Free Download - 17 Essential Strum Patterns PDF
Here is a letter which is representative of a great many. They
are in the "searching for direction and answers" category.
Hi Jamie,
I've been playing for about a year and a half now and I just
want to know what it takes to play professionally? Playing professionally
yourself, I can see how you would know what it took you to get
where you are. What kind of things should I learn? What should
I be able to play? How much should I practice a day?? What are
the odds against me making it?? Also, must you start from a young
age to be able to make it professionally? I know you're very busy...but
your response would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to
know where I stand. thanks.
Fred W.
Hi Fred,
Yes, well, I think most of us would like to know where we stand,
and we may go around asking other people where we stand, but the
fact is, no one can tell us where we stand. Most people will simply
tell you where they stand, and might try to tell you that you
are standing there too!
As far as what it took me to get where I am, I am
not exactly sure where I am. The most definitive thing
I can say about where I am is that I am in a place
where I have the two things I prize more than anything: I can
play the guitar as much as I want to, and I can DO anything I
want to do on the guitar (and anything I cant do, I know
how to make myself able to do, if I want to). In order to have
these things, I have made more and deeper sacrifices than most
people would be prepared to make, and I have worked harder than
most people would be prepared to work. I suppose most people who
are where I am, could say the same thing.
So, you may correctly assume from that, Fred, that the answer
to your questions will involve those characteristics being demonstrated
by you, in some way.
You want me to make some predictions for you about your future
prospects in terms of having a musical career. I do not believe
in making predictions (in the way you are asking me to), because
the future is not fixed, it is a totally fluid phenomenon that
is directly linked to our present moment: we are creating our
future in every moment of our present. From that point of view,
rather than predicting your future, I will help you understand
your present moment. Understand that the best way to predict the
future is to understand the present, since we are creating our
future in every present moment.
I will put it more strongly. Better than being able to predict
the future is to be able to create the future. And you cannot
create your future unless you understand your present. So, I would
like to help you understand your present, and to help you understand
the reality of what you are really talking about, what you are
really asking. Your questions are not really questions, in that
they dont HAVE answers. They are really statements. Your
questions are really statements that demonstrate your
present level of understanding of some very key truths about life,
and about being a professional guitarist.
You ask about making it. There IS no IT to make!
No one could ever tell what your it would be, until
you make it! So the simple and short answer is: of course you
can make it, go ahead, who is stopping you?
Your question tells everything about the way you are looking
at things. You think making it is like being able
to jump up over a bar someone else has set up. You think it is
about meeting some kind of standard, or passing some battery of
tests put up by someone else, or a bunch of someone elses.
You talk like the it you have to make is something
already out there, like a mountain you have to climb.
There is no mountain out there for you to climb. Listen closely.
You will CREATE the mountain, you will ENVISION the mountain,
your mountain, and then you will climb it.
Everyone has there own it to make, their own mountain
to climb. So, dont ask me if you can make it, or what the
odds are. Ask yourself what it you want to make, and
then ask yourself if you are willing to go through the effort.
The it I have made is very different than most its,
and that is true for a lot of people who have made it.
It has sometimes been put this way: there is no path to success,
you make one by taking the first step!
So, first of all, stop thinking there is some pre-formed pattern
out there waiting to see if you are ready to conform to it. Leave
open the possibility that it may be right for you to do something
no one else has done before, or no one has done in the way you
need to do it.
I dont know what your it will be after you
make it, but I will tell you this: there is absolutely nothing
to prevent you from going and making it, except perhaps
yourself. In fact, you will find that even though making your
it will take an enormous effort, achieving anything
really meaningful in your life will take the same kind of effort,
so why not put the effort into your hearts desire?
Lets look at some of your other questions. You will see
that they all come from a wrong, or an incomplete way of looking
at what you are looking at.
What should you learn? Its real simple: learn
what you love! Do what turns you on, play the music that makes
you want to play it! My God, the last thing I ever needed was
someone to tell me what I wanted to learn on the guitar! Of course,
playing anything on the guitar was such a turn on to me, I dont
think I cared much what it was, I would learn anything. The first
time I played a simple melody on the guitar (soon after picking
one up), it turned me on so much, l learned whatever I could get
my hands on.
As time went by, I learned a few chords, bought a few books,
found some songs to strum and sing that I loved (lots of Dylan),
and I couldnt put the darned thing down! When I got my first
teacher, I sucked everything out of him as quickly as possible.
I believe it has just gone on from there (about 33 years now!).
So, we have that out of the way. Figure out what turns you on,
what makes you want to grab the guitar and play it, and do that.
Can you do that? Do you know what turns you on so much about the
guitar and music that you just have to learn it and play it? If
you dont, that is a serious problem right there, and one
you should address before you worry about these other things.
If you dont fulfill this first condition, nothing you play
will have much use or value to you or anyone else, anyway.
Now, that would lead us to answer another question: what does
it take to play professionally? That is actually a very easy one:
it takes you being able to get somebody to pay you for playing,
and that takes you being able to give somebody something they
want. The first time you do that, you have played professionally.
The trick is, of course, to get them to do it again, and again,
etc. Then you are what is called professional.
The way to get them to keep on paying you is to continue to give
them what they want, what it is they are willing to pay you for
in the first place. Of course, you will be very creative and enterprising,
as you must be in any profession, and think of all kinds of ways
to get other people to pay you for playing as well.
I did everything I could think of. Restaurants, bars, concerts
in libraries, senior homes. I have had jobs playing in churches,
doing shows in schools, and on and on with lots of different things
I thought of. Here is a great tip, of a practical nature, that
I picked up from reading the great minister and teacher Robert
Schuller, on the subject of money: there are no money problems,
only idea problems. Simply think of ways to get someone
to reach in their pocket, grab their money, and hand it to you.
It is done by being able to offer them something they want, which
is done by first possessing something of value. Since we want
to be musicians, lets agree that means being able to play
music.
Then go ahead, start marketing yourself in whatever way is appropriate
to the kind of music you play. Then, you start developing what
is called an income. If you can make enough to live on, then everyone
will agree, you are a professional.
All of this will be greatly aided if you actually are good at
playing the guitar, and good as a musician in whatever style you
are doing. And that gets back to the doing what turns you
on part. If you are actually a musician playing music as
it should be played, as an expression of your love for it, and
love for playing it, then other people will feel that, and since
people need music (fortunately), someone will be willing to pay
you for being able to give them what they want from music.
So really, theres the formula: get yourself able to play
some music you love, and then get yourself playing it for some
people, and get them to pay you for it.
When I was a teenager, and starting to figure this out, I knew
that the playing for other people part was important, so I grabbed
whoever was around, my parents, brothers, and friends, just to
see if I was good enough to play for somebody for free! I also
worked hard to be good, and to develop an intense relationship
to music. I sat and played for myself everyday.
I started teaching, I started setting up little concerts, I started
being able to make money.
The particulars would be different for everybody. I was playing
mostly classical guitar by then, so that dictated what did. Certainly,
a more common and conventional route is to join or start a band,
get gigs, etc, etc. But the most important things is what I said
before: get turned on, and then turn other people on.
From where you are now, it seems that if you do the right things
you will have a better chance of "success as a musician".
If you practice the right amount of time on the right things,
and so forth. Well the fact is, there are people who practice
ten hours a day and learn every scale in the universe backwards
and forwards, and they do not end up as professional musicians.
There are people that learn some basic chords, some basic scales,
start playing, keep playing, and do end up as professional musicians,
and sometimes as millionaires.
Many aspiring players acquire plenty of knowledge, have lots
of talent, and lots of opportunities come their way, but they
do not continue in their life as professional musicians. When
the inevitable challenges came along, lost opportunities for a
normal life and career, new responsibilities of mate
and family, financial pressures, watching your friends build mature
adult lives and buy houses while your living hand to mouth like
a bum long after you were supposed to become an adult, friends
or parents telling you how irresponsible it is to dedicate your
life to something as frivolous as playing the guitar; many people
cannot withstand this kind of pressure, and continue on as musicians.
They go get a "real job".
Many of us get real jobs, or real part-time
jobs, and still work at our music and our dreams. Many dont.
When I was 19 I worked in a factory. I refused to work full time,
I told them I would only work part time. All my friends had cars,
I didnt drive till 22, I would not sacrifice the time it
took to make money to support a car. I worked 4 hours at the factory,
and spent it all on bus fare and to pay for my lessons in New
York City. I spent the rest of the time studying and practicing.
I still have my notebooks where I kept my practice schedules.
I was obsessive. All my money went to pay for my lessons. When
friends wanted me to hang out with them, the answer was usually,
"no, I have to practice". It was always guitar first,
everything else second.
I don't know if you have to be as extreme as I was (and am),
but I think you need to be at least halfway like that. Anyone
who says they want to be a professional guitarist, and is not
practicing their instrument at least 3 hours a day is just kidding
themselves. (If you are just using guitar to accompany yourself
singing, that is different. Learn a few chords, and get rich!).
However you do it, the only thing that is certain is that you
are going to meet obstacles, perhaps many of them. And the first
and most important thing you need to overcome these obstacles
is Desire and Willpower. After that, then, yes, be concerned with
the tools of the trade.
What the tools of the trade will be for you is impossible for
me to say. It would be ridiculous for me to tell you spend
2 hours a day on scales, and 2 hours improvising, etc. How do
I know what is inside of you that should come out? You have to
answer that. Look at all the kinds of professional musicians out
there, from Willie Nelson to Yngwie Malmsteen. The only thing
all these types of professionals have in common is that they found
their way to what they loved, and they kept on doing it! You wont
necessarily find any similarities in terms of their training.
What artists do you love? That will probably tell you what direction
you want to move in. Find out what those artists did. Obviously,
if you want to play like Yngwie, it will take a lot more practice
than playing like Willie.
How much should you practice a day? As long as it takes to be
able to do what you want to do. I had to practice from 3 to 8
hours a day, and do other studying besides. Maybe you have to
do enough to learn to play a bunch of songs and sing them, or
maybe you have to learn to play rock lead guitar. No matter what
you learn, you will have to go about delivering what you do to
other people, and having them pay you for it.
Understand this, its not like you reach some level of ability,
and all of a sudden paychecks start appearing in your mailbox!
Or, just because you all of a sudden play like Hendrix and somebody
calls you up and offers you a job. You will have to go out and
make it for yourself in any case. If you dont
have incredible willpower and perseverance, you probably wont
be able to make it.
It is very important to realize that success as a musician is
very unlike success in other professions. If you want to be a
doctor or lawyer, the career path is pretty clear, difficult perhaps,
but clear. Go to school, study hard, take a bunch of tests, hang
up your shingle or go to work for a hospital or firm. For a musician,
there is no one path. You can put together your own mixture of
activities and pursuits that will enable you to make enough money
to live.
You can mix and match any number of possibilities to have some
kind of life as a musician. I will describe a few "routes"
I have seen people take. Knowing which route you are going to
take will help you know what it is you need to learn....
1) go to a music school, get a degree. Set up a private teaching
practice AND do playing gigs, and make your living that way. While
supporting yourself, you may still pursue a dream of success in
some area of the music biz, so you may be busy writing, recording,
performing original material. If you do so, it will cost money
and time, and if you do something like get married and have kids,
you are going to have a harder time making that dream come true.
2) go to a music school, get a real job teaching music in a school
and do side playing. All the things mentioned in #1 apply, but
people who take this route are usually looking for a more "normal"
life, like one that has benefit packages like a real job, so they
are less likely to be doing adventurous things like pursuing a
career as an artist, but, it has been done.
3) do what people like Angus Young, Stevie Ray, Willie Nelson,
and hundreds and probably thousands of other musicians do: decide
that you MUST be a musician, start doing it, and dont stop.
Love it, need it, be good, and get better as you go along. This
route may or may not involve going to music school, but it will
definitely involve going to the school of life.
For myself,I put together my own route. I never attended music
school, but I studied with many of the professors who taught in
them. I put together what I felt I needed as I went along. With
the internet, you have the greatest learning resource ever, and
the greatest access to what you need to fulfill any goal you have.
When I was young, it took me two years to even meet anyone who
played classical guitar, much less taught it!
If you feel you are starting late, well, that is one of those
"obstacles" I was talking about. It is never too late
to BEGIN to move in a direction that feels good to you. There
is always, at any moment, a "step in the right direction"
for any of us, from where we are. Take it.
I started guitar at 14, and didn't start classical until 17.
That may sound young to you, believe me, for someone who wanted
to play like Segovia, that is VERY late. The world is full of
19 year old virtuosos! It took everything I had to overcome a
late start, not to mention the incomplete training when I did
begin classical.
There is a great story in the spiritual literature that is very
applicable here. A spiritual aspirant asked his teacher when
will I see God. His teacher took him down to the river,
and shoved his head underneath the water, and held it there. When
he finally let his head up, the student was gasping for air. The
teacher asked him what were you thinking about that whole
time? The student said air, air, give me air!
The teacher told him when your desire and need for God is
that strong, you will see Him.
Do you get the point? The teacher was trying to convey the intense
level of desire that must be there in order to achieve something
profound. The world is full of people who say they want different
things, but not so full of people willing to do what is really
necessary to get them.
When you want to be a professional musician, (which
means someone who makes their living, in whole or part, playing
music), badly enough, you will do it, you will figure it out,
and you will tough it out. If you never reach that point, you
will either forget about it and stop talking about it, or you
will remain stuck, and live with some degree of torment about
it.
I wish I could make it sound easy, but it usually isnt,
and it certainly wasnt for me. Now, I am a demanding type.
I have known other people who took routes that seemed to be smoother
than mine ever was. It all depends on exactly what you want.
Let me leave you with this thought: there are two types of future.
One is called Fate, and one is called Destiny. Fate is what happens
when you are not creatively involved in shaping your future, because
you are not creatively involved in living your present. Notice
how fate is related to fatal, as in death,
which is the opposite of being alive.
Destiny is the opposite. Destiny is what you find when you follow
your truth. Fate is for cowards ruled by their fears, and Destiny
is for heroes, moved by their desire and courage.The path to either
of these futures requires your effort, but only Destiny requires
your conscious effort. Fate happens by itself.
When we allow Fate to be the future that waits for us, we are
no good to ourselves or anyone else. When we create our Destiny
by following our truth, we fulfill the very reason for being here
in the first place.
GuitarPrinciples.com - A site aimed at showing players how to reach their next level
of playing ability, no matter what level they are currently at.
This is done by teaching how to practice to get results, by using
the principles of correct practice for guitar. It is also the
perfect start for beginners, because it shows how to begin learning
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Copyright 2002 by Jamie Andreas. All Rights Reserved.
Free Download - 17 Essential Strum Patterns PDF
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