jamey Faulkner

The guitar’s accessibility, versatility, portability, & ideal shape, makes it a perfect fit for human musicking.

Music is a lifelong endeavor. Yes, we can learn to play using advanced systems that enhance & speed up the process, yet ’7 days to mastery’ or ‘be a pro in 10 easy lessons’ is impossible & a touch misleading. The kind of thinking that produces these types of learning systems can often be fragmented & reductionist.

Deciding on a longer arc of music discovery sets the conditions for steady growth. Integrating the guitar into our lifestyles is a noble objective with tremendous rewards.

Building a guitar lifestyle is based on process. The types of processes you choose to engage, determine outcomes. There are universals & naturals systems that give rise to technical & musical development, yet each of us has a unique set of mental, physical, cultural, & social factors that express themselves in highly individualized ways.

There is a monstrous volume of guitar information on earth. Yet, there is still much to learn. Knowing that each of us has something to add to the experiential library provides a basis for personal exploration, whether our discoveries make it into the public arena or not.

What is true is that all of us can enjoy a balanced guitar lifestyle, without needless commercial nonsense or cultural definitions of what it means to use the instrument.

I play music because I love it. I love it because it provides me with a means to exercise important dimensions of self and to learn to interact with others in a very fun and intense way.

It is a most valuable experience to be fluid in an ocean of sound, whether alone, with others, or alone with others.

Now, I know some songs (covers). No big deal. It did actually take me years to ‘unlearn’ the 100 or so songs that I learned when I was still operating under the control of my programming. I can walk a lot lighter now, not carrying all that weight. Cultural mental glue stick gone. Ozzy, Motley Crue, the Scorpions…gone (remnants still remain).

Yet, I also can learn any song I need to know within a reasonable amount of time. How? By harboring a skill-set. One with musical abilities which provide the opportunity to steer my sail in the directions I choose, rather than the paths chosen by the madness of the ‘guitar store mentality’ (aka…”be my jukebox. Do you know this or that song? If you know it, I will shower you with approval, if you don’t, you stink”).

Now, there are levels of appropriateness to learning guitar. If you are 16 or 40 or any age, and just learning guitar, learn as many songs as you can. Jam with as many people as you can.

But, and this is the large but, enter the stream as yourself, not as a sonic clone. The song learning frenzy should be balanced by exploration of sound, chord creation exercises, melodic resonance, and songwriting (from the start).

Learning the guitar based only on song playing is a disaster for the ascent of the instrument and the mentality of our student-ship. The culture of copy has run its course, clear cutting the guts of our musical forest.

So, play guitar like the legends. Hmm…

If you play a song by Jimmy Page (a legend), are you really playing like Jimmy? What about the other Jimi (another legend)? How do you feel about that?

Who am I? I’m not Jimmy Page, nor Jimi Hendrix. If I want to play like Hendrix, do I need to do all that extra stuff? Fire? Teeth? Drugs? Death?

Bad ride. Let Jimi be Jimi. May he RIP.

Here’s the skinny: it is freaking impossible to play like anybody, whether they are a legend or not.

Please be yourself. Be yourself only. Be musical and creative and have fun through the spectrum of your world, your life, your music. Duplicity is a dreadful drain.

My name is not Jimi, nor Jimmy, nor Carlos, nor Estaban, and I can only play like me for the rest of my life. And, having truly accepted this, I have entered a new musical world. A vibrational paradise in a strong sense; alive with true resonance, adding to this life’s meaning. The blur is gone.

I don’t actually really know one cover all the way through that will entertain you in the ways you’ve been programmed to expect, yet I can watch other people’s hands, read music and charts, and use my developed ear to play other people’s tunes – if and when I choose.

Just because I play a guitar doesn’t mean I play it to entertain. I may play it for other reasons that fit into a larger context. So far, my best musical experiences are improvising with and without others, without anyone watching.

You get to choose how you approach music and what you do with it once you have compentencies that demand expression. If you choose a particular musical style, you enter into that cultural space, and learn the repertory. That is admirable, honorable, and ultimately acceptable. Nevertheless, it should be balanced with your own truth and interpretations.

And, if you choose to go your own route – a new direction – you join a growing number of musicians forging new paths into new styles, new fusions, new genres, and paths into the unknown.

Be your own legend. You already always are.

Over the years, & especially in the past 2, I have seen around half of all beginners automatically hold their pick between their thumb & middle finger. In this configuration, the index sometimes acts as a ‘rudder’.

When those choosing this pick grip are asked if they are comfortable with the way they are holding the pick, they say, “Yes,” nearly every time.

Is this a good way to start? I offer an alternative: put the inside of the top index joint pad against the ‘ball’ of the pad of the thumb (they fit together). We can call it by different names based on the cultural context of a student. It could be ‘God-given pick holder’ or ‘Nature’s given pick holder’. Ask them to try it & only a small percentage say, “Yeah, that’s better.” Yet, over time, students do tend to prefer the ‘holder’ [Craft School agrees, I think].

Teachers can use a statement like, “We should always experiment with how we approach the strings. The way we do things can change over time.” I’ve  considered demanding that all students use the ‘given-pick-holder’ [g-p-p], but there seems to always be some type of rebellion when I’ve chosen that route.

This is something I have been considering for years, & with so many things for beginners to keep in mind, I often just go with the flow on this one.

As students progress, there are things that we can ask them to do that are easier with g-p-p & students seem to gravitate to this anyway without any constant monitoring on our end. What works, works. I emphasize positive musical memories first, & technical considerations in time. When students stick with guitar, they do learn that we are learning how our hands work, not just hitting strings & making sounds.

The given-pick-holder can lead to more control over outcomes.

And, then, there’s Eddie Van Halen. He mostly uses the middle finger against the thumb. And who’s questioning Eddie? Give Diver Down another listen.