11.21
Meetings with Levels Two & One. Level Two are currently working on how folk guitarists might strum along with simpering classics, and the Level One are beginning to address the right hand with Martin, Fernando, Guillermo & Luciano. Cathy & Saskia are Alexanderising their bodies.
12.08
Dan the Good recently sent this e-mail:
RF: The quick answer is, yes, with acknowledgement where appropriate. The work of DGM hopefully supports the work of others. So, if the Aims can be usefully adopted by others, this validates our own efforts.
We also receive requests to use / quote from the aphorisms displayed on the DGM website. These are mostly drawn from Guitar Craft. An early form of the aphorisms was printed as a poster under the heading of "Guitar Craft Monograph No. 3" in 1987 and has been out of print since.
DGM works in the marketplace, which Guitar Craft does not, and so acts under a series of constraints which don't apply to Guitar Craft. The public (and many private) aspects of DGM / KC / RF are subject to an ongoing series of public commentaries which are an almost total waste of energy: destructive at worst, and somewhere between a distraction and a disturbance at best. A small proportion of well-considered posts appear among the commentaries, with connections to people who otherwise I would never know. I am grateful for both of these.
The most valuable data is provided unintentionally by ET. On constant display: the sheer terror of witlessness, breathtaking arrogance, projection, selfishness, carelessness, self-deception and dishonesty with which basically decent, honest, literate and reasonably well-educated people assert & trumpet in public their right to live sub-human lives. After all, why live in sunlight with clean & happy friends when there's a lonely, dark, damp & squalid basement available for occupation?
Guitar Craft activities are usually held in private. There's nothing secret about Guitar Craft: most courses are available to the interested public, and an increasing amount of GC information & reportage is becoming available online. Diaries of aspirant Crafties are becoming available to bewilder anyone who feels the need to access their psyches. But most of the action in Guitar Craft is personal.
Most of the public action of a public performer is impersonal, yet intimate. This is the confusion: I feel touched in my core by what a performer has played, and I know there is truly an intimacy that I share with them. But they don't know me, probably don't want to know me, and I don't know them. What to do? Where this question impinges upon my own professional life, there follow an astonishing number of reactions, encounters, attacks, enquiries and outbursts of the outraged; frequently where I have declined to be sucked into that confusion. I don't confuse what is personal with what is impersonal, and decline to be manipulated into accepting that it is.
I have attempted replying & responding to expressions of interest, in various ways, for over three decades. Some of these replies & responses are public and many are private, although some have been publicly reported (even where this is a clear violation of the courtesy reasonably implied in private exchanges). Also, I remember many of the specific encounters which gave rise to the "my terrible experience with that awful Fripp and all I did was demand his full time and attention just before he went on / off stage and I wasn't even very drunk / high, well not much, anyway and why doesn't he reply to my heartfelt letter - I only wanted him to listen to my demo tape and sign me to DGM, which is fair because I bought LTIA in 1973" postings. I note that these postings usually manage to omit reporting one significant factor in the exchange; and where the reportage is fairly accurate, what is there & available to be seen is usually impressively missed. But this is a value of ET: it provides raw data on how to passionately live a life not quite worth living, while attributing blame for life's disappointments to someone else.
I would be surprised if the responsive strategies that I adopt & have adopted would necessarily be appropriate for others, such as BB King and Junior Wells (to name only two artists, both deserving of respect). If we apply the converse, it is reasonable to assume that strategies adopted by BB King and Junior Wells might not be appropriate for Fripp, that rude ungrateful nasty man. Hurt Brat in ET351, however, implies the contrary --
Hurt Brat
Tue, 18 Feb 1997 18:41:59 -0500
Subject: Closure
RF: I share Mr. Brat's concern for young players. My own approach in addressing my perceived responsibilities towards young players is Guitar Craft. For this I gave up my career between 1985-90, and large amounts of it since (none of which I regret).
I do not give away my picks, although at the Red Lion House we did buy up the entire supply of German manufacturer Gunther Dick's triangular picks. It has since been dispersed within the GC Team, and we continue to attempt to obtain a comparable supply.
Key principles, instructions and insights that emerged during the early GC courses became codified & collected together in a series of aphorisms. A selection of these was published as a poster in 1987 as "Guitar Monograph No. 3" and has been out of print since. Some of the aphorisms were specific to the conditions of time, place & person. Others have been found useful in the longer period, and continue to be used today. The global aphorism of Guitar Craft, which contains all the others, is this:
Honour necessity.Where any aphorism addresses or points towards what is "true" in some way, this "truth" has almost inevitably already been said somewhere, at some time, by someone else. So, any "truth" may be found in one form or another in the writings, literature, practices and oral transmission of all bona fide crafts, ways & traditions. This is irrelevant: what is true, and what is real, is necessarily to be "made" true & realised through the ongoing & creative process of living our lives, whatever our chosen field. Rediscovery and recreation is discovery and creation, where we engage and make this our own.
I hope Guitar Craft is able to benefit from the work of others: this validates their efforts & honours their lives, even if they were without recognition in their own time. I hope others are able to benefit from the work of Guitar Craft, and King Crimson, and DGM: if our work has value for others, then it acquires greater value for us as well.
In any situation where I need guidance, there is a GC aphorism to indicate the direction. In the darkest days of Endless Grief, with despair a frequent visitor & hopelessness a lodger, I would turn to the aphorisms for help.
Begin with the possible, and move gradually towards the impossible.So, what is possible? Life is too hard to do anything today? Fine. Don't do anything today. Just get out of bed. Out of bed? Fine. Do nothing. And while you're doing nothing, write a letter to your solicitor --
Turn a seeming disadvantage to your advantage.Without the collapse of EG, there would have been no DGM, no archive releases, no Collectors' Club, no partnership with David Singleton. There was nothing automatic about any of this: the disadvantage had to be turned around. But, without the possible total collapse of my professional life & its impact on my personal solvency, I would not have begun the second half of my professional life with the drive, commitment & energy with which I began the first half, at the age of twenty one.
Life is often desperate, but never hopeless.One of the two worst events of the Endless Grief period was that my personal voice fell silent. This is the voice that has spoken many of the aphorisms, and that part of myself to which I address questions.
We bring to the aphorisms the extent of our understanding: what we see in them is ourselves. If they are to speak to us, the contact is direct. Perhaps this follows a period, even a long period, of reflection; or actively testing them in some practical activity. But to see them, the seeing is direct, unmediated, without explanation. Then, they become ours; and, we become available to them. They defy analysis by the whirring mechanism of our everyday cerebral processing, the rattling association of verbal-intellectual mind. If we might ascribe intent to the "author" of the aphorisms, then part of that intent is surely to shake off the hold of habitual thinking.
Guitar Craft is a work in process. If anyone wishes to use, or adopt, the Guitar Craft aphorisms they do so with my good wishes (subject to the warning which follows below). The aphorisms are not presented as authoritative, although I recognise in some of them an authority which is not my own. An aphorism, or several aphorisms, may also be publicly quoted and/or used on notepaper and websites with due acknowledgement. They may not be used in toto, or in bulk, without express permission. They may not be used commercially. They may, for example, be printed up on a t-shirt for private use, but not for sale. If anyone is in doubt about any of this, or has a question, they can find the answer somewhere in the aphorisms. That's what they are for, after all.
Now, a warning to the gullible from Hurt Brat, a possessor of the Social Gland & friend of Matt the Tri-Cranial. HB precedes this with an encouragement to practice detachment, and testifies to its efficacy --
HB: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 18:41:59 -0500
Subject: Closure
RF: Bret then moves, from this worthy call to stillness in the midst of life, to penetrating the nothingness which lies at the heart of Guitar Craft aphorisms with his incisive, rapier wit honed by detachedness; & mocks the implied assumption (acknowledged and undefended) of the Guitar Craft instructor who pinned these aphorisms to the notice board at a Guitar Craft course in Gandara, Buenos Aires province, on November 1st. 1996 --
HB: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 02:53:46 -0500
Subject: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Dear ET'ers and Mr. Fripp-
*...and we quote...then denote,
"XIII
Expectation closes our ears to what is happening in the moment.
[THIS FAN IS GOING TO MAKE ME SUFFER. (2 months later..."Y'mean that loser who looked like, mebbe, he had 'head lice' was BRIAN WILSON??!?"]
Listening is how we eat music.
[MMM, YUMMY!...WAIT A MINUTE! YUCK!...THIS TASTES LIKE SOMETHING I MIGHT, PHILOSOPHICALLY, NEED TO ACTUALLY HEAR IN ORDER TO COMPREHEND ENOUGH NOT TO APPEAR EFFETE AND CONDESCENDING ON THE WEB...]
Hearing is how we digest it.
[I'M SORRY, AFTER I LISTENED TO MY EXPECTATION, I COULD HEAR NOTHING.]
Hearing transforms sound into music.
[GROUND CONTROL TO PILOT....CIRCLE BACK!...CIRCLE BACK!!!]
Listening is a craft.
[HEY..Y'GOT A NICE PLACE HERE...ANYTHING IN THE 'FRIDGE?]
Hearing is an art.
[ummm... PPPPPPHHHHHFFFFFTTTTTT!!!!!! WHAT'S THAT SMELL?!?]
Listening changes the performance to which we are listening.
[AFTER I LISTENED TO MY EXPECTATION, I COULD HEAR NOTHING.]
Music changes when people hear it.
[How? If the "MUSICK'ERS" can't hear The Hearers?]
What we hear is the quality of our listening.
[ibid.]
Our understanding changes what is is that we understand.
"is is" [?]
Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence which dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.
[(essentially) paraphrasing J. Cage, or C. Nancorrow, or Fred Frith, or Harry Partch, or...]
Silence is a bridge between worlds.
[ibid.; include Buddha and Lao Tzu, and Carlos Casteneda, and Sen. Joe McCarthy, and Terrance McKenna, and...]
The science is in knowing, the art is in perceiving.
[AFTER I LISTENED TO MY EXPECTATION, I WOULD HEAR NOTHING.]
The future is what the present can bear.
[NO SHITTIN'!]
The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
[YES.]
How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world.
[YES.]
How we interpret our world directs how we participate in it.
[NO SHITTIN'!]
How we participate in the world shapes the world.
[AT THE VERY LEAST, THE WORLD TO WHICH WE ARE, SOCIALLY, CONNECTED.]
The presence of absence is an entry into loss.
[BUT...SOME ABSENCES ARE BENEATH NOTICE! I'M TELLIN' YA, DOG-GONE'IT!]
Things are not as bad as they seem.
[THINGS ARE EXACTLY AS BAD AS THEY SEEM.]
They are worse than that.
[RIGHT.]
They are also better than that."
[COULD BE, AND HOPE SO. THE DOOR'S OPEN.]
(My Mr. Fripp-ian, "OUCH! MAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!! THAT SUUUCCCKKKED!!!", -style response/aim parody is 100% m'thang. Writ it on purpuss..no sheeit. (I mean, if Mr. Fripp can dish it out, certainly, he's got his "catcher's mitt" on.) Only the proper quantity of 'twang'--as defined by Mr. Fripp's ("When I Fart, Only Dogs Can Hear It") spirited, though very insultingly out-of-contextualized (people who aren't dopey notice these things.......some "ET" members, judging from things I've received, are not dopey), A-didactification of my, and A. Swansorb.'s (today's "ET") postings--has been channelled into this 'un.) Buh'bye. (Sheesh! Now I've got me back into this.)
RF: What is the sound of one mind flapping?
A professional journalist, in a book of his published during the 1990s, compared some of the aphorisms to the advice found in fortune cookies. Regrettably, I note (and this is clearly a comment on myself, and not the writer) that I have found more insight in fortune cookies than in his book. Perhaps I've been eating the wrong kind of fortune cookies.
Here is a list of the current aphorisms, edited and compiled for this particular day, for those who wish to engage in the spirit of critical goodwill --
Guitar Craft AphorismsHonour necessity.
*
A beginning is invisible.
Accept nothing less than what is right.
A completion is a new beginning.
Act always in accordance with conscience.
Act from principle.
Move from intention.
Act with courtesy.
Otherwise, be polite.
A decision changes the world.
A function of language is to disclose.
An effect is to reveal.
A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and never acceptable.
An artist acts with the assumption of innocence within a field of experience.
An end may be a finish, a conclusion or a completion.
Answers will come through the guitar.
Any fool can play something difficult.
Anything within a performance is significant, whether intentional or not.
A principle is an instruction in qualitative endeavour.
A principle is universal.
A rule is specific.
A law is invariable.
Artistry repeats the unrepeatable.
Assume the virtue.
?
Before we do something, we do nothing.
Before we move from A to B, better to know we're at A.
Begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible.
Being a slob is hard labour.
Being is a measure of our coherence.
Better to be present with a bad note than absent from a good note.
Be very careful about the beginning.
Then, be very careful about the end.
Then, be very careful about the middle.
?
Change one small part and the whole is changed.
Commitments are to be honoured.
Conscience is utterly impersonal.
Craft is a universal language.
Craft maintains skill.
Discipline maintains craft.
Craft follows the tradition.
Discipline maintains the tradition.
Music creates the tradition.
Creative work is serious play.
?
Define the aim simply, clearly, briefly, positively
Discard the superfluous.
Discharge one small task superbly.
Discipline is a vehicle for joy.
Discipline is not an end in itself, only a means to an end.
Distrust those who profess altruism.
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.
Don't be helpful: be available.
?
Each part does the work of that part, and no other.
Establish the principle.
Even genius requires a competent technique.
Everything we are is revealed in our playing.
Expectation is a prison.
Expect nothing.
?
Good habit is necessary, bad habit is inevitable.
?
Health is a measure of our wholeness.
Hearing transforms sound into music.
Helpful people are a nuisance.
How we hold our pick is how we organise our life.
?
If a quality is present, it is clearly recognisable and may be named.
If in doubt, consult tradition.
If still in doubt, consult your experience.
If still in doubt, consult your body.
If we can ask our body to do nothing for half an hour, perhaps we can ask our body to do something for half an hour.
If we can define our aim, we are halfway to achieving it.
If we don't know where we're going, we'll probably get there.
In popular culture, the musician calls on the highest part in all of us.
In mass culture, the musician addresses the lower parts of what we are.
In popular culture, our musicians sing to us in our own voice.
In mass culture they shout what we want to hear.
Intentional action generates intentional results and unforeseeable repercussions.
Unintentional action generates unintended consequences and inevitable repercussions.
Intentional poverty is fine.
Unintentional poverty is wretched.
In the creative act, the Creation continues.
In the creative leap, history waits outside.
In tuning a note we are tuning ourselves.
It is difficult to exaggerate the power of habit.
It is not necessary to be cheerful.
It is not necessary to feel cheerful.
But look cheerful.
?
Just below the surface of our everyday world lie riches.
?
Let us find clean and cheerful friends.
Life is often desperate, but never hopeless.
Life is too short to take on the unnecessary.
Listening changes what we are listening to.
Listening is a craft.
Hearing is an art.
Listening is how we eat music.
Hearing is how we digest it.
?
Mastery acts on what is below.
Artistry submits to what is above.
May we have the clarity to see our work, the courage to embrace it, and the capacity to discharge it.
May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.
Money is not a problem, only a difficulty.
Music changes when people hear it.
Music is a benevolent presence constantly and readily available to all.
Music is a quality, organised in sound and in time.
Music is silence, singing.
Music is the architecture of silence.
Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence.
Sound is that cup, but empty.
Noise is that cup, but broken.
Music so wishes to be heard that it calls on some to give it voice and some to give it ears.
?
Necessary repercussions are possible.
Inevitable repercussions are expensive.
Unnecessary repercussions are dangerous.
Necessity is a measure of aim.
Necessity is never far from what is real.
Nothing is compulsory, but some things are necessary.
Nothing worthwhile is achieved suddenly.
?
Offer no violence.
?
Perfection is impossible.
But I may choose to serve perfection.
Performance is impersonal yet intimate.
Performance is inherently unlikely.
Playing fast is easier than playing slow.
?
Quiet is the absence of sound, silence the presence of silence.
?
Relaxation is necessary tension.
Tension is unnecessary tension.
Relaxation is never accidental.
Rely on what someone does, not what they claim to do.
Remain in hell without despair.
Right action moves from principle.
Rightness is its own necessity.
?
Signposts are useful when you know where you're going.
Silence is a bridge between worlds.
Silence is a distant echo of the approach of the Muse.
Silence is an invisible glue.
Silence is not silent.
Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence that dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.
Small additional increments are transformative.
Sometimes God hides.
Suffer cheerfully.
Suffering is necessary, unnecessary or voluntary.
Suffering is our experience of the distance between what we are and who we wish to become.
Suffering of quality is invisible to others.
?
The act of music is the music.
The audience is mother to the music.
The concern of the musician is music.
The concern of the professional musician is business.
The creative impulse animates whatever instrument is placed at its disposal.
The end is a finish, a conclusion or a completion.
The future is what the present can bear.
The highest quality of attention we may give is love.
The mind leads the hands.
The musician and audience are parents to the music.
The musician has three disciplines: the disciplines of the hands, the head and the heart.
The necessary is possible.
The optional is expensive.
The unnecessary is unlikely.
The only contribution we make is the quality of our work.
The performer can hide nothing, even the attempt to hide.
The presence of absence is an entry into loss.
The problem with knowing what we want is we just might get it.
The quality of a person is revealed in their conduct in front of sex, money and the use of time.
The quality of the question determines the quality of the answer.
The question is its answer.
There are few things as convincing as death to remind us of the quality with which we live our life.
There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.
There are three kinds of repercussions: the necessary, the unnecessary and the inevitable.
There is only one musician, in many bodies.
There's more to hearing than meets the ear.
The science is in knowing, the art in perceiving.
The simplest is the most difficult to discharge superbly.
The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world.
How we interpret our world directs how we participate in the world.
How we participate in the world shapes the world.
The work of one supports the work of all.
Things are not as bad as they seem.
They are worse than that.
They are also better than that.
Trust music.
Turn a seeming disadvantage to your advantage.
The greater the seeming disadvantage, the greater the possible advantage.
?
Understanding changes what we understand.
Understandi
"The highest quality of attention we may give is love."
