Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymarsch
A couple of thoughts here -
Yes, a toddler can put together an intelligible sentence but there is a continuum between that and professional writers' who have a brilliant command of the language and use it to move people to tears. And great writing is about re-writing. So, I noodle around on the guitar all the time and land on things that sound pretty good but it takes a lot of ear training and listening skills to translate that into a moving musical arrangement.
Guitarist Pepe Romero has spoken about how he sometimes spends 30 minutes practicing one note to get the right feel and tone in a particular passage of music he's playing.
I do think that playing with others in a musical conversation certainly can improve one's skills but practice, repetition and deep listening will always be a part of learning and playing music that is worth listening to in my opinion.
If there are short cuts, I sure haven't found them. 
Best,
Jayne |
Hi Jayne, thanks for your thoughts. For sure there are no shortcuts, and I am not looking for any. As an old guitar friend used to say, "here's how you get good at the guitar: instead of not playing the guitar, you play the guitar."
The more I play, the more I realize how much time and effort it takes to get REALLY good, as your story about Pepe Romero shows. We are literally rewiring our brains and building new neurons through repetition, and for adult brains there's no way to speed that up
At the same time, it's fun to think about different approaches and new ways to practice. Or even the same approaches from a different perspective.