29 June 2009

Better Guitar: Lessons From Zen Pottery

What does Chopin, pottery, and a rubbish bin have to do with playing better guitar? Some illumination from Zen Guitar Player helps to explain,

Is the old saying "Quantity does not equal Quality" really true? Or is it just a myth that those who have achieved success would rather have you believe so that their unique genius is looked upon as the reason for their achievements?
Another saying advises writers "to write for the rubbish bin, a lot" is in order to produce good writing. To come up with a few gems the writer has to ditch a lot of what is written.

If this is true for writer's then it's also true for guitar players. Those hours of solitary practice to perfect a piece are just like writing that goes in the rubbish bin. So the message is, to play a few things well you have to spend a lot of time playing lots of things - sometimes badly - to hone a few playing pearls.

Oh, and you might still be wondering where Chopin and pottery comes in? To discover the answer read Master the Guitar, Quantity Leads to Quality on Guitar Player Zen.




Guitar Player said...

Nicely done!

Gary Fletcher said...

Hi Guitar Player, thanks for your encouragement, but the credit has to go to Guitar Player Zen for that great post.

Jeff said...

Thanks for the shout out Gary! I actually saw the idea and research from Derek Sivers' blog though and just wanted to share it.

Later man!


Gary Fletcher said...

Hi Jeff,
The thanks are to you for sharing that insight.


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