Book Four – The Beyond Basics Book

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Foreword (excerpt from Book Four – The Beyond Basics Book)

For the Love of Guitar, a series of four books. By Rik Emmett
$10
For the Love of Guitar
(Book Four)

The challenge of writing a monthly guitar magazine column called “Back to Basics” for 12 years or so often led to some, er, imaginative takes on the subject. Topics would suggest themselves, and I would often stretch, or shoehorn the concepts into the “basics” format – with varying degrees of success. As I often wrote in the columns, THE LOVE OF GUITAR is basically about music – the marriage of the physical, the
intellectual, the spiritual, and the emotional. Aesthetics, psychology, philosophy: these kinds of things are fundamental to the artistic process, but at the same time they’re open-ended, infinite, metaphysical, often ineffable and practically intangible.

Here in Book Four, I’ve attempted to pull together the chapters that seemed to offer the most leading questions and pointed towards some of those open portals of the soul and the imagination. Whatever you’re searching for, I hope you find your way to it. Even if you don’t, I’ll still wish you happy hunting.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword I
  • Key to Notational Symbols IV
  • Attitude is the Key 1
  • Harmonics and the Inherent Conflicting Nature of Music 4
  • Anthropomorphism and the First Artistic Step 6
  • Basic Career Choices 9
  • The General Rule of Tongue 11
  • The Secret Rule 12
  • Preparation, Presentation, and Pacing (Mind Your P’s) 14
  • The Ineffable Aesthetic Challenge 17
  • The Marriage of Technique to Emotion 19
  • “What If?” 22
  • Connect the Dots: The Love Connection 24
  • Getting There From Here – Sparks in the Darkness 26
  • Hands On: Of Ways,Means, and Happy Endings 28
  • The 3H Infinities: Head, Hands and Heart 32
  • On Telescopes and Microscopes 34
  • Defining “IT” 35
  • On Body Language, Image, & the Soundtrack of the Soul 35
  • Distinguishing Characteristics and Onomatopoeia 37
  • Basic Instinct 40
  • Basic Psychology 101: A Paradox in the Matrix 42
  • Discriminating Taste 46
  • Musical Consideration (The Inside/Outside Dynamic) 48
  • Prejudice, Pluralism and the Golden Rule 50
  • On Competition: Let the Music Do the Talkin’ 52
  • Medley Study 54
  • Basic Creative Process: Metaphors 56
  • So You Wanna Be A Guitar God? 59
  • The Six Point Hero List 60
  • Mythology, Reality and Chemistry: Kudos to Ted Greene 62
  • As I Live and Breathe 65
  • In Conclusion 69