Playing Music is all about "How You Hear The Sound"; in your head... and coming from your instrument as you play.  The essence of music is being able to play as easily and as natural as breathing in and out, as simply as speaking.  This is true with all music performance, on all instruments... and of course in this case "The Guitar".  It's all about The Inspiration (the breathing in) and Applying The Skills one has learned (the breathing out)... and not about trying to copy the exact sound of someone else's performance, or always reading music just as it appears on paper or elsewhere, in one form or another... as for example on some website in today's world.  It is also Not About Memorizing Songs, but about "Just Being Aware of The Sound"... and following where it leads you.  Letting the music guide you from within and discovering the creative world that is yours to explore... and experience who you are as a player.

Sound is like a magnet, or like the force of gravity itself.  We hear and experience the sound of music like a compelling invisible road map, with various directions in which we can travel.  The notes and harmonies in all music can have multiple agendas that lead us "according to the way we perceive them", and this perception differs in each individual as well as also may differ each time within ourselves. It offers to the listener, and especially those who play an instrument, new journeys to take and discoveries to make as it takes us on a magical tour through the landscape of sound.  Music offers us choices of routes one can travel through this Landscape of Sound, alternatives to travel like a road map or a GPS device.  As we listen we are presented with an endless "Soundscape of Creativity" leading the listener/player to uncover and new environments in sound that are within us alone, and can only be revealed if one is brave enough to travel that uncharted path music takes us on.  Incidentally, music with lyrics restricts much of this imagination and creativity... conforming one to an idea expressed in the words not allowing the mind to explore as much of The New Territory hidden within ourselves.

Words lead us generally in only one direction, missing much... if not all the other stops along the way.  Instrumental Music is an open ended journey where we decide which way we go.  I's sort of like Dorothy in "The Wizard Of OZ", she comes to four corners, a crossroad... and is given suggestions by the Scarecrow... by speech (words). then she follows The Yellow Brick Road, and there is turning back, no other choices.

This is however how all new music, with or without lyrics, comes to be... it is discovered by those who after learning their skills by practicing all the right moves finally are able to uncover a hidden the wealth of natural resources that exist within their own minds.  That's right, "within their own minds"; the music all comes from individual inspiration... not from somewhere "out there, but from somewhere in there. While in the beginning we do generally listen to and copy what others have done, to learn and develop our techniques... we cannot stay in that comfortable place for to long if we really want to enjoy music as it was intended to be. We Must Learn To Fly Solo, venture into the unknown world of what is within ourselves. We need be set free... to discover what is within us, and has been there all along.

Craig Smith

The Age of Guitar

Most people if asked as when they think the guitar was invented, would probably answer recently... that is within the last few hundred years or so. In actuality, the history of the guitar is quite extensive. In fact, few are aware that the present day guitar is the descendant of some of the most ancient instruments often referred to as tars. The word "tar" actually means STRING in. These instruments, and the name tar, go back thousands of years to the area we have come to call "The Fertile Crescent". There are artifacts in museums around the world that prove the existence of these early guitar type instruments (some also apparently with frets), played with picks, fingers and sometimes even a bow (pointing to the tar family preceding the violin). This means not only is the guitar much older than many are aware of, but that some of our most respected instruments today might not have even come to be if not for their ancient ancestor, the tar. Keep this in mind when those who do not know say unfavorable things about your choice of an instrument... the guitar.
                                                                                                                             Craig Smith

Creativity, and the Art of Guitar

There is just something about playing the guitar that inspires creativity. Could it be that the instrument itself performs as a channel, is it in essence a direct link to that source of all that exists. We who play the guitar know the feeling. The instrument just takes you there, pick it up and you are on your way to where all things begin.
I have played the guitar for almost my entire life. During this time, I have been to that place often. When you travel this mythic journey you bring back to this world those inspirations you encounter. These are the seeds of new music, this is the creative experience... that special gift that is yours to plant and cultivate. The guitar is a tool, a means of getting there. It is like a crystal ball, a divining rod, or a magic carpet that takes you where you are suppose to go. Then you can see with your ears, that which is yours to shape as only you can... into a new piece of music. "Believing Is Seeing", or in this case "Hearing"

Tablature, the new Dark Ages for Guitar

Many people think that Tablature on the guitar is a remarkable, new way of learning to read and understand guitar. Few are aware that Tab, as it is most frequently referred to is in reality an archaic, ancient way of marking down how to play various guitar pieces. In fact... tab was eliminated as a system several hundred years ago in preference of real music notation after guitarists had suffered centuries of prejudice, and rejection from the rest of the music world (who all read regular notation).


Because guitarists were considered ill-equipped and dysfunctional to play with others something had to give eventually. This big problem in the world of guitarists was finally eliminated when guitarists became literate, studying regular notation, and creating a normal system that complied with that of all the other instrumentalists. It was only then that the guitar became accepted, and really usable in the music world.