Special Project 03

Guitar Craft is not a Tuning

Principles are universal. Application is particular.

If you come to me for guitar lessons, you get Guitar Craft. Or, more accurately, you get me. And with that comes whatever, in 29 years, I have internalized from Guitar Craft and assimilated into my own understanding. With people who come specifically for Guitar Craft, either at courses, or in Guitar Circle-related local events, or in private lessons, we can be very upfront about all aspects of what that means. There is a body of extant work, writings, recordings, and websites that can all be accessed with ease, as well as players with a certain visibility who have a GC background to look to. So while the reality of that work can be something of a shock, the ideas behind everything from the most basic principles of body mechanics to the seemingly arcane notions of the “Guitarist Inside” are all out there and available, and people who sign up for that have a notion that they are letting themselves in for something different from what they have experienced elsewhere.

But GC students only accounts for a small part of my practice. Most people I work with have never heard of Guitar Craft. They are not looking for a life path, and they are certainly not interested in adopting a brand new tuning that no one they know or might play with uses.

The beauty of this situation is that it serves as an extremely efficient bullshit filter for me. I used to get in trouble from calling Crafty Guitarists out when I felt they were using Guitar-Craft-isms rather than thinking for themselves. Truth be told, I am not immune. I’ve mellowed a bit in my advancing years; I think. But with my OST students, it is not an option. We have no shared jargon to fall back on in place of thinking. Well, we do, but it is the vulgate. If I need to share something I have learned in Guitar Craft, I need to use my own words. Unless I can express what I see with complete authority, coming directly from my own experience, it is just so much yammering, and my typical student has a low yammering threshold. They just want to play this chord/lick/song better. However, when I can speak from within my own authority, there is an opening. What I have learned from Guitar Craft becomes available to someone who has no idea, and may never have any idea, that there is even such a thing as Guitar Craft.

And there is the key. If Guitar Craft were a tuning, nothing I have gained in Guitar Craft would be of use to any of these other students. But Guitar Craft is not a tuning. The tuning is a tool. Within the work of the Guitar Circle, it is a point of agreement; it is part of our mode of work. But it is not, itself, Guitar Craft. Guitar Craft works on and through the musician, not the tool. If the principles are authentic, they can be applied to all things.