I try to be prepared for the moment, through understanding and being warmed up, knowing all about chords and scales, so I don’t even have to think and I can get right to what it is I want to say.

-Pat Metheny

Yeah, um…I think he has a pretty good understanding of the guitar. What do you think?

This whole week has kind of had a theory theme going with it, so I decided to top it off with a great quote from master guitarist, Pat Metheny. You can really see what he means by not having to think about what he is playing. I mean, damn, how could someone think about all those substitutions, arpeggios, modes, tension and release at the rate he was playing? Your brain would implode and turn into vanilla pudding.

Just like driving a car, riding a bike, or shooting a basketball becomes almost unconsciously automatic, so can playing guitar in amazing ways. The key is to prepare yourself and practice hard. When it’s time to perform, just let your unconscious take over and let the sweet music flow out of you.

Discovery & Preparation takes one from being unconsciously unskilled to becoming consciously unconsciously skilled.

Confused?

Let me briefly explain the stages of learning a skill:

1. Unconsciously Unskilled: You don’t even know that you are incapable of doing something. You can’t do it, but you don’t know that you can’t do it.
2. Consciously Unskilled: You can’t do it and you know you can’t.
3. Consciously Skilled: You can do it, but it’s something you have to keep remembering consciously to do.
4. Unconsciously Skilled: It’s just practice that enables you to get to stage four, to expertise. You can do it and it just happens without thinking about it.
5. Consciously Unconsciously Skilled: This is the stage you need to be at to teach. You can do the skill unconsciously, and you also know consciously how you do it at the unconscious level.

The 16th century Zen teacher Takuan explains the shift from unconscious incompetence, through conscious incompetence and conscious competence, to unconscious competence:

Let me explain in terms of the martial arts. As a beginner you know nothing of stance or sword position, so you have nothing in yourself to dwell on mentally. If someone strikes at you, you just fight, without thinking of anything. Then when you learn various things like stance, how to wield a sword, where to place the attention, and so on, your mind lingers on various points, so you find yourself all tangled up when you try to strike. But if you practise day after day and month after month, eventually stance and swordplay don’t hang on your mind any more, and you are like a beginner who knows nothing … . The cogitating side of your brain will vanish and you will come to rest in a state where there is no concern.

Pretty Badass, huh?

Here are some books that I personally endorse just because they are simply amazing in terms of expanding your creativity while increasing your knowledge of chords, arpeggios, intervals, and substitutions. Check them out. You won’t be disappointed.

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