Currently working on three books for guitarists "Strategies for the Self-Sufficient Guitarist"

nikharrison

Currently working on three books for guitarists "Strategies for the Self-Sufficient Guitarist"

These are "Make a Plan, Do the Work", "The Scale Practice Manual", and "The Notation Reading Manual".

These works have been in development for years, but I'm hopeful that I'm going to have current, up-to-date editions of these books available for the Birmingham Guitar Show in May this year if anyone is interested.

I'll be on the Stormshadow Guitarworks stand.

nikharrison

Chapter 1 from "Make a Plan, Do the Work":

Chapter 1 - Introduction

 This book is essentially about making better decisions in our musical lives by means of developing a stronger understanding and awareness of ourselves as individuals, a healthy awareness of the complexities of music, and a substantial awareness of the potential of the guitar. This is also about musical relationships. For example, our relationship with the guitar within a much larger and enveloping relationship with music itself is powerful in ways that we don’t often consider but this book serves to illustrate, explore, and assist in the cultivation and reinforcement of these relationships. At its simplest level, it’s a decision-making guidebook born of a time-tested principle: The better the decisions we make, the better the results we will generate. On every other level, it’s my sincere attempt to provide the very best “strategies for the self-sufficient guitarist” within a practical, concise, and user-friendly format.

 For a long time, I’ve been asked where I get certain things from. This could be music, ideas, technique, lessons, philosophy, outlook etc. and while this is a huge and varied topic, I feel that I may be able to offer a concise enough and workable text that may be of value to others as a considered response to this question. To summarise my own thoughts on where I have found myself, and to simultaneously to put the contents of this book into their proper context:

 I know what I know, and I can do what I can do. Equally, I don’t know what I don’t know, and I can’t do what I can’t do. I’m also from the same place as everyone else. I’ve had certain advantages and disadvantages in my life. I’ve worked through them, and I’ve taken lessons, watched, listened, learned, practiced, and worked hard. However, most interesting (and the reason that I’m sharing this here) is that when you look at this for long enough, you realise that this is everyone’s story.

“For each of us a private challenge, none to be underestimated by anyone who know only of their own.”

 The difference in the results that people find themselves producing comes from a balance of circumstances and responses to them, aspirations and commitment to them, faith, discipline, and perseverance. No perseverance will ever be embarked upon without the faith that you can achieve what you want to achieve, and no discipline can be established without sincere commitment, although almost all achievements may be accomplished by means of implementing a very simple, six-word strategy:

 “Make a plan, do the work”

 From here, it’s all about formulating the right plan, and then doing the right work after establishing what you really want to be able to do.

 In that you have found yourself reading this, you will have made a choice to invest in its contents (even if that investment is only the time that you may be taking to read through the introduction). In that you have invested this far, it’s worth considering how this works in a broader sense when it comes to both the decisions that we make which serve to assist us in our development as musicians, and the way this is directly connected to the rest of the contents of this book.

 A short accompanying publication “Chemicals and Resonance” is provided with this book which explores a consideration of the very concept of music itself (which could be considered as an extended introduction to this book), although within these pages are a more focused consideration of the guitar with all of its capability and limitations. This serves to assist in establishing a healthy position from which we can consider our development as a musician (by means of devising an effective plan for our practice) but always remember:

If everyone who wanted to succeed was successful,

there would be no failure in life.

It's not wanting to be successful that creates success,

it's doing something about it.

  

Natural Ability on Guitar? (CGPW Blog post April 2009):

“I frequently hear people speak of some guitarists as being ‘naturals’. Where guitar playing is a skill, the guitar itself (in its current form) is an instrument which has had its basic shape and form invented, and then it has gone through a process of evolution. A guitar is not a natural instrument like the voice. As such, how can you attribute anything regarding the skills people need to play a guitar to be in any way natural?

 The nature of a skill is that it is learned. Where there are people who have an aptitude for learning certain things at different speeds from others, that isn’t the acquisition of the skill itself, that’s the speed at which the skill is acquired. The skills required to play the guitar are obtainable by anyone (of ‘normal’ physical and mental capability) because of the nature of what a skill is.

 If anyone has concerns about whether or not it’s possible to obtain the skill of guitar playing, they are unfounded. If anyone has concerns about how fast these skills may be developed, this is simply a question of how much effort you need to make. After that it’s just a matter of discipline, determination and perseverance. How much of each of these three things that you will need is relative to how good you want to be.”

nikharrison

Two books available at the guitar show this weekend on the Stormshadow stand (A2).

Roland

Will you be signing?

nikharrison

Certainly sir.

nikharrison

I'm going to post a picture here once I've got it on an image hosting site....

nikharrison

And another one here... These are just edited comments that I didn't want to go to waste... 

nikharrison

Both books available now - "Make a Plan, Do the Work" and "The Scale Practice Manual"

Message me if you would like a copy of one (or both)  

nikharrison

"The Notation Reading Manual" currently in development...