As you open the book to your left, you illustratively walk into a dojo - a place of learning and discipline. Yet, there's a fun air to the book's feel and presence in your hands.
This dojo is not like an ordinary martial arts dojo - it's a guitar dojo. An already amazing premise for a book and some would say, it describes the way we should approach taking our guitars out into the world. And it gets better!
To me, to truly interact by making "beautiful and memorable connections" with those that have the listening capability beyond merely hearing, is where it's at! THAT, is the "end state" in my humble yet ardent opinion.
The work done in this book will be solely up to the individual guitarist. Yes, it can be "READ" like every other book published in the Library of Congress, but my hope is that it will be EXPERIENCED and APPLIED to each skill-set that you already have. This book will asisst you in building onto what you've already uncovered and figured out about the guitar and it's inner workings -IT WILL HELP YOU TO GET TO THAT LEVEL OF BEING AND PLAYING GUITAR THAT ALL THE ADVERTISEMENTS CLAIM TO UNVEIL ALL THOSE "SECRETS".
I can't remember who told me about this book, or where I found it or saw it first, but it's kind of like the movie "Pay It Forward" (released in 2000), it really doesn't matter so much who started the movement as it does that it CONTINUES in it's purest form for others to benefit from. That's where you and your group of friends come into the picture!
OKAY! SWEETNESS.
If you're just joining me from my previous post, quick-linked here for ya, we were discussing how so many books focus on "how" to do certain techniques or how to "play" like a specific famous guitarist, genre style or band. This book differs in that it guides you to discover "WHY" we play guitar. It's focus is on simply playing the songs you have in your heart already. If you're looking to build up you identity as a musician, this is YOUR book! Avid listeners and music fanatics about everything tonal and aural will benefit from Zen Guitar too. It's really amazing how much this book covers without even going into the HOW of guitar-playing.
As I learned of Philip's life (and all-to-early passing) through his writing style and specific stories, I began to understand and know guitar and music in a new undeniable way. Unlike books about theory and how. HOW HOW HOW?- That seems to be the age old question - it's almost like an analogy of a skill representing a door, but discovering the key to unlock the secrets behind that threshold are only for the chosen. I believe we CHOOSE to allow ourselves that gift. To seek diligently about music, or to leave it a mystery and store our instruments in their cases for years, sometimes decades. Maybe never even committing to buying that investment in the first place. I had an acquaintance tell me as i was waiting to sing the national anthem that, "If you want a secret to be kept, put it in a book". I believe that's exactly why the campaign to encourage children to read often is so strongly in effect.
ALL IN ALL:
Mastering guitar is truly a gift - to be able to connect and speak to anyone of any other language is the ultimate "Rosetta Stone". So ALLOW yourself to enter into a knowledge-base beyond the "HOW".
ALLOW it to change your musical course and success, forever. Buy this for the musician in your life that you love.
Philip T. Sudo's "Zen Guitar".
The only question left would be, what type of audience will you attract?
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