GUITAR MUSIC

This was a hand-out given on the first day to my guitar class at Davis & Elkins College in 1992. There have been
several requests for reprints of it, so here it is. (Harvey Reid)

Guitar music is a place where the elements of rhythm, tone, emotions, harmony, melody, poetry, preparation, solitude,
friendship, intellect, physical training and spirituality all meet. It involves your spirit, your body, your heart and your
mind, and it is both a solitary and a social act. It not only offers the player the pleasure of making music, but it also
offers to the skilled the ability to actually change other people's thoughts and feelings. Just by doing something you
love to do, you can impart profound things to others and give them something they value. Those who discover that they
have this ability, who feel obliged to develop it and who use it generously, will experience a reward comprising not
only the satisfaction of the act itself, but also an abstract pleasure in sharing and communicating with others through the
language of music. There is an energy, a sense of purpose and a direction that it imparts to its practitioners that can give
a gratifying sense of meaning in what threatens to seem like a meaningless world.

Only through a lifetime of music will you experience an understanding of all the aspects of the art, but a basic awareness
and regular reminders of the existence of all these various ingredients that make up music will allow the student to
progress more quickly toward a mastery of it. There is, as always, a price to pay, and there are responsibilities that
come with having the power to change other's thoughts and feelings, and not all who set out on this learning path make
it all the way through.

The essential element in the study of music is a love of music and an appreciation of its sacredness. Music is not
something your hands or your voice do. It is not something your mind does. At its finest it is a transcendental state that
involves all parts of you, and allows you to exist on the crest of a wave, in the exact moment of the present as you
perform each part of the music. It is only there, in the present that we can truly live and have control over our lives,
since the past and future are inaccessible to us. When you are deeply involved in music and when you have control of it,
you can experience an excitement and a sense of well-being that is impossible to duplicate. The sensation of the pleasure
of music making is the primary thing a student of music must focus on. If enough time is spent in joyous music making
and if the desire to share and transmit this feeling is strong and sincere, the hands will train themselves and the voice
will find its true expression. One cannot hurry the process; you must instead enjoy and cherish it as it slowly unfolds.
There is an unfettered freedom in being a beginner that you may look back on fondly some day. The desire to be
something other than what you are will impede your ability to grow, and the amount of pleasure that music brings is
relatively constant. If you are not experiencing that pleasure and fulfillment as a student, then you must learn how to do
that before you can go further. The magic that is music comes from such a place inside us. And any beginner can
experience these sensations just as easily as the master. If not more easily.

Harvey Reid (Elkins West Virginia 1992)