Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

I'll just repeat my good and bad points here:Phil Sudo was one of the few musicians that I have come across who really "got it".He realized that music is an artistic expression of what's in your own mind, and has very very little to do with emulating the sounds of others and using standard theory structures such as chord types and specific scales.He realized that all of that is poppycock, essentially, and while useful for getting started in being able to make SOME kind of pleasing sound on the instrument, eventually that stuff is all useless.The real essence of playing a musical instrument is about expressing the thought or emotion that's happening in your own mind at the time of conceiving the song, with little or no regard to the boundaries of what things are "supposed to sound like", or "what music is".Mr. Sudo seemed to realize that the art of music is entirely dependent on your intuition and willpower to express, with sound, what is already embodied in your own unique natural charisma.He did a fantastic job outlining a structured path to understanding the real meaning of music, and truly the meaning of any art form.I won't go into specifics, but there are a few slight offshoots hidden in the book that seem to veer off of his own path that he is teaching. However, I believe that this further humanizes the concept and brings to reality the difficulty of achieving absolute enlightenment.This book is practically universal in its application, and I strongly believe everyone should read it.By the way, if you are wondering who else I think "gets it", and share many similar beliefs as those that are stated in Zen Guitar; listen to artists such as Steve Vai, Moby, King Crimson, Bumblefoot, Tool, Erik Norlander, Jimi Hendrix, Nine Inch Nails, Tobias Hurwitz (of course), Mattias IA Eklundh, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Bathory, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Claude Debussy (assuming it is played well), Pat Metheny, The Hellecasters, KoRn, Behold....The Arctopus, Bob Marley, (hed) p.e..........the list could go on for a while....but I think after listening to all that, you may begin to understand what personally expressive music is about.What most of those people have in common, is that at the time of writing their music, they did what came naturally to them, not focusing on genre, or even what it was going to sound like in particular, but rather letting the music happen for itself in a primal, intuitive, natural way...then refining it into fantastic organized works of expression.You may notice there are a lot of artist there who the industry would consider under the incredibly unspecific category of "Rock".This is because Rock is easily the genre which has received the most branching out and experimentation since it's conception.Just the simple idea that what we would consider modern rock sounds absolutely nothing like original rock music, is proof of that statement.Many of the people I listed there (and there are many more) actually invented their own genre, and others are uncategorizable.Sorry if this seems like a tangent, but it really does have very specific grounding to what is described in Philip's book.Philip Toshio Sudo can teach you to do similar things....read this book!!!

Philip Toshio Sudo

October 20th,1959 - June 9th, 2002

I was very sorry to find out that the author of Zen Guitar died recently.

His work is worth checking out ...

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Zen Guitar is about the journey of musical discovery more than

nuts-and-bolts guitar tuition. You will not find any actual scored lessons or fingering exercises here, just a whole new approach to playing. Philip Sudo is honest with his reader from the very start, "Beginning students often ask 'How long will it take me to learn the Way of Zen Guitar?' My answer is as long as you live - that short". In Zen Guitar we are invited to consider the guitar in a new light, with heightened passion and deeper understanding. Throughout, learning and playing the guitar could be a metaphor for life. It is the same "get your hands dirty" message that Pirsig taught us. We must submerge ourselves in every task, and engage with life, rather than simply observe it from the wings. Sudo writes, "The... thing I mean by 'pick up your guitar' concerns the way you physically take it in your hands ... maybe you just want to noodle on it while watching TV. Then pick up your guitar with the mind of noodling while watching TV ... when you pick it up, pick it up". The book's chi is well-balanced between a healthy humour and a tunnelling insight into our strengths and weaknesses. The few overly-cosmic statements can be easily forgiven, whilst the efficient lesson format ensures the message survives even the shortest attention span. Each lesson is headed by a Guitar Hero quote with this John McLaughlin classic from Guitar Player (May 1995) leading the chapter on 'Ego', "If I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have and my own preconceived, silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me. And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen".