Re: (RL) lessons

[KWood@lightbridge.com]

Hey All!

For me the most valuable advice in his lessons has been to keep 'turning
the crank' no matter what.  I tend to get frustrated and say 'fuggit' if I
can't get the gist of something pretty quickly.  When it comes to scales
and modes, it's very easy to look at the seemingly 'straightforward'
information provided ("just follow these *simple* patterns...) and go "yeah
but what if...and what if...and what if..." (etc.,), at which point I
usually come to the cynical conclusion that such knowledge is for Berklee
grads and annoying head-bobbing world-beat-jazz-heads, and that I'm more of
a 'rock/punk dude' anyways, and should be happily resigned to belting out
power chords interspersed with the same Chuck Berry riffs I've been playing
for the last fifteen years, and that that musical 'science' stuff would
only rob me of my soulful 'feel' and I'm an 'ear' person anyways and
right-brained and--

Whoa.  Almost slipped into 'rant' mode.  (What mode would that be if I
started on the _second_ word of my rant and then...aww fuggit.  ; )

Really, tho', it has been a huge relief to me to have been given
'permission' to just keep going even if I don't quite see where it's going
as of yet.  Burning those scale patterns into my neural pathways probably
won't kill me, and has already gotten my fingers into a much more dexterous
place than ever before.  I'm also getting a bit of a feel for how those
modes sound, and I occasionally answer one of my own "what if's..." in the
midst of what at first appears to be a dogged repetition of dry 'scale
patterns'.

I just went back and re-read some of the lessons and found that some of the
parts (by no mens all) that 'puzzled' (scared) me at first are feeling more
like "well DUH, tell me something I don't know!", which is a really great
feeling in that context!

Right now I'm listening to a lot of great guitar players that I said 'yeah
whatever' to a long time ago (mostly swing and bop guitar players, and some
moderns like Bill Frisell and John Scofield).  I don't always understand
what I'm hearing (which is why I always avoided them before), but I'm
starting to hear little things like how they use arpeggios and (hearing, at
least) the interesting ways in which they do (or don't) follow the chords.
I'm becoming a bit of a jazz-head myself...yikes!  I'm also going through,
page-by-page, a six-dollar Mel Bay 'chord method' book, which shows and
gives excercises for building all types of chords in three voicings.  It's
another workout for my fingers and brain and is really helping me to see
the intervals and learn the notes on the fretboard.  I'm still reading and
working with other books, but when I get lost or cross-eyed and want to say
'fuggit', I drop them for a while and come back to just turning the crank
with Richard's material and the chord book.  Sometimes, when I go back to
the other books, I get that "well DUH!" feeling, and I start to smile and
giggle uncontrollably...

The most valuable thing to me is just to Keep Going.  It applies to
anything in your life that you choose to make important to you.  I first
heard it in a martial-arts context, but it was Richard's lessons that took
it to another level.  Keep turning the crank.  There will ALWAYS be dead
spots where you have to find the strength to re-affirm your dedication (or
let it go once and for all and stop belly-aching as the case may be), and
those are the spots where 'turning the crank' really pays off.  Eventually,
perhaps out of sheer boredom, you'll distract yourself with little
epiphanies!

Cheers,

-kent
Boston, MA

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