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Notes from the Field

Getting More Betterer

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Getting More Betterer

I have been reading “The Inner Game of Music”, which I highly recommend. It’s not a religion or philosophy, though it can be. One or two ideas from that book can really make a difference.

Anyway, through some of the thinking in that book, and lots of coffee chat afterword, and being tired of struggling with technique for its own sake, I have a useful perspective I can finally put into words. It applies to most of us, but perhaps not all.

Instead of asking “how can I play better?”, one might ask “how can I play funner?”

While it doesn’t lead to different answers, it puts exercises, practice, ear training, arpeggios, scales, learning the fretboard up the neck, learning different picking patterns, and all that, into a compelling context. Work on stuff because it will make the whole enterprise more fun.

Seeing the exigencies of the path ahead, one could develop a kind of "I like where I am, this is enough, I am content" philosophy. The problem is, as one gets better, (and one always gets better) one finds oneself in a new place, and nobody says, "its not as much fun here, I enjoyed it more back there." Approximately nobody.

Do you think you are having enough fun? More fun would not be worth pursuing? … That’s what I thought.

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Updated Jul-07-2017 at 9:42pm by JeffD

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