|
avimuno -> RE: If for chicks, you might have to think big deal of yourself in the first place (Feb. 12 2011 7:08:45)
|
On the subject Ruphus started... I picked up playing guitar after seeing Slash play 'Sweet Child of Mine' on TV... I was 13 and I sat there thinking 'I need to do this!!'.
It's been a love story with the instrument ever since... taste and style have changed but the love, passion and respect for the instrument, and the players who dedicate their lives in playing it right, have never diminished.
Ever since I'm 13, I've had a guitar in my lap for an average of 5 hours a day. I went through periods where I would practice 10-11 hours a day, and to this day, I still keep a good 3 hours a day, despite a very busy professional life.
I have never taken the attitude where I started thinking that I was good... Despite all the sacrifice and effort, I'm not a good guitarist, there's a world of improvement to be had.
I remember a BB King interview where he said this: 'There's still so much to learn and so little time...'. In a nutshell, that's really how I feel about playing guitar in general and flamenco in particular... so much to learn and conquer and not enough time in one lifetime.
I attended York University in Toronto. I graduated with a minor in music... I was lucky to discover flamenco there as it was offered as a course. From there I seeked out other people teaching flamenco in Toronto and was lucky enough to take lessons from someone who's dedication and generosity in teaching and transmitting his passion are only matched by his incredible talent and knowledge of flamenco (no... it's not Ruben! [8D]).
I've met a lot of 'flamenco guitarists' at York... for some reason ,they thought that taking a couple of lessons with someone who can barely play a rasgeado made them Paco de Lucia... they had no technique, no compas, no tone (for some reason, they all played 'Andalucian Guitars') and worse, no knowledge of the artform... people like that really make me angry because they advertise themselves as flamenco guitarist but haven't even listened to a Paco de Lucia album.
I even met someone who told me that he never listened to the great flamenco guitarists because he didn't want to 'soil his inspiration'... it's like a writer saying that he has never read Shakespeare or Celine, quite simply unthinkable and ridicule.
The great French philosopher Gilles Deleuze writes this beautiful sentence in his book on Francis Bacon (the painter): 'Staring at a blank canvas is like staring at the entire history of painting... it's like staring at every brush stroke, every colour and every shape ever painted. That's the kind of severity every genius imposes upon himself'.
I think that this applies to every area of art and science. As flamenco guitarists, we have the weight of flamenco history upon us and it requires a very long and painful learning process to even think of starting to create something new.
When we consider this... it doesn't leave us a lot of time to woe chicks! hahaha
|
|
|
|
