In the Fingerstyle 101 Facebook group, someone left a cool post the other day.
It was an image with the headline “why music?”. It’s all about why music is so powerful.
Here’s the gist of what it said with me paraphrasing some of the thoughts mentioned:
Music is math – because it’s all based on rhythm and sub-dividing beats.
Music is Physical Education – because it requires coordination, precise movements, and finger dexterity.
Music is history – because it’s one of the oldest forms of communication and has been ever-present throughout much of our evolution.
Music is art – because it allows us to share emotions and passion.
Music is life – that’s why our hearts have beats.
Music is science – as it’s created through acoustics, soundwaves, and technology.
Music is reading – because it requires us to see notation and process it mentally before we begin to play it.
I would also add that music is brain training, as it requires different parts of the mind to control memory and process sounds, etc.
I’ve often joked over the years people don’t really need brain training apps – 10 minutes of playing guitar is as powerful. If not, more so.
The guitar is also a communication tool as it’s a way of expressing emotion and sharing our feelings of joy, sadness, and hope with others.
We’ve all experienced this if our playing ever “touches” others or when you’ve seen a wonderful musician and they make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Playing guitar can also be very social and it’s a great way of learning how to plan time, and then there’s this…
Music and the guitar can be used as a way of changing the world for the better as has been shown with folk and protest music, as well as other styles over the years…
I found that really interesting, so those are my thoughts on music and why it’s so powerful.
I think we’re all pretty blessed to be guitarists and be able to go on this journey and experience all of the above.
Sometimes it’s nice to think a bit philosophically about it like this.
Anyway, one of my favourite ways to experience music on all levels is to fingerpick my guitar.
There’s lots of subtlety, beauty, simplicity, and complexity, which pretty much ticks the above boxes of what you can have when you fingerpick.
This week my course on playing fingerstyle is on sale.
You can check it out below if you like.
Find out more about the Fingerstyle 101 Video Course
I hope you enjoyed those thoughts and feel free to let me know what you think.
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. Sharon got the course the other day, and this is what she said about it:
“Just started the video course and already finding it more engaging than the non-video course that I had previously purchased. Love your down to earth clear teaching Dan. Thank you. I’m from Sydney Australia, 61 years old, played a little as a teenager, mainly a few chords, but as I can’t really sing, I always found it not very rewarding just playing chords. I’m hoping to be able to learn fingerpicking and feel more connected with the music I am trying to play”.
P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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