There is a common misconception that Buddha left his wealthy lifestyle to seek enlightenment. In actuality, he left home to start a rock band with three of his buddies called The Four Noble Truths. Needless to say, things didn’t work out and yada, yada, yada….he found Enlightenment.

The following is written by Tobias Hurwitz, Zen guitar master:

I became aware of what I now call the Zen Guitar Movement in 1997 through reading Phillip Toshio Sudo’s first book, Zen Guitar. This made me consider the benefits of a contemplative and non-competitive lifestyle - as a working musician - in which music is the centerpiece of a near constant Zen-like meditation. The focus of Sudo’s personal meditation was his inspired composition One Sound One Song, which was as much a part of his essence as his own breathing, and which he played to the exclusion of most other music until his passing from cancer in June of 2002. Philip released a CD of this music called Zen Guitar, and shortly afterwards I included my own Zen Guitar song on my first solo CD, Painted Sky. The two of us soon collaborated on the sequel to Zen Guitar, which is called Book of Six Strings, and features and audio CD of music written by Sudo and me.

Even without Sudo, the musical movement he started continues to grow and diversify. Much has happened in recent years. Jeff Peretz authored Zen and the art of Guitar, which features a completely independent take on the topic. Salvatore Principato coordinated three successful Zen Guitar festivals in NYC’s Greenwich Village. These featured performances of ZG music by myself, DR Maybe, Ben Noir, and many others. Zen Guitarist John Prusinski has been web-mastering Sudo’s www.zenguitar.com ever since Phil’s passing. It features news, events, lessons, an active forum, and more. Now we also have www.guitarplayerzen.com. Dean Guitars sells a limited edition “Zen Acoustic Guitar” with Japanese ideograms on the neck and The National Guitar Workshop has been offering a Zen Guitar seminar, taught by Jeff Peretz and myself, for many years. Guitar Player magazine has published a short article on Zen Guitar, and there is even a Wickapedia entry on it. There’s so much going on, most of which I’m probably not even aware of (you know who you are) that I can’t even list it all in this short article, and that’s good!

Awesome new players like Ry Brown are emerging on the ZG scene. His Zen in the art of Guitar CD represents a very important addition to the growing Zen Guitar canon. Brown’s solo acoustic steel pieces conjure trance inducing moods by way of repetitive micro-tonal phrasing over open tuned drones. Are his choices of five compositions and two versions of each significant? Are they perhaps nods to the Chinese five elements and Yin Yang duality concepts? I could easily be reading too much into this, but ultimately, the sound is what matters. Its similarity to Raga encourages a meditative state and captures a sonic snap shot of Zen quite neatly.

My own musical contributions include The Way of Zen Guitar and Zen Shred Zone CDs, both of which contain versions of Sudo’s One Sound One Song , and also ZG music written by myself, most notably Truth Part I and Zen Guitar, both of which are also available as free live videos on you tube. The Zen shred connection is rather interesting, and can be explained by way of analogy: Much as a Samurai swordsman hones a difficult technique through concentration and disciplined practice, so does a Zen Guitar shredder hone an arpeggio or scale sequence. But the Zen shredder also values the concept of duality as expressed by Yin and Yang, so for every intricate passage he will balance the equation with a relaxing and melodic one. This can be heard clearly all over my Zen Shred Zone release, especially on the title track, which features performances by technical guitar masters, Michael Angelo Batio and, Mattias IA Eklundh. This is available on itunes, Guitar Nine Records, Angelo.com, etc.!

Perhaps these thoughts will inspire some of you readers to create your own personal versions of Zen Guitar. After all, ZG is about individuality and getting to know one’s self and one’s music!

Stay Zen, and stay on the neck!

Tobias Hurwitz

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