The Secret Map of the happy Guitarist: Guitar Mindfulness®

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Manuel Consigli

THE SECRET MAP OF

THE HAPPY GUITARIST

Guitar Mindfulness®

manuel.consigli

manuelconsigli

www.guitarmindfulness.it

THE SECRET MAP OF THE HAPPY GUITARIST

Guitar Mindfulness®

Copyright © 2021 Manuel Consigli

Tutti i diritti riservati.

Nessuna parte di questo libro può essere riprodotta

senza il preventivo assenso dell’Autore.

Prima edizione March 2021

Bibliography | Francesca Amat

Graphics | Marco Ernesto Rossetti - Romano Antico

Cover photo | chris-hardy-3w9LY9NJ00s-unsplash.jpg - photo Carriage

To Francesca, a wonderful travel companion, with love and gratitude

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

PART I: HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER 1

THE TEN OBSTACLES TO A GUITARIST’S HAPPINESS

CHAPTER 2

FIVE ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR AN EFFECTIVE PATH TOWARDS ARTISTIC GROWTH

CHAPTER 3

THE HAPPY GUITARIST’S PERCEPTION OF TIME

CHAPTER 4

ARE YOU A MUSICIAN, YES OR NO?

PART II: HOW TO FULFIL YOURSELF AS A GUITARIST (EVEN WITH ANOTHER JOB)

CHAPTER 5

THE PATH IS NOT LINEAR BUT ORGANIC

CHAPTER 6

THE FOUR TERRITORIES OF YOUR ARTISTIC JOURNEY

CHAPTER 7

A POWERFUL STUDY SEQUENCE

CHAPTER 8

AT THE CENTRE IS YOU

CHAPTER 9

THE METAPHOR OF THE CHARIOT

PART III: HOW TO ENHANCE YOUR TALENT

CHAPTER 10

UNDERSTANDING

The false myth of the ignorant musician

Understanding music has changed my life

Harmony is sexy!

CHAPTER 11

PRACTICE

The principle of equilibrium

The principle of quality

The principle of unity

CHAPTER 12

EXPRESSING

The difference between Playing and Expressing

The essential quality of expression

CHAPTER 13

LISTENING

Active and passive listening

Internal and external listening

Listening to the sound

Listening to the rhythm

Listening to the body

Listening to silence

Listening to others

Listening to emotions

Listening to the mind

PART IV: HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PRACTICE

CHAPTER 14

THE PATH OF STUDY

The secrets of practice

A subtle dynamic

What to study?

The two directions

CHAPTER 15

THE PATH OF BODILY AWARENESS

How to express rhythmic sense to its maximum

How to study in a relaxed way

The three qualities of bodily awareness

The eight types of movement in musical performance

CHAPTER 16

THE PATH OF EXPRESSION

From practice to expression

Freeing your creative forces

Offering your music to others

How to play your best

Performance excellence

The five qualities of excellent performance

PART V: HOW TO FULLY EXPRESS YOURSELF IN MUSIC

CHAPTER 17

THE PATH OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The Guitarist’s gratitude

CHAPTER 18

THE PATH OF THE CREATIVE ACT

The slider of the creative act

CHAPTER 19

THE PATH OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The cursor of the state of consciousness

PART VI: HOW TO BECOME A HAPPY GUITARIST

CHAPTER 20

EXPANSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The circle on the white paper

Your true nature

The guitarist’s awakening

CHAPTER 21

THE ENLIGHTENED GUITARIST

Light in the heart meditation

PART VII: HOW TO CONTINUE THE TRIP

CHAPTER 22

THE MAP

The Portal

The creative act

The mountain and the path

The tree and the star

Enlightening Practice and Practising Light

The four territories

The metaphor of the chariot

The star in the centre

Practice

Understanding

Listening

Expressing

The Music Space

The Path of Study

The Path of bodily awareness

The Path of Emotional Intelligence

The Path to Expression

The Path of the Creative Act

The Path of Consciousness

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LINK

INTRODUCTION

Let me give you a warm welcome guitarist, for however long you’ve been playing or whatever level you might be, whether you be a professional player or just a guitar lover: whatever the case may be, this book is for you!

Everyone is on their own path and at a different stage: there are those who started earlier and those who started later, those who progress faster and those who take longer.

We’re all on a journey with our guitar, always by our side. Many of us have kept company with it for a very long time and, who knows, you yourself might be a longstanding guitarist…

I started at six years old and you could say I’ve had many lives as a guitarist: as a self-taught player, as a student, as a professional, as a teacher, going through all its joys and sorrows. Yes, that’s right, sorrows too!

Let’s be honest, for us guitarists it’s not easy to succeed and in some way complete the circle with a feeling of satisfaction; it may occasionally happen, but this path often comes with unhappiness, tension and sometimes even suffering.

As a teacher and eternal guitar student, I’ve been concerned with musical growth all my life and what I’ve discovered is of great value to us guitarists.

The result is an original method for the artistic achievement of guitarists, that I’ve defined Guitar Mindfulness.

In this book I’ll introduce you to its principles and some of the method’s exercises and more importantly, reveal its map.

You’ll discover that this map is based on very ancient knowledge once reserved for a chosen few but now available to everyone, and thus you too. Provided you’re willing to observe everyday things from new perspectives and are above all, you could say, willing to put yourself on the line, this map is for you. But they say, truth is in the eye of the beholder.

So this map is secret not only because there aren’t many who know about it, but because you alone can interpret it in a way that best suits you, and only then can it take you to the treasure you’re seeking. I invite you to follow it with an open heart and mind, it will lead you to your artistic fulfilment. I promise you!

So, are you ready to enter the Secret Map of the Happy Guitarist?

PART I

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE JOURNEY

When I was twenty years old, I used to be a street musician.

I sang while playing my guitar for the sea of people strolling across the courtyards of Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

I would sing those songs I loved at the top of my voice and a semicircle of people would gather around me to listen….

As evening came, if the police hadn’t come to send me away, I could see the figure of my father, a little further behind the crowd of people that had stopped to listen.

He too was listening and… did he listen! My father was a quiet man and therefore a great listener.

This was when I gave it my all, singing and playing that last song the best I could. My father used to come for me so we could go home together. He would help me count the coins the passers-by had left in the guitar case, and would lovingly rejoice with me over my little treasure.

Shortly after, my father fell ill and after much suffering he left us. From then on I stopped singing.

All the same, my singing tried to find a way to express itself and had no intention of being silenced.

Thus the guitar, that until then had only been used to accompany my voice, became increasingly important to me and I began to study music seriously, improvisation in particular then subsequently harmony and arrangement.

The tunes I once sang came back to me, expressing themselves joyfully through the guitar, which I increasingly discovered to be my true instrument: harmonic, melodic, rhythmic… a real mini orchestra always by my side!

That was how I chose to become a guitarist. It wasn’t easy, in fact, I admit I struggled a lot and even suffered, but I always forged ahead: all I knew was that I’d play the guitar, that was the only certainty.

CHAPTER 1

THE TEN OBSTACLES TO A GUITARIST’S HAPPINESS

In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity.

Albert Einstein

Have you ever experienced dissatisfaction or tension in your career as a guitarist?

To a certain extent this is normal, because anyone who has an artistic approach to music nurtures an ideal of beauty towards which they tend and want to achieve.

We dream of playing like that guitarist, we choose role models that inspire us, and we identify our ideal with this or that way of playing. We thus create a goal towards which to strive, and this striving generates tension. In some ways this is a good thing, tending towards an ideal of beauty is part of what an artistic path is. The problem is, this tension can become a state of malaise and cause suffering.

This is just one of the problems, but there are many other kinds of suffering I have experienced first-hand or encountered through my student and guitar friends. This suffering can cause greater or lesser pain.

It could be, for example, we suffer because our talent is not understood, not recognized and this can cause a lot of pain.

It could be that our parents didn’t recognize our talent, causing us to suffer and be in anguish, making us think that if they’d recognized and understood how important this passion had been for us, they could have helped us cultivate it and given us more headway.

Or it could be our partner doesn’t understand how important and essential the guitar is to us, making it difficult to become part of our everyday lives. It’s hard to make space for yourself, because maybe the other person doesn’t understand, is jealous or in any case doesn’t agree with it, so he or she doesn’t understand how important it is for us to cultivate this passion.

This obviously creates problems: maybe it means we have to restrict ourselves in cultivating this passion or suffer not being able to share it with those we love. All this is very common.

Now I know I’m rubbing salt into the wound, as they say, but be assured that during the course of the book you’ll discover how to be rid of these problems forever, so read on, you’ll probably see yourself, and understand what can be done about your suffering.

One of our biggest problems is time.

Many of us are not professional guitarists, but have other jobs, so we spend most of our day doing something else.

In this case, it often happens that rather than feeling like architects, office workers, factory workers… who play the guitar, deep down we feel as though we’re guitarists doing another job!

When someone has a strong passion but is prevented from being able to cultivate it, because work takes away time and energy, this can be a great source of frustration and pain

and is also one of the most common: most people who play the guitar don’t do it for a living.

But even those who play professionally don’t have a lot of free time, because maybe they teach, or have to promote their own activities, often having to travel and then, like the rest of us, they also have family commitments.

Often, even those who play for a living suffer from not being able to do everything they’d like to, because there are so many areas to cultivate: study, preparation for their repertoire, research, listening, taking care of their instruments, etc.

Not even professionals are able to fully satisfy their passion. For example, I’ve always wanted to study flamenco guitar, but I’ve never managed to find the time to do so, and like everyone else have had to make choices and sacrifices.

Another cause of suffering is not having chances to play music.

Often we’d like to play with someone, we’d like to be able to express ourselves, to be in situations where we can perform, to have gigs, places where we can be heard, but sometimes we can’t find them.

And when we’re at last able to play, the place is noisy and no one seems to be listening to us, and this can also cause us to suffer.

Or the evenings are paid so little they take away the dignity of the experience and this too is a great cause of suffering for those who play as a profession. Especially in Italy it is hard, in fact very hard, to succeed in doing this job.

I’m sorry to have to list these negative things, but becoming aware of them is the first step needed to be taken to overcome them. These negative aspects are also part of our experience as guitarists, so let’s be brave, let’s move forward, let’s face reality!

Another very common aspect that creates suffering, and prevents us from having success as guitarists, is being over critical and self-critical: never being happy with what we do. This can depend on two main things; the first is over perfectionism, we want perfection from ourselves, we demand it and until we’ve achieved it, we won’t accept what we do, we reject it and prevent ourselves from expressing ourselves.

We demand perfection from ourselves both technically and theoretically. So we accumulate an enormous amount of information because we never feel ready to be able to express ourselves, always having some reason to think we’re never up to par.

This is a very common problem with guitarists. Guitarists, as I know them, are usually very modest people. Although other musicians often make fun of us for keeping the volume too high during rehearsals and concerts, what I’ve noticed is that guitarists tend to underestimate themselves rather than show off. Obviously there are those that are inclined to "throw themselves into