There’s a saying I heard once in Martial Arts circles-

“1000 blades, none of them sharp”.

It’s one worth thinking about when you consider the impact of the internet on martial arts training, and probably on a lot of endeavours. There’s so much information, and not a lot of ways to filter or digest it into something practical.

Martial Arts Guitar Lessons!

Over lockdown, I picked up my guitar again. Now to say I’m a 4 chord novice is to do a great disservice to 4 chord novices. I played the 5 songs I can play again and again, until I decided I’d like to get some tips. In particular, I was wondering if I was doing something wrong with my hand position on the fret board, because after weeks of effort, I was still struggling to get my fingers into shape for certain chords.

I thought I must be doing something technically wrong. Was I gripping too loose or too tight? Was there something I was doing when changing my fingers that was holding me back?

I’m lucky, a lot of my friends are musicians, so I was just a video call away from a free lesson, and they were all doing nothing in lockdown, so would have been delighted to help.

So I did what everyone does first, I went on YouTube.

YouTube is Not The Answer!

My search for guitar tips and tricks yielded literally millions of results, all with great graphics and fancy videos. “The ONE thing every novice should know”. “The BEST METHOD for beginners!”. You get it.

I am certain each of those guys and girls had a lot to teach me. But instead of picking one and watching that, I picked 10 and watched 3 minutes of each of them. Then I put my pick down and walked away from the guitar for another few weeks.

It was just so overwhelming. Eventually I picked the guitar up again, picked up my chord BOOK, and went into a quiet room to play. I can’t say I got much better, but I can definitely say I didn’t learn anything from the YouTube experience. I just needed more time playing.

Jiu Jitsu Beginners Tip

Jiu Jitsu is worse than music for that stuff. I think it may be because we grew up on the idea that the martial artist was a sort of mystical figure like the Kung Fu masters from the movies, with a long white beard who spoke in riddles. If you start with the idea that the Black Belt has secrets he’s not showing you, you’re already in trouble!

There are no secrets except time spent training.

There is no “One thing your instructor isn’t telling you!”

There is definitely no “Secret to getting your blue belt fast!”

Just training, enjoying it. Spending time in the gym learning. Developing a small but very effective set of moves that you use to good effect.

See you on the mat, I’m off to pick up my guitar.

Barry