This Is Guitar

Playing Guitar... may not be what you think it is. It just might surprise you but... what you do on guitar, "Playing Real Guitar"... with all the correct techniques and movements... may offer an enhancement of almost every area of your life, that could take you to new and higher levels of your own personal development .

Guitar has been a major influence for much longer than most of us could ever imagine. The instrument is not just a couple of hundred years old as often told to us, and believed by many to be... but it is ancient in it's ancestry. Ancient to the extent of thousands of years old, and it is not the offspring or descendant of the Lute, Violin or other string instruments... but in fact the origin of all these others as it's basic concept, design and tuning...and it's name... precede every other string instrument on Earth. This Is Guitar! This is where all the others came from, and what they all evolved out of. This Is Guitar ... the history and facts about which most have been hidden, and all but practically erased... and sometimes, deliberately by those wishing to disguise, destroy or disavow the truth for their own purpose or glory.

Just as with many other historic alterations and outright lies... we are just now being made aware of, various sectors of the population chose to hide or deny the facts about the guitar. Not unlike the truth about Christopher Columbus not being the first to discover what was a new continent... The Americas. The Vikings apparently came ashore on our land hundreds of years before Columbus, and we must not forget to mention the Native Americans who migrated here from elsewhere long before that. And there's even evidence that Romans may have visited prior to the Vikings. These, and tons of other historic facts have been either forgotten, destroyed or hidden from the population... often for the benefit of the story tellers and others. Another good example is the famed Library Of Alexandria... known to have been destroyed to hide evidence that if presented would have all but ended the development of various religions, religions that are those of the mainstream today... and if the truth had been known perhaps these religions would be almost unknown today, or just a simple entry in history books. The examples are endless of similar lies, deception and fraud and with The Guitar it is no different.

So what? Who really cares about the truth as pertaining to the guitar, and what does it really matter? After all the guitar is surly not as important as the discovery of the new world, or the development of any world religion. It's not about to be a cure for the plague of the century...cancer, or any significant current day problem such as the economy, the environment or education. Why then such emphasis placed on this noise making device... after all it's just music, right? Yes it's just music... however what is music really, and why did it and such things as musical instruments develop in the first place... and in particular, the Guitar. Well, these are the questions to be addressed and answered... and in doing so present the outstanding lineage and history of guitar and it's descendants the entire string family... including the piano... none of which we would have today if not for the guitar.

Therefore, as stated at the outset of this introduction... Playing Guitar May Not Be what You Think It Is. It is far beyond the mere playing of songs, or even writing new music... far more than being an entertainer, or even just having fun. Playing Guitar is an introduction to and a system for the development of a set of skills that affect the very essence of practically all we do... enhancing them so that we can do them better... and help in the further evolution of a higher level of skills that all mankind can benefit from. And, the guitar has been for thousands of years, as well as yet today still at work doing it's very job of moving humanity forward to new discoveries and a better life. This is no joke! This is the Real Story, "This Is Guitar".

Craig Smith

The Guitar and I

I began playing the guitar at about the age of five, preceding this with playing the ukulele from around two years of age. My grandfather and mother both played guitar... so this was an easy introduction to the instrument and it's sound. Who would of ever thought that this would become a lifelong activity... let alone an actual. In those days, even as today... playing music was at most a hobby, or a sideline one might have. However, it didn't turn out that way at all as you have probably noticed.

Around seven or eight I started taking actual guitar lessons, at a music studio roughly forty miles away from my home. My mother would drive me every Saturday to the lessons... which were "real" guitar/music education instructions. I went through seven or more consecutive books of a standard guitar system by Mel Bay, which was about the only such series of guitar methods available at the time. It wasn't easy... it was a complete music on guitar study and music developmental program that you had to follow exactly every step of the wry to progress from one level to the next. However, it was impressive and trained me in the true Art Of Guitar.

As years passed I continued to study guitar at extended and higher levels and play music always as just about the only thing I did aside from school, eating and sleeping. At around fifteen I was already active in the local music scene playing at school dances and even performing on television regularly. All this seemed just natural, and at the time neither I or my parents ever imagined this to be anything more than just adolescent play and activity... things were about to change though as I became more noticeable and recognized in not on the local front, but gradually to a larger, wider audience of music listeners. I had really gotten myself into something much deeper than expected... and it kept on going.

Soon it became aware to myself that I was always to play music on the guitar... and not seek any other type of job or work outside of the music business. This included not just playing guitar, and singing... which incidentally I did always at the time, but forgot to mention above... but also included continuous further study on the instrument, writing songs and other music... as well as professional recording music of my own and the ongoing promotion of my own music career.

During these years... I became aware of aspects pertaining to my instrument the guitar, that were not just about the playing and performance of music as most people view guitar or it's players in the popular world. In the study of music and the guitar's historic legacy... an extensive one to say the least... I became more cognoscente of a very deep and historic past of this instrument. The more I read and worked in this direction it became known that this is not just one of, group of instruments called the string family... but the origin of that entire family of such string instruments. Unbelievable as it might seem... but true never the less... this is the Real Story... about "The Art Of Guitar"

More on this to come... Craig

Music Is Energy In Action

Music is like clouds... music is like water in the sea... or a river, it's always moving. In this way music is like life itself... animated always... until like life, it ends. This symbolism of music could be more significant than we might think, perhaps it may be that when the music stops... so will all life on earth cease to exist.

By it's very nature of movement... energy in action... music is the supreme "Non Concretized Form" in the universe. In fact, within music lies the universe in miniature... continuously changing... evolving into a new shape every moment, a New Sound Sculpture made from nothing but vibrations floating through the air.

This Is Guitar

Playing Guitar... May Not Be What You Think It Is...

The Ancient Guitar... A Legacy From The Past

Images from Craig Smith's "The Art Of Guitar"