How we approach learning anything will have a huge effect on the end product, Will we walk away from the practice session frustrated or fulfilled? I am trying my best to be the latter, when i pick up the guitar now, i try to still my mind and pay respect and honour to the beautiful instrument in my hands. A book i read a number of years ago, "Zen guitar", by Philip Toshio Sudo, was very inspiring and made me look at playing music with a more Eastern Martial arts outlook. The discipline and calmness that Martial artists carry when they practice in their sport, is something we can all learn from. Having a realistic goal in mind, good material to learn from and putting aside the time to do it, is important if you want to be fulfilled in your learning experience. In my own experience and what i have seen in some of my friends, is that they finish their session frustrated and blocked up. Their expectations are either not realistic or their patience is nonexistent. So by really slowing down and understanding your own particular rate of learning, you can avoid the frustration. Reading, Dr Norman Doidge's book last year, " The Brain that Changes itself" was a real eye opener and Brain stimulator. It's a book on Neuroplasticity, and how we can relearn brain functions, when we have damage to our brains. In it each chapter he highlights an individual who has suffered serious brain damage. One woman was born with half a hemisphere and another was a Doctor who suffered from a stroke and through being very disciplined, rewired portions of his brain. After reading that book, i looked at my brain with a whole new outlook. It takes time to create new Neurone cell bodies with dendrites and an axon. So when we are learning a new song, sport,or any mental activity. We need to be really patient with ourselves. It's all too easy to conjure up our low self esteem and beat ourselves up. Thinking we are stupid and or lacking in some way. That word, "Talented "tends to divide us into the two groups, the lucky ones that have it and the rest of who are not"Talented" We all have incredible brains, that we need to appreciate. So when i pick up the guitar i try to relax and think about the joy of playing music. We play music, we don't work music.
