances of visiting the “Real” music world, or even buying a car over there.

In Jazz there is a term for playing “Real” music on your instrument,
Its called “Singing”. It simply means that you play the musical ideas that you
hear in your mind, or “sort of hear”, depending on the level of your skill.

First of all, choose your field – learn what music you like the best.
And realize that it might take you some time to find the entire range
of your liking and disliking.

”When vibratory activity is properly controlled, man may experience all
of life’s joy, and at the same time not be enslaved by it.”

”in the control abides the whole of what is called mastership.

(Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Sufi Message, p. 20)

Guidelines for Playing What you Hear:

1. Use Spaces – When we don’t like the sound we got, we sometimes tend to compensate by playing lots of notes. The playing becomes more mechanical and unmelodious. Think about Breathing. Also, note that Spaces are the corner stone of rhythm.

2. Avoid playing licks – Mind you, Its not a lick if you hear it FIRST in your mind, and then realize you know how to play it on your instrument – that is called mastery. Its only a lick once you let your fingers dictate you where to go.

3. Listen to your jam buddies, and respect them. You cannot develop respect to your own music, as long as you don’t offer that to others as well.

4. Don’t Think about thinking what to think, Just Play! Remember, there are no wrong notes, its just music, so feel free to experiment. Its only wrong to play the guitar without really paying attention to the music you are creating.

5. Learn the tunes by heart – You should be able to sing the melody and remember the harmony of the tune, be able to sing the baseline. Some people learn many tunes, but they don’t really learn them, so take your time, its worth it.

6. Listen to allot of music! The best way to practice music is to practice it with emotions. Always search for things or phrases that you deeply like, transcribe, and check why you like it so much.

7. Feel good! when you are playing, don’t think about how good you are doing or not, just look for the good feeling, and when you find it, keep on building it, and double it again, until every note you play gives you the utmost kinesthetic satisfaction.

8. Don’t practice too much. Remember, you are also a person, not just a guitar holding furniture. So, go out and improvise your way through planet earth as well.

9. SING, If it wasn’t clear enough, you should practice SINGING what you play. just start slowly, maybe put some blues in the background, find some private “corner” on the guitar, and start pitching those pitches.
Check what it makes you feel like.

10. Practice the above said elements, and then Forget all of them! -There are no rules, if you want to play what you see, and not what you hear – you can. if you want to play with no spaces, and throw in all your Pat Martino chromatic phrase licks – so be it. Its all fair – If you do your thing for long enough, than these elements will manifest on their own, and you will naturally get there. Its simply about becoming more aware of every note that is played.

I hope you’ll find this useful. This is JoePasser, biding you “Good Pickings”

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