Guthrie Govan Discussion

Aresius · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:44 am Post subject: My attitude in practising

Well, my dream is to become a virtuoso like Satriani, Petrucci, Guthrie etc.
and I've been working on that dream very hard. But I would like to ask you other people about my attitude in practising. For example, I start practising about 12 a.m and practise for a few hours. Then something interrupts my practise and I'm not able to practise at all maybe for many hours. Then I get extremely angry and disappointed. I start feeling like: "If I don't practise,practise and practise, I'll never become like one of them". Usually my daily routine is about 5-6 hours. If it's less than that, I feel really disappointed about that. It makes me feel like I'm not going to improve at all.
Is it me, or am I taking practising TOO seriously?

Comments, please!
_________________
"You don' have to be the best one, just be a good un'" - Muddy Waters

bill® · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 72

I think what you need to do is chill out, step back, and take a good look at what you're doing. You're trapped in a practise cycle that is motivated by fear ("If I don't...I'll never become..."), results in anger and disappointment, yet still takes up 5-6 hours of your day.

First thing to take note of is that nothing is 'wrong', and there is nothing that needs to be 'fixed', as that kind of thinking often encourages people to apply short-term 'fixit' solutions.

You say dream about being a virtuoso 'like' Satriani, Petrucci, or Guthrie...but all those guys are totally different players. None of them idolised one guy or a few guys and followed solely in there footsteps (although it's probably closer to the truth for Petrucci than some others, but even so, his style is very distinct). How do you want yourself to sound? And I'm not asking you 'cause I'm interested (which of course I am, but that's beside the point), I'm asking you so you can ask yourself. And if your answer is 'like Petrucci/Satriani/Govan/anyone', then REALLY ask yourself if you want to sound like a clone of any/all of the above players.

It is fantastic to be inspired by great players but ultimately music is something that you have to make your own, and in a positive and fulfilling way, regardless of what level you reach. The key to this is simply learning to enjoy what you are playing and mastering and learning at this very moment, because if you never do this and always spend you're time thinking 'when I can do that then I can be happy' you are preventing yourself from ever even having the opportunity to enjoy playing and learning music RIGHT NOW! And guess what? It is ALWAYS RIGHT NOW. Y'know right now? Well guess what, it's right now. What about now? Someday is always someday, but today is today.

I could write a REALLY long post about this but I want to be practising right now, so I'll just inarticulately cram it in. Forgive any errors...

<BODY OF POST>

Ask yourself these questions... Why are you playing music? Is it because you want to be able to do what Guthrie etc. do? Why? What attracted it to you in the first place? Desire for personal satisfaction? Did you want to impress people? Did you want to communicate with people? Why? Do you feel uncomfortable communicating in other ways? Etcetera etcetera...

These are all just examples but it is important to realise that for nearly ALL people this process, if followed seriously and all questions (to yourself) are answered with ABSOLUTE honesty, is going to be quite confronting. You may well, and in all probability will conclude that you started playing guitar because you wanted people to like you, or you wanted girls to be attracted to you, or you wanted your father to be proud of you, or anything. Concluding 'wow I only started playing guitar 'cause I wanted to pick up' may seem a shallow motivation, and indeed one that many people would be ashamed of, but there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH WHATEVER REASON YOU HAVE TAKEN THIS PATH. But it is very important to confront these things, no matter how deeply they are buried, or how stupid or immature they seem, 'cause only when the bullshit that drives us can be looked right in the eye with no fear are we free to REALLY make a choice about who we are and who we're going to be. You say you think if you don't practise you won't be a great guitarist, and this makes you disappointed/angry? Why? Do you feel you are worthless if you do not become a great guitarist? Do you ever imagine a future in which you are burnt-out substandard musician that never fulfilled his potential? Imagine it now! REALLY. And make it REAL for yourself. No doubt that this terrifies you, maybe even makes you feel sick.

What is the point of all this?

If you are getting angry, and you are feeling down on yourself after or during practise, you are simply playing music for the wrong reasons. You have to be able to look these reasons RIGHT IN THE EYE! They may be very upsetting, you might even need to have a cry, but this 'stuff' will never ever ever ever just go away on its own. It is up to you in every moment of your life to choose who you are and who you want to be, and not just for yourself but for the people around you. You are a beautiful fantastic utterly enchanting human being, and truly the equal of every other person on this planet. So fucking rejoice! Everything is ok! Just sit back in your chair right now and appreciate what a fantastic stroke of luck it is that you, of your million sperm-brothers, and of the trillions and trillions of humans that could have been born, yes you are the living breathing loving human being who can enjoy something so simple as sitting in a chair, or making a coffee, or even DRINNKING A COFFEE, and this isn't even going into the transcendental affairs of making music, art, poetry, and LOVE! Yes, that's right! - GETTIN' IT ONNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!! Now THAT is life my friend! Not having a stress-attack 'cause you're not going to be the next Guthrie Govan! Fuck Guthrie Govan! The Guthrie Govan you have in your head isn't even the real Guthrie Govan, he's a fantasy ideal you've created and that you're never going to live up to 'cause you've put him out of reach before you've even started. And what's that ideal based on? Some quicktime clips and maybe a DVD or two? Guthrie's guitar-playing greatness is not seperate from Guthrie Govan the person, to quantify it as 'fantastic alternate-picking, flawless legato, innovative tapping' is a disservice to the man and to music in general. Which isn't to say that those things shouldn't be discussed, they're fun and interesting, but they exist only as a byproduct of Guthrie the individual. Guthrie did not learn to play well from sitting on his own practising for 6 hours a day (although that no doubt played a role at times), Guthrie learnt to play well simply by getting to know himself. In doing so he was able to make a choice about who it was he wants to be, and how he wants to define and distinguish himself. And by all accounts he is a lovely, humble guy and a FUCKING FANTASTIC guitar player.

At risk of offending any hardcore religious types (although in all honesty, I don't care, and if you disagree you disagree) - When you were born (or Guthrie was born) God or The Fates or whatever divine leader/conspirator you may believe in DID ABSOLUTELY NOT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES COME DOWN AND SAY - "THIS BABY SHALL BE A GREAT GUITARIST" or "THIS BABY SHALL WORK HARD AT GUITAR AND FAIL". That is quite frankly, a complete and utter cop-out. Your destiny is yours to make what you will of, and you can get pretty much anything you want out of life if you take responsibility for it and really don't let yourself be daunted by the prospect of failure. Failure is a sucess anyway, as long as your always working on moving yourself forward, and always willing to listen to and really share with other people.

Remember!

'We learn what we do, and do what we learn.'

And this is not even getting into the mechanics of practise routine/techniques etcetera. Smile

Hope something here helped.

P.S. None of this is suggesting that you CAN'T be the next GG/Petrucci/Satch etc. But if you spend all your time worrying that you won't be, I can guarantee you'll forever struggle to get where you wanna go...and DON'T worry about worrying about it!

Aresius · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:50 pm Post subject:

Thank you for all that you said. But you maybe misunderstood me. I did'n say that I would like to be EXACTLY like them. I know who I am, and I know what I want. I want to , above all, make and play music for other peoples and for my own joy. And to be respected as a musician/guitarist like those guys I talked about.
_________________
"You don' have to be the best one, just be a good un'" - Muddy Waters

M@ · Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 214 Location: Hong Kong

Man! I thought Ed's posts were pretty long!

I agree... don't be too hard on yourself... use your time out from the guitar to recharge your batteries. And don't forget to practice "music" away from your instrument.

Best of luck!
_________________
"My day job feeds my family, my night gig feeds my ego!"

bill® · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 72

I was not assuming that you do want to be a 'copy' on any of those players, just accomodating for the possibility. That is a very noble thing wanting to play music for you own and others joy, so why don't you start doing it right now? Guthrie and his guitar virtuoso brethren are hardly the only musicians who bring people enjoyment through their playing. Are you in a band or have people you regularly jam with? Also do you perform for others often?

I feel like I haven't really made much of a difference to you, which is a bit disappointing for me. But be assured I support you in your musical endeavours and wish you all the best with what you do.

By the way, you say you want to be respected by other musicians and guitarists? It will be much easier for that to be a reality if you respect yourself to appreciate your own achievements in practise, and don't get angry.

Aresius · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 5:18 pm Post subject:

I've been thinking through your words for the last two days. I admit that I have made an overshoot in practising. I have been too strict about that.
Thank you, Bill@. I really owe you thanks.
I try to not to be so serious about practising.
_________________
"You don' have to be the best one, just be a good un'" - Muddy Waters

James W · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 191

alexkhan · Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA

I went through a period like that myself. Bill has some great points here. I think the important thing to find out is who you are and what you can offer to rest of the world as an artist and a player. As mentioned in other posts, it's also important to go out and play with others, preferably players better and more experienced than you are. You need a good balance of that along with your own solitary practice working on technique, studying theory, and other fundamentals of good musicianship.

Only you know if 5~6 hours a day is really necessary or if it isn't. But based on what you're saying, I would say it's not the right frame of mind to have if you're going to feel disappointed or feel angry about not getting in those hours. You should focus on getting more out of each hour and each minute than just putting in the hours. Perhaps a good teacher can guide you. It's possible to get a lot more out of very focused and efficient 1~2 hours of practice than 5~6 hours of aimless noodling and just repeating what you did the day before. The key is in finding what works for you and being happy with it.

I don't believe that one has to put in 10~12 hours a day to be players like Satch/Petrucci/Guthrie although they themselves may have gone through periods of doing just that. As much as self-discipline, I like to think they had fun doing it and were very motivated by just improving themselves, not by fear of not improving if they didn't practice. And sometimes it's good to get away from it for a while. Don't even pick up the guitar for a few days. You need other things in life to balance out what you're doing with the guitar. Be positive and have fun while you're at it.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.

Aresius · Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:07 am Post subject: Re: My attitude in practising

James W · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 191

I find listening to many different intruments and as many different types of music as possible for inspiration... for instance singers for my phrasing, and piano, sax and violin stuff.. in fact, anything really. There's so much stuff out there which is great which isn't on guitar.

In fact, I would say obviously that there is more great stuff out there which isn't on guitar as other instruments have been around for longer... theres pieces by Liszt and Rachmaninov... licks and such which I can only imagine... and Debussy's harmony... now I think about it, a guitarist can quite easily appear original if they just avoid guitar-based influences.

Which of course means using one's ear or/and reading music... it's up to you...

J