Miguel de Maria -> RE: Arppegio (Nov. 1 2006 15:47:59)
|
Neal, could be. Whatever means it takes, I think. One thing is when you really pin down good players, they all mention slow play and striving for control. In my own playing, I have found it to be essential. It's almost like magic--you really focus and work hard on that, and one day you find out you can play fast. The alternative, hacking at the guitar with the metrnome, doesn't work. That's how careers are failed. I might have told this story, but our best flamenco in town, named Miguel Rodriguez, was messing around with a guitar, and a bass player, Simon Ames, took it. He said, "I can't get the tremolo right." And started playing a sloppy Recuerdos del Alhambra. Miguel took the guitar and played it, very slow, maybe one note every foottap. Simon took it back and played it slow for about two measures, then sped it back up to full tempo, shaking his head. I said to Miguel, "You tell everyone to play it slow, but no one ever really does. If people actually played it slow like you said, there would be a lot more guitarists, don't you think?" "Yes." I think that what slow practice about is really focus. I think that it is FOCUS that is what is essential to guitar or anything else. Using that big hunk of gray matter (we have a lot up there), but we have to use it right. It's like when you take a magnifying glass, you can burn an ant with just the sun's rays (not that I would of course). I think that what slow practice does is allow your nervous system to solidly internalize what you are doing. Don't be thinking about your football team or your job, you have to be thinking and magnifying your brain power on the guitar. This is what I've noticed from watching and talking to great players, no matter how "talented" they are, they are borderline obessive compulsive about this sort of thing. I think one reason a lot of great players are asses is this kind of singleminded focus, regular people just can't identify. As a friend of mine said to me, "I bet Paco is a ****!"
|
|
|
|