Craig Smith Guitar Solos: Istanbul by Craig Smith

Hearing The Music Within

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 naturally as breathing in and out, as simply as speaking. This is true with all music performance, on all instruments... and ofcourse 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. Inciadentally, 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 deceide 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 sugestions by the Scarecrow... by speach (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