Discoveries

 

Back in my freshman year of college when I was a guitar and composition music major, there were times wherein it seemed that every day held a new discovery.  And in so many disciplines: music theory, composition, guitar scales and chord voicings and fingerings, Gregorian chant; it seemed endless.  It was at once exciting and overwhelming.  I remembered the world explorers about whom I'd studied as a child in elementary school.  I felt like I was one of those, or I certainly felt a strong kinship and connection to them.  There was so much to discover.  Every day.  I was discovering new worlds.  It was exciting, as I was learning so many new things in a discipline for which I had total passion.  It was overwhelming because with each discovery, I could see several more new discoveries spawned from or attached to the original discovery.  Simultaneously underlining just how little I knew and emphasizing just how much I had to learn.

But the one constant was excitement.  

I was learning so many new things that impacted my understanding and grasp of the endlessness of music theory, my compositional concepts, my depth of knowledge and technique for guitar.  And often all of these within the same day.

I'd often try out new compositional techniques by composing a piece of music that utilized that new technique.  Or, I'd learn a new piece of music theory and explore its functionality by composing a piece utilizing that theoretical concept.  I'd often learn some new guitar chord voicings and do the same thing: compose something using those chord voicings.  It was an effective learning tool for me.  It really helped me learn, and it embedded that new concept or technique into me.

During my undergrad years, I'd sometimes have thoughts like, "When I'm <x> years old, I'll be a great composer or guitarist."  Like visible milestones stretching out into the future on a map/timeline only I could see.  These kinds of thoughts were not at all self-aggrandizing; quite the contrary.  They were thoughts of encouragement for when I was feeling overwhelmed.  And it was helpful, and encouraging in its own way.

I never had thoughts like, "When I'm <x> years old, I'll still be a learning student."  But, of those two thoughts, it was the latter that proved to be accurate and true.  Here I am, so many years after being that freshman, and yeah, I'm still a learning student.  

Especially considering my multi-course instruments.  There's not a week that goes by wherein I don't discover something new.  I don't mean something new like alternative chord voicings or fingerings, although that occurs, too.  I mean pretty huge discoveries that require months or years of shedding to learn, absorb, and to become part of my technique and voice.  These discoveries can be in the realms of music theory, string technique, compositional extensions, overarching artistic concepts, and more.  Some of the discoveries cover more than one discipline.  

Of late, I've come to realize that my daily practice (or shedding) sessions aren't just for practice.  They often transmogrify from practice sessions into discovery sessions.  I love my multi-string instruments, but one possible drawback is that there are no technique or theory books for them.  They're all the first of their kind; a sui generis instrument.  Hence, instead of the path of a classical guitarist wherein the technique is well-codified and freely available in many extant volumes of method books, there is nothing published or available for these instruments.  I have to write the method books for them as I go.  It's a similar feeling to my freshman year: at once exciting and overwhelming.  But all in a very exciting way.  

Over time, the instruments slowly reveal their secrets.  The more time I spend on any specific instrument, the more secrets it reveals.  And this is part of the reason why I shed multiple times per day.

Back in my freshman year, I never thought or even had the wherewithal to think that decades on, I'd still be a student.  I'd still be learning.  At that time in my younger life, that truth may have been more overwhelming than encouraging.  But now as a more mature musician, that fact is actually pretty exciting.  I'm still learning.  There are still things out there that are unknown.  And it's all up to me to find them on these multi-course instruments and within my compositions.

I never want to be at a point in my life wherein I'm no longer learning and therefore no longer a student.

In many ways, I still feel like that college freshman version of me.

-kk