Teachers

Was thinking about teachers yesterday....

Particularly those from whom I learned about music...

This cat at UDC, Calvin Jones, taught me pretty much everything I know -- or should I say what little bit I know -- about how music is constructed, about how to create tension and release with sound. A couple attributes that made him (passed away a couple of yrs ago) a great instructor: he truly had great reverence for his subject matter and also he had acquired true mastery of his subject matter. The one thing he said that really has yielded more and more to me over the years was, "You have to give all of yourself to the music, devote yourself entirely to it." A simple statement perhaps, but one fraught with meaning given the context of what we students knew of his life and the example he'd set in living it. When I knew him he was already close to 70 but one day he confided to me that he couldn't turn off the melodies and arrangements coming to him; that the ideas where coming to him at a greater rate and flow than ever. I learned so much from Dr. Jones just watching him go about his work. He demanded we push ourselves and can remember the joy in his eyes when he heard a new idea from one of us, heard us exploring new harmonic boundaries, reaching for greater sophistications.

So after ruminating on Calvin Jones, perhaps my favorite teacher ever, for awhile I began thinking further back to other teachers and instructors I've had along the way. I pretty much taught myself the basics of guitar. I could already play pretty decently when I figured out I could probably get further a bit faster if I watched and learned how someone more advanced did it. Embarrassingly, I cannot really remember the name of my first teacher; I think it was Derrick Scott. He took one look at me and tried to write me off as a poser. At the time, I was a singer in a hard rock band and probably looked every bit the part of 80's hair band frontman (or at least the black equivalent), so its not surprising he, being an accomplished r&b and jazz musician (his regular gig at the time was with Peabo Bryson), didn't take me too seriously. But somehow I convinced him I was sincere and so he taught me 'rhythm' changes and 'cherokee', two of the building block chord sequences of modern music. And thats pretty much all we worked with for as long as I was with him. Got to respect that, looking back: it was disciplined focus taken to an extreme. Next teacher was the great Jimmy Herring, from the Aquarian Rescue Unit and Allman Bros fame. One thing I remember learning from him was how to walk a bassline, which I immediately thought was the coolest possible thing to do on a guitar. Years later I came to realize how limited Jimmy's skill actually was in this area, which really tripped me out. He's such an amazing and accomplished all around player but even he has/had areas of relative weakness. And so I gradually became aware of how much there is to know about music, and guitar in particular. Helped to begin to instill a greater humility. From there I'd dabble every now and then with a teacher because I'd heard that even Wynton Marsalis still had a teacher/coach and that even the great John Coltrane kept studying with Dennis Sondoli (sp). I learned alot from a cat named Kenny Definnis, who really helped boost my self esteem because he was so encouraging. Took a few lessons from a dude named Denato, can't even remember if that was his first name or last. When I was day dreaming/reflecting on teachers yesterday when I got to Denato a real burst of awareness hit me. I think he may have been my most influential guitar instructor. As I say, I only took a few lessons from him. His personality was really sullen and aloof; in all honesty I thought he was a complete dick and I didn't like being around him. I was sure the feeling was mutual, he struck me as someone who loathed teaching. Especially arrogant, insecure f***ers like I was at the time. So perhaps it gave Denato some measure of pleasure to tell me all about what, in his opinion, I didn't know about music and guitar. Long story short he told me that my weakness was my ears. That I had good ears but that they were untrained. That I was limited not by my technical skill but my ability to hear the kind of harmonies that I sought. I really took the idea of developing my ears fully to heart. Both as a practical matter but also, and perhaps most importantly, as I means towards being more patient and understanding of myself. From then to the present day, I've been more and more aware of what I'm NOT able to hear and so I don't play that which I do not hear. Which is a real trip sometimes because I have studied quite abit of theory and harmony. But only slowly and grudgingly has much of the advanced harmony that I understand intellectually made sense to my ears. So I'd say I've really valued teachers like Denato who've told me pointedly where my weaknesses were. A wild, weirded out cat named John Thomas similarly took me to task a few years later. First thing John said to me after we initially traded solos was, "well you seem to know your chords and harmony pretty well, so we ought to get you to where you can play a decent solo". My feelings weren't hurt; he was a much, much better, more advanced player than I was. Eventually he diagnosed areas of weakness that I still had at the time that I still am chipping away at today. 

I suspect that most of the areas of scholastic weakness and frustrations I've had throughout my life are a result of my intellect being able to move along much faster than my skill level. I'm still working on developing the skill to match what I can comprehend. I suspect this is a really common experience: I'm sure many have at some point thought, "Man! If I could _______ (insert goal here) like I can inside my head, then I'd really be _____ (insert self- serving platitude here)!!" But at least for the past several years I'm not tortured or insecure about it. Time and experience has taught me thoroughly that just like the old school saying, "you are what you eat", I'm good at what I practice, and that my success in any one area of my life at any given time is almost directly a function of what kind of time and energy I devoted to that area. Most folks aren't just 'naturals'; most of us have to work at what we seek to get good at. I run part and parcel with the 'mosts'. But having said that, I've experienced a great many personal victories from having learned how to learn and also how to identify my own weaknesses. I have not always had the time or energy to devote to working on all of my weaknesses, but I do not fear them nor do I accept them. I battle on many fronts and on those fronts that I'm not able to battle at the moment I keep a constant warning out to, uh, myself: "I'm coming for you too..." And although perfection is an impossible goal, I'll keep aspiring to the goal so long as I draw breath. Which is what any good warrior does and has done.