frameworks « Path Zero

Building Style ⇔ Experiential Exploration

Style can mean a lot of things. How an artist represents her or himself – whether in image, import, lyrics, and/or musical expression, among many other things – is their style. Check out Style Lens for some of my views on style. For learning to play guitar, we come to understand commonly accepted styles by what [...]

The Purists and the Purists

There are many roads into musical zones. And, zones are ever-present. What works for some, to get into one, can work for others. Universals do exist. Yet, there isn’t some pre-given zone waiting for discovery. We shape our world through perception, action, experience, and interpretation. There may be many classes of purists. Let’s discuss two possible types. The first, the replicators, [...]

Life-Long

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 [...]

Why Guitar Hero is So Good, Even Great

As a guitar teacher, you might think that I frown on Guitar Hero, when actually the opposite is true. I think it does a lot, I mean, a lot, of good. I congratulate parents for purchasing the game & for moving into lessons for the real thing. I travel to teach. I get to sit in practice spaces of students. [...]

Natural Systems

With some help from the Oxford American Dictionary Natural of or existing in or produced by nature in accordance with the course of nature having certain inborn qualities or abilities System a set of connected things or parts that form a whole or work together; nervous system, railroad system, solar system, digestive system a set of rules or principles forming [...]