The following writings were all made while I was dying, and hopelessly trapped in a single never ending moment. I was extremely malnourished as my body emaciated itself. My mind was pretty far out there. They can appear extreme and even insane at times, but I am sure that there is a lot of truth and understanding to be had in reading them and understanding them. They describe my experience with music as I perceived it, and as I produced it, at that time. It was the desperacy of my condition that enabled me to evolve musically. When your time is up, and every moment might be your last, you have nothing to lose, so you finally evolve. I was not applying myself previously, so the universe gave me a reason to, by removing my time.
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I am writing this piece for those who wish to learn to play the guitar, but don't want to spend a lot of time learning music theory, scales, and how to read and write music. None of that matters unless you wish to learn to play music that is the creation of another person. All of my material is geared towards learning to play the guitar with the sole intention of expressing "Self". What "Self" you choose to express, is the question. Each "Self" of yours sounds unique. Rather than setting a structure to follow, I will instead explain the nature of the aspects of playing that I see when I play.
Personally, my music ranges from very fast and intense, to slow and crippling depression. That's a huge range. But in order to accommodate it, I focus on the highest speed always. This is because it is far easier to slow down to hit a note, than it is to speed up to hit a note, should the tempo change. More importantly is the way that it affects the feel of the flow of energy applied to the musical phrase being expressed. So the focus of my writing will be geared towards the goal of playing very fast, and the physical techniques that aid in the mastery of it. But if you wish play the role of another with your music by playing the music of others, this site is not what you are looking for. This is intended only for those who wish to be unique and express their genuine Self. I will add to and edit this post.
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I was listening to a recording of a live performance that I gave at The Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco years ago. The song was Crossing the Line, the way I used to play it live back then. It differs from the original multi-tracking because I was performing alone. And in the instrumental version of the chorus near the end of the performance, I can clearly hear three distinctive characteristics of the guitar playing. As I am moving the energy in a pattern across my guitar (1st), I am also fluttering that pick along the strings as I ride them (2nd), which is coming from a different perspective. In addition, I am also driving strikes in a pattern that expresses the beat, but instead of taps, they are partial strums of the strings that fall within the other two previous perspectives (3rd). So, there are three different methods of expression that are all played together at the same time, and the idea is to balance them and to either mesh the three and force them together, which usually produces unique signatures, or to keep each of the three basic enough to leave room to easily blend them. But personally, by insisting on melding them together by force, I often obtain the intricately detailed and seamlessly interwoven melodies without the need for detailed composition. The best way to achieve this kind of multi-layered playing, would be to become very comfortable with each of the individual methods of expression so much so that they become a natural method of expression for you. Then blend them, weaving in and out of them to greater and greater depths, always retreating back out to the initial method of expression. It is actually easier if you just focus on playing each of the methods of expression by "feel" as you merge them together in your performance. You will find yourself at times, sounding out the primary feel of the musical expression, by dropping one or more methods of expression to fulfill a dominant sound requirement. And that is probably the best focus to have - what is - at this point in the music - the dominant sound expression the feel of the song. That sound might come from more than one method of expression, due to meshing.I see the meshing as a time when I must really crank up my speed to fulfill all of the requirements, quickly enough as to be perceived as simultaneous. And often, it actually is simultaneous. You will astonish yourself as you pursue this.*** END OF MORE RECENT UPDATE 01/31/22 ***
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I want to start this out with a quick mention of a feature that you may be familiar with on a piano, in order to illustrate a concept. You play a short melody on the piano. A small phrase of notes. The notes themselves are somewhat dry. They ring for as long as you hold the key down. You can depress the keys with varying types of attack, so-as to give a little texture to the notes. But, if you press and hold down the right foot peddle under the piano, all of the dampeners are removed and the notes will continue to ring. The peddle becomes the center of control over a much broader range of sound. Rather than thinking of notes as a single fixed thing, see them in their complete range of possible expression on your instrument. Now, really good pianists flow over the keys, driving the energy this way and that, and they will use the peddles to control the delivery of the complete range of sound that they intend to express. Now let's move on to the guitar. You have the ability to let the strings ring in all of their glory from every strike that you deliver. And you use the outside side of the palm of your hand as your dampener. It performs the same function as that peddle on the piano that allowed the strings to ring continuously, to dampen them, or to shape sound to deliver expression. This last one is what you are really interested in mastering. And this mastery comes from repeated performances of the musical expression utilizing these skills, as each time that you perform it is a unique variation that fills the pool of your experiences. And the larger the pool of experiences becomes, the greater the gravity it will have upon all future performances, because this gravity expands into another dimension of self, filled with that common self that is you in each of the individual performances. But this new dimension of self is a self by which your previous experience of being might be seen as but a single facet of a far fuller self. This level of self is moving energy through and across your guitar. You will become sensitive on the edge of your hand as to how finely the interaction is affecting your delivery as your hand moves along the strings. You will eventually feel yourself "pushing" the energy along with the edge of your hand. But of course, to get the feeling of moving energy, you must be using a closed system in order to build up the density of the energy so that it is malleable, and this is why I use the sign of infinity pattern, laid out sideways along the neck of my guitar. This pattern makes available to me, the full range of sound over all of the strings. And as you pick up energy with this pattern, you begin to see the ease with which you can drop individual notes and chords wherever you want within the pattern. Reaching this stage should give you all of the confidence that you will need to boldly set out to express your self, uniquely, and in a way that no-one else has ever done before.
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Focusing your energy on the fastest strikes upon the string(s) acts as a medium where you can generate energy. You get your strikes going fast, faster, and faster yet. You back off some, then pulse the energy out again as you intensify the strikes upon the strings. You keep pulsing the strikes out as fast as you smoothly can, and intensify it until you can actually feel the energy flowing through your pulsing patterns of strikes. When you can feel and control of the energy that you are creating, you are ready to start moving that energy around.
I found the sign of infinity to be the most natural pattern to use as a foundation. This exercise is also an energy generator. For this exercise, we will not be focusing on fast strikes, but rather on the slide-picking that I utilize as I strum out the pattern across the strings of my guitar. I super-impose the sign of infinity along the strings of my guitar and I see it as kind of a race track, where I can increase momentum and inertia as I round the curves of the sign of infinity pattern. The pick is a bit like a blade gliding along the surface of the strings. A blade that carves out energy from the strings and carries that energy along with it. You sweep from the upper end of the strings down diagonally across the length of the fret-board to the lower end of the strings, where you start rolling the pick over as you round the curve at the end. There, you use the centrifugal force from your sweep along the curve as a booster that propels you down and across the strings again for the return. But as you pass the cross-over point in the middle, you roll the pick over to carry the energy across the strings in preparation to swing around the near end, at this point in the cycle. You will find that your pick will interact with the energy flow like an oar in the water, or your hand, out the window of a car on the freeway. The curvature of the pick can greatly enhance the flow of energy, or degrade it. You intentionally utilize both in the way that you manipulate the flow of energy So, as you perform this exercise, you need to focus on the feel of the sliding action as you move the pick along the strings. You focus your slides until you can feel the energy that you are moving through the guitar. You can best get a grip on it if you focus on rounding the curves of the pattern of infinity. When you can feel and control the energy that you are generating as you perform these sweeps across the strings, you are now ready for the next step.
In addition to all variations of speed in picking, and the pulsing of strikes, there is yet another layer that you can utilize in your picking as you start flowing energy of self out into the guitar. This is best achieved utilizing a conical pattern of energy whose edge rides the strings, and across which you deliver a solid blow or flutter of strikes upon each revolution of the conical flow of energy. When using this pattern, you can utilize sliding and slicing actions of the pick in addition to picking strikes. Experiment with what part of the cone delivers the strike. Quicker strikes would occur at the narrow end of the cone because it is spinning faster. You can easily redirect the flow from the sideways figure 8 pattern into a conical flow and back again. And the conical energy flow can be of any size and placement across the guitar strings. Note that this pattern may be introduced and removed after use, meaning that you can tailor the movement for self-expression. That is, you can use it at specific placements for short duration rather than utilizing it all the way through the song.
The next step requires focus on a different level. Note that in the previous level, the focus was on learning to generate and control energy as you move it through your guitar with your strikes upon the strings. In both examples of energy generators, note that you are the source of the energy. And also note, that you have infinite energy to draw upon. And I do mean that literally. In this next level, the focus is on learning to balance the two sample energy generators so that we can use them together to give more depth to our self-expression with our guitar. You are already accustomed to the feel of each of the energy generators; the pulsing of super-fast strikes upon the strings, and the energy generated with your sweeps through the sign of infinity pattern. In this next level of focus, you perform them simultaneously. Do not be concerned with accuracy for the moment. Just jump right into performing both at once and slosh around the flow of energy generated by each until you can feel a sort of balancing act and sense an enveloping flow of energy, of which, each are part. Focus on this enveloping flow of energy and work to smooth out and balance its component flows of energy, until you can control it.
In the next step, expand your awareness to include strong emotions, as you continue to play. Allow these emotions to affect the way that you express this flow of energy. Experimenting with this will allow you to utilize this flow of energy to create recognizable sounds of specific emotional effect. After you have a strong foundation of self built by realizing those selves in your playing, you will start developing style. But let it develop on its own naturally, and always focus on actual self-expression in each performance. Note that these exercises are simply to get you to where you can experience the feeling of expressing your self in this way and introduce you to the infinite all-original material at your disposal. In the next level, we focus on layers.
When playing guitar, the focus should not be on notes. You should see the music as layers of activity to be performed altogether.
First you have the underlying melody. This will be the constant and is usually the backdrop against which, all other layers add their form to the melody. This is not simply the beat. This underlying melody provides the basic structure for the song.
In the next layer, you have musical phrases, or sets of notes, that you play in a certain way to characterize the emotional content of the song. You should view the way that these sets of notes are played as the physical medium through which you express more exacting expressions representing the emotional state of being expressed in the song. They are often basic or elemental patterns. But it is the WAY in which you play them that gives them that feel that expresses what you are feeling inside. You may play a specific musical phrase with certain notes on certain strings in your initial composition. Then you may go back and locate several alternate notes and strings that you can use, and in so doing, discover that they represent different aspects of your self, as experiencers of the same emotional state, and that there are infinite others available by the slightest variations in the way that you texture the notes of the phrase as you play. You learn to balance these as you play. You also come to realize that you are weaving your way through them each time that you perform your song.
The next layer deals with harmonics. Harmonics are additional strikes played, often only slightly ringing and not hard notes. They are usually layered across the strings with your super-fast strikes as you sweep across the strings or make quick-shifting, staccato chord changes in your melody. These are not calculated in their placement. These you "feel" as you layer out the energy across the strings. Yes, you must get used to channeling the energy into your guitar, but also you must get used to the "feel" of doing it in simultaneously applied layers. Depending on how you texture the energy across the strings, you can generate a great number of harmonics in a particular phrase. Many of these soft or partial, notes, when ringing together, functionally, add whole notes to the sound. There are no directions or techniques to learn to do this. All that is required is intent and complete control of flowing the energy through your guitar. Getting used to playing these layers simultaneously is not as complicated as it might sound. Don't think of these as directions and see it as introducing you to trusting your own instincts, and realize that you CAN embody all of the phases at the same time because they are all ALREADY a part of you. Each of these layers represent a perspective of playing that comes from YOU. They are ALL YOUR perspectives. So, holding them all in your consciousness during the same period of time should be simply a matter of focus. But it is far easier to do if you focus on just being the enveloping flow of which they are all a part. Consciously BEing at this level actualizes a Self that is you in a multi-dimensional capacity. As this level of Self, musical self-expression is as natural as the co-ordination required to walk, because it is really just a matter of coordinating parts of your self that you utilize in your everyday expression of Self.
Feel the complete emotional content of the music and channel it into your guitar and vocals. I find that I cannot adequately express myself with only guitar or vocals. I must have both to express what is inside. Also, I notice that they support each other. I find for example, that when I am singing, I am channeling more energy of my expression of self to my vocals. That affects the dynamics of the guitar part at those times. I can feel that the guitar part of my self-expression is weaker and so compensate with my vocals to make it all sound good. And when I am not singing, there is nothing to balance and I can push all of the energy into my guitar.
Now, trying to work your way up to balancing these layers of activity, in addition to generating enough speed to do all of it at once, might seem like a daunting undertaking. And I suppose it would be, if approached from the perspective that it is daunting. So, let's not approach it that way. Your first focus before learning any significant structures of notes, should be on speed. Pure speed, transformed from pure raw power. This raw power can be raw emotional energy channeled directly into your striking hand which uses it to create a driving flurry of strikes across the strings. You experiment and get the feel of widening and narrowing the spread of the strikes upon the strings so that you can focus it all on a single string, or a few strings, or all of the strings. You also experiment with the speed of the strikes by driving the speed up higher and pausing, then driving it up again, and repeating. Experiment with the "feel" of moving the energy that is driving the music through the guitar. Keep your wrist, arm and shoulder loose so that you can easily "flow" with the music as you channel it. Imagine a basic "sign of infinity" pattern super-imposed across the length of the fret-board and focus on feeling and learning to control the flow of energy that you are creating. This is a good starting point for getting the feel of the flow, You can quickly feel what it is like to flow energy with this pattern.
Personally, I recommend that songs be expressed from a specific self, in a specific set of circumstances, in a specific state of being. Notice that when you play, you can feel that the exact way that that you texture the notes varies each time that it is played because the dynamics are unique each time that you play. What you call "I" is constantly changing. In each and every moment of your being, you ARE unique. You will also likely want to express yourself in a way where others will want to listen to you. There are many ways to express a combination of feelings. Some will be direct basic tonal and melodic representations of the physical effect of the emotions. Examples would be a driving bass line, or heavy back-beat, or a regulated pulse. In some cases, this might be thought of as the beat. Some might be a sea of flourishes or a woven pair or trio of melodies. I have many versions of my songs recorded in various keys, played in varying ways, but ALL are ME. Me, performing my emotional display at differing moments within my linearly viewed continuum of moments perceived as this life that I am living. Likewise, YOU have infinite selves that are you. Selves that are the embodiment of every other self that you chose not to embody as representing "you" in your next moment of being along this linear perspective that you know as your life. Some of my selves are fiery and defiant. Some are broken and hopeless. Some are cool. Some are not. Choose the noblest way to keep moving forward in each and every moment as you exercise what you have learned, and remain loyal and honest with yourself.
I must point out that I never see a song as having a "right" way to play it. There are infinite ways to play them all. To me, these other ways already exist, right along side the way that I play it in the "here and now" of any given performance. I am simply weaving, sliding and nudging my way through them all, resulting in the exact way in which it is played for a given performance. If you can see the music from that perspective, your creativity will be limitless.
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The first thing to do is to get a book of chords. Any book that tells you which strings to press, and where to press them to make a chord, will do. Some of these books are quite thick. But you do not need to worry about that. You need only learn the basic "open" major chords. There is a chord pattern for each of the 7 notes in western music. You only need to learn those 7 basic chord patterns. Be aware that the way that you use your fingers to depress the strings between the frets may well change as you become more comfortable with the guitar. This is because the "open" patterns that you learn, are executed with different fingering than "bar" chords use. The concept of "bar" chords might best be clarified by looking at the last or bottom fret on the guitar, way down there by the tuning keys. That last fret, with the grooves that hold the strings in their places ... that thing ... that is what you are simulating when you make a "bar" chord. You place your index finger across the strings and then form the shape of an "open" chord after it with the remaining fingers. Your index finger which forms the "bar" basically says "the fret in front of me is the last fret of the guitar" ... as if IT is the last fret with the grooves holding the strings in place. This results in all of the strings being shorter in length as they vibrate to make the tones, and that increases pitch, which places you in a higher register of sounds (a higher key in music-speak). Personally, I tend to use the same fingers for the open chords that I use when I make "bar" chords. That way, I don't have to switch my grip around on my guitar as I move up and down the fret-board, from the "open" position to the highest frets. Note also, that a "bar" chord can be made more than one way. You can place your index finger over the strings, followed by the "open chord" pattern. Or, you could grab the neck of the guitar like a golf club, with your index finger only holding down the two bottom strings, and the thumb wrapped around the top of the neck so that it covers the top bass string(s). This is easier with a guitar with a thin neck. I might also point out that I prefer a thin maple neck fret-board with a thick laquer finish. My fingers are much more agile on this type of fret-board than on a rosewood fret-board. The rosewood fret-board is typically raw wood, which your fingers stick to more when playing. The thick laquer finish on the maple fret-board is slicker and easier to slide across. This is very useful for speed and comfort when playing.
First off, understand that when you play the guitar, you are expressing your "Self". Also keep in mind that your "Self" has infinite perspectives which might be expressed. Not all are melodic or sound really cool, yet they are valid expressions of your "Self". Sometimes, you will feel and be low on energy, listless, defeated, or whatever, and the expression, though it expresses a sad "Self", expresses "Self" all the same. All aspects of "Self" exist for you and for everyone else.
Your playing will excel if you see it from the following perspective. Every note that you ever play will ring forever. All can observe all that you ever do. There is nowhere to hide and practice. Everyone will hear every note that you ever play. They will hear every mistake that you make. Knowing this will compel you to forge forward, confident that you will rise out of sheer honest expression of self. And they will hear every cool sound that you make as well. But, what others think does not matter when expressing yourself. It is not about them. You are expressing your genuine self, and that comes only from within. If you don't like the sound that you are hearing when you play, then you must focus harder. Drive more energy into the string(s) and shake that string. Drive that note with increasing intensity until you can feel it resonating with the feeling that you are trying to express.I found it necessary to split the energy flowing through me into two forms. One being channeled though a continuous succession of extremely fast up and down strikes upon the strings. The other pulsating that speed and displaying emotional expressions with the strikes by moving them across the strings in sweeps of energy, designed to express the emotion of the song. Force yourself on track through sheer will power. I WILL keep intensifying that note, or those notes, until it sounds and feels the way that I feel in what I am trying to express. And you keep focused on that leading edge of the sound. It is an interactive process. A perspective similar to steering a car. As you drive down the road, you move the wheel slightly left and slightly right constantly to keep the car in the middle of the lane. There are bumps and grooves in the road that affect the steering of the car, so you constantly have to adjust the wheel ever so slightly, to keep the car relatively straight. You learn not to panic and over-compensate. When you are playing and trying to get your guitar to make the sound that feels the way you feel, you apply whatever force is needed, from whichever perspective, as you play. You "force" the feeling into the guitar through sheer will and determination. There is no procrastinating. There is no later. There is no practicing. There is only "do it now". Never accept the concept of "practicing". Each and every time that you play IS a performance, whether there is an audience, or not. That will help keep you honest with yourself, which is important if you want to sound truly awesome. And it will keep you focused and driven.
When one is first learning to play, one will typically strike a string once for each note. If you want to learn how to play fast, you should not focus on single strikes. You should first strike out to master playing as fast as you possibly can. Determine which grip on the pick allows the fastest up and down strikes on a string and just get a fast rhythm of up and down strikes going. Then start to pulse that effect. Push more energy into the strikes to drive the speed up even faster, then slow back down to middle-fast. Then push it a little further with the next pulse and so on. You start to get the feel of how to pulse energy out across and into the strings in this manner. Never accept an upper end of capacity for your speed. Always see it as an ever-changing flow. It may fluctuate, but it can ultimately be infinitely slow or infinitely fast. You must establish the ability to play fast with actual experiences of doing so. But it does not mean that everything that you play will be at a fast tempo. However, it DOES mean that the faster you play, the cooler the slower stuff is going to sound, when you play it. This is because you will be so fast that you find plenty of time to either "fill in" certain areas with "flourishes", or cut the notes with a really cool edge to them.
Before you begin to play, you should decide what it is that you feel that you wish to express. I personally, was in an extreme state of being when I began to express my "Self". I had a terminal disease and was well past my life expectancy. So I expected each day to be my last, which preventing me from being able to plan anything beyond "right now". The past and future no longer existed for me. I was trapped in one long single moment that just preceded my expected death. On top of that, I met a young lady that destroyed my remaining Self. I was driven by pain and rage, and being trapped forever in the current moment, all of that went into my music. It is unlikely that you are in such an extreme state of being as you read this. But if you are in such a state, use that energy to expand your awareness of what you are creating as you play. It would be foolish to put yourself in such a state just to learn to play guitar. But it is also unnecessary. With just a little understanding, you can have an infinite sea of unique material available for your own Self-expression.
When I play, I am channeling energy into my guitar. I am channeling energy of Self. The way that I do that follows. First of all, I identify my Self as the expressor of the song. I am a certain version of myself, in a specific situation, who feels a specific way. I embody that person in an alternate reality, so I reach out to that version of "me" and "pull" the life force from that reality into my current moment(s), thus engaging this reality from the perspective of the reality being expressed, and with the same level energy as that one. This energy provides the driving force to utilize when expressing my sounds. The next step is to convert that energy into physical reality in the form of sound waves. Having previously "blown out all the stops" with speed, I confidently channel energy into my picking hand, and explode with appropriate bursts of picking, slicing, slamming, and what have you. Now to me, the fret-board is a bit like a cinematic screen. As my fingers dance across the fret-board, I am painting the story of my experience before my very eyes. It is not in the form of tangibles in this reality, of course. But I can see as well as feel the emotional content of my states of BEing at the time of the origin of the song.
Your striking hand with the pick, is the hand that you push the energy into the guitar with. The fingering hand is the hand that determines the pitches of sound to be generated. When you speak, your mouth forms the words, but the voice comes from the lungs and larynx. Whereas the fingering hand could be viewed as the the words expressed, the energy-wielding picking hand is the force that generates the voice and gives it its power and characteristics.
You should start by tapping the melody into the strings as you strike. When you do this, a single note may be a single strike, or it may be a section of the melody that is all represented by that note. The notes carve out the reality that you present, but there is ample room for variation. Besides, it is the drive that goes into the melody, that gives it its persona. The drive depends on how the pulse of energy is delivered, when physically manifested as strikes upon the strings. It may start and stop abruptly. Or it might rise and fall in a pulse. Or it could even be an even and constant oscillation. Underneath this, you may be fluttering the pic swiftly, as you are tapping out the melody. This gives fuller definition to what you are playing.
I think that the most critical thing to get across about picking, is that it is multi-layered. It is not just a matter of up and down strikes. There are other perspectives that provide greater depth to the action.
When you press the physical limits of your playing speed, the mechanics start to change. It is quite astonishing to observe, really. When you surpass the physical limitations of your picking speed, thru sheer intensity of will, the process can change into a different physical process right before your eyes, so to speak. The way that you drive the energy changes. The way that you give it form changes. The way that your fingers interact with the strings changes. All together, it becomes a state of BEing.
One good way to get your creative juices going is to strum the sign of infinity into the guitar. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is like a figure "8" rolled over on its side like two "o"s next to each other. It is such an easy and natural feeling pattern to maintain as you strum it across the full length of the guitar neck. Like two tear drops whose pointy ends meet in the middle, that is the crossing point where you roll the pick over for the return strum along the strings in the other direction. You turn the pic over as you form the curves across the strings, which also expresses motion, and this gives even greater dimension to the sound. But if you want to be fast, you should perform this while fluttering the pick super fast as you wind through the strumming of the sign of infinity at a slower steady rhythm. Do not be shy. Let the strings ring. Feel the full measure of sound at your disposal to express your Self. You can always use the outside edge of your striking hand to mute the strings either partially or fully, and with light or heavy dampening, in select places to help shape the sound. But do experiment with the sounds of motion that you can create for they are what really carry the music.
Becoming familiar with this pattern will give you a confident feel of where all of the strings are all of the time. You won't have to look to make sure you are striking the right string. You will also have a natural feel for where a certain pitch is to be found on the fret-board. Moreover, you will find infinite abbreviations for the sign of infinity pattern, that you will utilize in your picking, striking, strumming, slamming, etc., when expressing your Self. These will be key elements of your personal "style".
Have fun with your picking and strumming. Act like you are painting. As you brush your pick along the strings, you are spreading and contouring energy patterns along and through them. Picture it as if you are actually painting on a canvas. Have fun with it. Give it full sweeps. Abbreviate the seeps in various ways. Create vortices that you can pull along the fret-board. The motions are endless and easy to contour from one into another. In fact, if you focus on the contouring of one motion into another, you will discover all kinds of cool and unique effects. Do not be overly concerned with notes at this stage. Just use any appropriate set of tones for a basic pattern to sweep across and move energy over. Focus on how to effectively move the energy across the strings for strong, cool effect. Missing notes is not significant. Losing the momentum IS. So stay true to the flow of energy. Realize that you control these patterns, and the way in which you control them IS your expression of Self for that performance. And you are the final editor. You make the last inflection of expression before the actual performance of the expression. Do NOT focus on your own personal physical self as the persona presented in the song. Feel the energy of the self that you are channeling and express your Self from THAT perspective.
I notice that when I am playing, as I strum across the strings, I can feel the flourish of energy that I am expressing as I push it out across the strings. Sometimes, the initial energy applied feels slightly inadequate to carry the sound as it is intended, so I quickly follow with a smaller, backup, supplemental strike or strum to add to the momentum, so that it feels adequate again. This simple corrective technique is applied all throughout my playing. The more I focus on getting the fullest expression of self possible, the more prevalent these corrections become, the more they reveal themselves to be the essential components of my own personal style.
You may notice pauses in my strumming. This occurs because I have just played all the notes for that section of time a bit faster than usual, in a shorter time span, due to the way that I chose to flow with the energy as I played, on this particular occasion. I see the music as an artistic flourish and an expression of "self". So I seem to pause ever so briefly here and there as I shape the notes into a specific sound. And when I jump in again, it is usually with another sweep and jump right back into the flow and I wiggle into alignment.
How do you know what to play, you may ask. Where do I begin? First off, stop focusing on the notes that will make the melody. Focus on the picking and strumming aspects because they provide the real persona. The notes chosen are somewhat incidental since the same emotional content can be expressed in infinite ways. Whatever patterns of notes that you choose for the layout of the song, all of the emotion that goes into those notes, come from the picking/strumming hand.
You may observe me pick notes out perfectly as I sweep across the strings and you probably figure it was due to a lot of practice. That is not correct. I would have a very difficult time trying to strike the strings very fast in the way that I do, without moving around. To me, music is motion. So I am always in motion. And the process of striking notes with the sweeps of the striking hand in perfect synchronization, with the depressing of the strings with the fingering hand, is a process of focusing the energy and shaping the sound consciously and interactively. So, my striking hand is also always moving. And the thing that it is moving to, is the flow of energy that I am layout out across and into the guitar. That energy is energy of self. I am literally putting my "Self" into the music as I play. And part of my "Self" remains in each song. Each song represents my state of being as a particular version of my self, expressing the experiences of a particular set of moments of my existence, from a specific perspective. There is energy and intensity bursting to get out of you and express itself. You release it out across your guitar with measured densities of energy shaped into the sounds that represent that state of being, in the here and now. You mold it and shape it into melodic phrases upon your guitar and in your voice.
When I play my guitar, the leading motion is the general sweeping, strumming pattern that carries the energy flow. As I play this, I tune into the feel of the flow and start to express with it by adding emphasis to certain elements of the flow. Such as, racing around the sweeping curves of the pattern like a sport car on a curve at the end of the track, and then backing off slightly when it sweeps back into itself and crosses over to sweep the other end, to give it a specific sound effect of motion (this refers to the sign of infinity pattern that I use). The chords and the partial-chords used with these sweeping patterns become the basic structure of the song. An additional layer is added by picking out a pattern of notes as I flow across the strings. These are usually simple patterns that are used. They may be individual notes, sets of notes, or patterns of sets of notes. They are sometimes used as stepping stones between chord positions, and other times, they are the defining attribute of the melody. It all depends on how I feel. I can feel the various kinds of self-expression that ring in a single note. And I can feel the various types of self-expression that ring in various partial-chord combinations of notes. And of course, I can feel them in the full chords as well. So, I have a wide range to choose from, but it is not a random choosing. It is more like the thoughts that emerge from the sub-conscious, that are vocalized. My conscious self acts as the final editor of how the expression is presented. So it is more like all of the little nuances that go into an emotional expression are refined to be appropriate for that performance. But more than anything, it feels like a balancing act. But not as a simple display. It is more like I am marshaling my forces and focusing my energy to cause a specific effect. It is conscious interaction with reality. I am putting myself out there for all to see. So this is not something that can be done without complete focus on what one is doing. There is no second-guessing. There is no time for thought. I begin and end with intent. I do not worry about what others might think of what I am doing. I am my own harshest critic. I demand perfection from myself. But perfection to me is based on dedication to accurately and artistically representing my experience of being. That is why I am not concerned with others' opinion of my music. Because I am the most qualified to judge it. They may think "well, you should really have these notes equally distributed" because they are used to commercially made music that is easily digestible for the public. I don't intend to commercialize my music and make it easily digestible. I never really thought of myself as an entertainer. In fact, it threw me off completely when others showered me with such attention. I did not play so that others would applaud me. I was not that person that they presumed me to be. My performances were therapy as far as I was concerned. Sort of like AA meetings where everyone gets together to tell their sad stories or seek redemption. I live in a different reality now. I was cured at the last possible moment and have a much brighter outlook on life now. But what I learned from my experience still needs to be shared for the benefit of others, should life become such a painful and hopeless experience for them. Hence my production of my story, The Dark Star (The Extra-dimensional).