Wisdom in music

Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, make me beautiful within, and grant that what-ever happens outside of me will help my soul to grow. May I always be aware that true wealth lies in wisdom, and may my “gold” be so abundant that only a wise man can lift and carry it away. For me that is prayer enough.

– Socrates

For a number of years now I have wrestled with the question,’ what direction should my work in music take?’ The Internet is absolutely awash with people showing you every conceivable guitar solo, song or technique and the idea of adding more to this maelstrom in that way is rather a waste of time.

Nowadays there are more guitar teachers than people wanting to learn or certainly seems like that! One thing that keeps me interested in the subject of teaching music is the step beyond the technical, song; the stuff that people normally get hooked up on, in other words it is the wisdom behind it all. What is it that pervades the mind of a great musician? Whether that is a Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Andre Segovia, Paganini, JS Bach, Art Tatum or Duke Ellington, really all the stuff that they did is not significant to us unless we can unpack it, not the knowledge but of the wisdom of what they do. The wisdom can manifest in many ways beyond the song, whereas concentrating on the knowledge does not, which is what I see mostly, it seems to confine us.

Now this is not a criticism of people that are already out there but more a critique in the way we think, that we learn in a system which has been foisted on us by the education system and society at large. We cannot possibly learn greatness in that way just filling one’s head with stuff because it does not answer the question of how do we arrive at the genius level which often happens at a very young age. Notwithstanding the 10,000 hour rule, wisdom is the thing that creates something exciting and something new that expresses something deep down and that can often very early in an artist’s career.

At this point if you are finding it difficult to draw the comparison between knowledge and wisdom think it is simply expressed that knowledge tells us that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom tells us not to put in a fruit salad.  Learning music from that perspective gives us great insight into the musicians and the art form and the knowledge and the technique is purely a toolkit to express that and that is where the practice comes in developing the toolkit.

Socrates states another good point here when he refers to wanting to be beautiful within and for the gods to grant whatever happens outside to help that interiority to grow, that interiority is where the wisdom resides.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk the music summer school in Kent UK