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~ Fire and Inspiration ~
by Tom Hess
Think back to the time when your
interest in playing guitar was born. Remember the time when you got
your first guitar and actually started playing it. For most of us,
even when we were totally beginners, clueless about how to play
anything, it somehow didn’t matter because we were just so excited
about beginning our musical/guitar journey. I can remember the exact
day I bought my first guitar (January 31, 1986). I was extremely
excited about owning a guitar and banging around on it making all
kinds of terrible noises at first.
That feeling most of us felt at the beginning of our guitar days is
what I call “Fire” or “Inner Fire”. It is something like the first
weeks and months of a new romantic relationship – very new and
exciting and the desire to maintain that passion feeling is strong.
But over time (weeks, months or years), that passion to play music
weakens. Of course you still have at least some interest in playing
and becoming a better musician, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading
this.
What I hope to do here is help you to get back your fire (or if you
still have it, I want to help you to never lose it). The most
important thing you must do is recognize what the factors were that
caused you to feel less motivated and excited about playing music.
Over time, some players begin to feel inadequate in their ability to
reach their goals. A more common factor for some is not really
having clearly defined goals or a good strategy to reach them. It's
important to remember long term goals are long term. As long
as you work to move forward, you are progressing. If progress is
slow, understand this is normal. Of course there are things you can
do to dramatically speed this process up such as practice more,
practice more efficiently and work with a really good teacher that
can show you how to do improve faster.) Other people become too
focused on getting better and lose sight of why they started playing
(to play and/or create music they love!). Keep reminding yourself of
why you wanted to be a musician in the first place. Besides simply
thinking about your early playing experiences, go back to your roots
and listen to the same CDs (or cassettes or LPs (if you are old
enough to have any of those). Listening to my earliest influences
always reminds me of my early music days and I just can’t help to
feel that eager beginner feeling again.
I’ve mentioned some of these next few points before in a previous
article, but it’s worth mentioning again here.
Find out what truly inspires you to want to play music, write music,
jam with your friends, etc. Whatever it is for you, go there and
marinate in that inspiration. Get your mind in that place and focus
on it. Many classical composers (and other serious artists) go to
artist colonies for weeks or months at a time. For them being in a
beautiful environment with serious artists of all kinds is extremely
inspiring and a great place to write music, practice, reflect among
other things. Personally, I like to travel to Europe in the summer
and do most of my serious composing there. There is a house I stay
in overlooking a valley with large trees and beautiful sunsets. It
is very inspiring and I always do my best creating there. Your
inspiration may be musical (listening to some great players, bands
or songs. It may be going to concerts. It may be a set of things
that are totally nonmusical (like a special location or being around
special people, etc.). You must find whatever it is and go there,
you might be surprised at how fast you feel that burning desire to
really play more, write more, to be more.
NEVER EVER compare yourself to other musicians! If you sit around
and think about how much better of a player you are compared to your
friends, this will probably only lead you to contentment and will
steal away your drive and fire to improve. If you think about how
much your friend (or any other musician) is better musically
compared to you, this often leads to feelings of dissolution about
your progress and your goals, which also can lead to a lack of
motivation and fire.
When you began playing guitar, how good would you have to be in
order to be happy with your playing? And where are you now? When I
was starting out, I thought if I could play Iron Maiden or Metallica
songs, I would be happy for rest of my musical life! Of course the
time came when I could play all those songs, but I didn’t feel as
happy as I thought I would when I first made my goal. That is
because, before I even reached that goal, I had already set new
goals. These new goals were good for my progress, but I made the
mistake of never really appreciating and enjoying the success of
reaching my earlier goals. I robbed myself of the pleasure of
feeling happy about my hard work paying off. Of course by now I have
learned that lesson and do thoroughly enjoy each new goal that is
reached. It is my hope you will learn that lesson now and not after
several more years of playing guitar.
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Contact Tom
Hess at:
hess@mc.net
Visit Tom Hess¹s websites:
www.tomhess.net
www.hess.4t.com
www.holyhell.com
See Tom Hess on the
HolyHell World Tour in 2006. Tour dates posted here:
http://tomhess.net/tour.php
All rights
reserved, Copyright ©
2006 Tom Hess
Used By Permission
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