Tuesday, May 5, 2009
How To Not Suck, Chapter 17: Push It Real Good
Talent is overrated, he says. You take that talent and you push it. You can play this fast, but can you get faster? You can grab the seventh with your pinky while playing a jazz chord, but can you hit the ninth? You can play 3/4, but can you do 5/4?
They call it woodshedding, the time you spend with your instrument. Why? Because when you pick up the instrument, when you are practicing, you are taking something that you know sucks, and working out how to make it not suck. You are, in essence, sucking big time and annoying everyone around you, which, in the woodshed, should just be you, your instrument, your firewood, and the bugs you're supposed to not move your firewood because of. You are taking this opportunity to suck wildly, with abandon.
(Niel, this means you don't bring your guitar to the table and noodle during dinner. Never let 'em see you suck.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
"Never let them see you suck"?
Uh oh....
I am surprised to see you are up to 17 th edition on how not to suck. Maybe you are 21st century Sun Tzu of "Art of Suck?" eh?
In Japan, Chinese like to segregate themselves in the corporate lunchrooms. It is only noteworthy because the sound coming from the stretch of tables is called the "Chinese Vacuum" by the Japanese and Korean and other workers at lunch.
"Good to suck" say Chinese.
"Not good to suck" say Japanese.
Changed my perspective on things, for sure.
Yet the Japanese invented karaoke. Untrained amateurs, drinking after a long day at work, singing along to prerecorded tracks in another language. My goodness, that's about the definition of suck!
But that is a perspective.
I like these perspectives on Suck. Nice point about K-Bar's. My Japanese hosts were very cautious about letting me into a karaoke bar... if I were there and saw one of the Exec's sucking at the mic... apparently the fella would loose face.. I think the Karaoke Bar must be the over-worked executive Japanese's woodshed,,, no?
I was discouraged from entering the K-Bars.. word. And I didn't see any buskin' or street performance.. lots of pink cell phones though. What a strange trip it's been.
Post a Comment