In my essay, "Discover Your Discomfort", I alerted you to the simple necessity for paying absolute attention to the physical body during the practice process. I explained that unnecessary and excessive physical tension is always present when we practice, and unless we are aware of it, and know how to minimize it, it will absolutely lead to playing difficulties. Further, those tensions become "locked" into the body and form the "faulty foundation" of our playing ability. I have never, in my 30 years of teaching, seen a student who did not suffer from the effects of this condition, it is only a question of how badly it has limited their playing.

Many, many people have reported an instant improvement in their playing simply by reading this essay, and beginning to examine their playing in light of the new insight gained. However, those insights are only half of the story. I am going to explain the other half. Just as "Discover Your Discomfort" dealt with the physical/tension aspect of playing problems, we are going to look at the "mental/tension" aspect of playing problems. Just as the mental aspect of our being is of a subtler nature than the physical (put simply, we can see the body, but not the mind), the understandings contained in this essay will be more subtle. It will require perhaps a greater effort on your part to grasp and use these concepts, but, it is this very effort that is necessary to play the guitar as well as many of us wish to play it.

Physical Contraction Leads to Mental Contraction, and Vice Versa: The Creation of Confusion

There is a very interesting connection between physical tension and mental confusion, and it has to do with the effect that physical tension tends to have on the mind and it's functioning. Simply stated, it is that when physical tension is present, the first reaction of the mind is to "tense" also. This tension, or "contraction" of mental awareness takes the form of the immediate withdrawal of attention from the area of physical tension, and the immediate "locking up" of the mental apparatus itself. As these conditions are re-created in each practice session, we become unable to feel the physical tension, and the mind also loses it's ability to be aware of itself. In this state, thinking, which is the process of creative manipulation of "objects of awareness", becomes impossible. In fact, we are not able to "grasp" any objects of awareness to manipulate because of the fact that the mind and attention are "locked". Put simply, when a muscle is locked in contraction, it cannot move. When the mind and it's attention are locked in contraction, it cannot think.

This locked up mental state is what we commonly call confusion. Just as it is possible, and common, to have muscles chronically tensed without feeling it or being aware of the tension, it is possible and common to be locked up with confusion without being aware of it. Still, we suffer the effects. When we have unknown physical tension, the only awareness we have is that we can't DO something. We don't know why we can't do it.We don't know that a part of us is creating and maintaining that tension, and that it IS possible to be in control, and learn to relax the muscles that are tense. When we have mental/tension, or confusion, we don't know that we are actually not able to think, to aggressively grasp objects of awareness, concepts and ideas, and achieve understanding. We are not aware that there is a part of us that is actually refusing to do so, to even try. We just say, "ooh, that's hard". Yes, it is hard, it is impenetrable, because we refuse to focus our mental powers as intensely as they need to be focused in order to penetrate the confusion before us (and also because we haven't learned a method for doing so.)

Let's look at the word "confusion". Con-fusion. "Con" means "with", so we have "with fusion". We are "fused with" the situation we are confused about. There is no "space" between "us" and "it", space which we need in order to observe "it" and it's various elements, so that those elements can be creatively manipulated in our thinking, and lead us to new insights, and therefore, out of our confusion. Of course, we want to know how to create that space, so that we can become "unconfused". We'll get to that, but let me make a few more points first.

Now, as I have said, this confusion can be generated by the mere presence of physical tension, which itself can be present for many reasons, such as an incorrect approach, or simply trying a new and demanding technique for the first time. However, there are confusions that are not based in the physical, but rather, are mental in origin. Very often, a student will be attempting to play something, and they really have no clear idea of what they are trying to do. When it comes to guitar, the simplest (apparently) things can actually be quite complex when it comes to the number of things that we must make happen at once, and all of them in the right way. It is sometimes mind boggling for students to make sure they are using all the right fingers of each hand, while of course playing the right notes, and doing it all while remaining as relaxed as possible. I often have to stop the struggling student and point out to them that the reason they are having trouble and are unable to play what they are trying to play, is because they really have no CLEAR idea of what they are trying to do at that moment. Of course, that doesn't stop them from trying with all their might to do it!

And the point I want you to appreciate is that in this state of trying to achieve a goal, without really knowing what the goal is, will create physical tensions. So, physical tension can lead to mental confusion, and mental confusion can lead to physical tension. And each one tends to maintain itself quite nicely.

It's kind of like finding yourself roaming around a city with the feeling that you supposed to be going somewhere, you're just not sure where. But you feel that being out there roaming around is somehow necessary to getting there, so you do it. You never really stop, sit down, and think about how you have no idea where you are going, and maybe that has something to do with why you don't get there! This actually describes what many people do when they supposedly "practice". They know that taking the guitar out and moving their fingers around has something to do with becoming able to play the music they want to learn, so they do it. That's about as much clarity as they have!

Well, I'll tell you, both of these situations, roaming around a city and never getting anywhere, and practicing for hours and never getting anywhere can make a person pretty tense, physically and mentally!

Confronting Your Confusion

There is a common reaction people have to their sensation of confusion: they run from it, full speed ahead in the opposite direction! I have always been amused while teaching to notice that when a student hits an area of confusion in the music which causes a breakdown in the playing, they will immediately run to a part of the music they are comfortable with, and start playing that. Then, when they hit the confusion again and breakdown, they will again rewind themselves to the earlier comfortable part, and it goes on like that, until I scream!

This is the opposite of confronting your confusion, and is not recommended.

So, how DO we confront our confusion? Well, the first thing I want you to realize is that if you are not used to it, it can feel very difficult in the beginning. It can hurt. In fact, in the beginning, attempts to confront your confusion can appear to intensify your confusion. This is one of the reasons people run from their confusions. It is one of the techniques confusion uses to scare you off and maintain itself. One thing about confusion is: it's comfortable, in the "comfortably numb" sense of the word! In fact, confronting our confusion is as pleasant as somebody waking you up from a deep, comforting sleep! However, we have all noticed how easy it is to get out of bed when we are looking forward to doing something we really want to do that day. Similarly, when we begin to realize how much faster we can grow and develop ourselves by constantly confronting our confusion, we become quite enthusiastic about the whole thing, and see our confusions as exciting challenges.

In order to understand how to confront your confusion, it is necessary to really appreciate the meaning of a quote attributed to Einstein (who was no slouch when it came to confronting his confusion!).

"A problem can never be solved at the same level of thinking with which it was created"

We cannot confront our confusion because we do not know how to leave the level of thinking at which the problem was created, and at which the problem is being maintained. To put it more correctly, our problems are created and maintained because THINKING, in the true sense of the word, has simply never taken place. When we are engaged in a pursuit that by it's very nature is going to deliver us nothing BUT and endless stream of problems, such as learning algebra, or a new software program, or the guitar, or life itself, well, if we don't know how to change the level of our thinking, then we are in for little or no progress with our problems. It is this capacity for "self-transcendence", the ability to achieve clarity over our confusion, that makes the difference between the winners and the losers in any area of life.

Achieving Clarity

Nothing I am saying here is new, many people have realized and stated these things in different ways throughout history. But I'm just a guitar player like you, so let's talk about what this all means for us. How do we take the cloud of confusion and condense it into "crystallized clarity" when it comes to confronting the confusions we encounter in the simple process of getting our fingers to do what we want them to do? How do we put that "space" between us and the "object of confusion". How do we change the level of our thinking?

When it comes to our fingers, the first step, of course, is to realize that most likely we don't know what we want them to do! The next step is to use that wonderful invention that humans have come up with over the last couple of millennia, the invention that we use to enable our minds to put a "handle" on reality, so that it can be grasped, manipulated, and controlled. That invention is called "words".

We can confront and clarify our confusion by confronting and clarifying our thinking (or lack of it) by the use of verbal language, or words. This means we need to figure out what we want our fingers to do, and then we need to TELL them what to do. And then we need to make sure they are LISTENING to us. And for this, we use Verbal Event Analysis.

What Is Verbal Event Analysis

Verbal Event Analysis is the examination of where our fingers are now, and the formation of a clear mental picture of where we want them to be, and then the verbal, out loud, recitation of the plan we have created for getting our fingers from one place to the next. As in anything else in life, the success we achieve will depend on the quality of each one of those steps. And, as in anything else in life, the more you do this, the better you get at doing it well.

Let's take an example, a common playing situation: moving from a C chord to a full F bar chord. Most beginners will do this in the worst possible way. They will lift all of their fingers from the C chord, and then grapple with the neck as they attempt to place the bar and the rest of their fingers into position on the F chord. A simple Verbal Event Analysis would save them a lot (sometimes a lifetime!) of agony. It would go like this:

Well, my 3rd finger is down at the 3rd fret, 5th string, and it needs to end up at , golly, the 3rd fret, 5th string! Hmm, maybe I should keep it there!

Now, let's see. My 2nd finger is down at the 2nd fret, 4th string. It need to end up at the 2nd fret, 3rd string. Hmm, that's not very far. Maybe I shouldn't be lifting it up to the ceiling and trying to get it back down, maybe I should just lightly lift it off the 4th string and keep it real low, and just "drag" it over to the 3rd string.

My 4th finger isn't being used on the C chord, but I do need it for the F chord to go down on the 4th string, 3rd fret. Maybe I shouldn't let it stay all curled up and tense like a coat hanger while I'm playing the C chord. Maybe I should pay a lot of attention and keep it relaxed and waiting above the 4th string so I can just drop it into place.

And finally, my 1st finger is flexed back to the 2nd string for the C chord, and needs to extend and go across all the strings into a bar for the F chord. Well, that is a little tricky, but if I keep everything else relaxed, and I keep the finger low while I'm moving from one place to the other, it sure feels easier. (True, I notice my upper arm and shoulder tend to tense up here, but since I have studied The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar, I understand about Sympathetic Tension and how to minimize and eliminate it through proper practice and use of The Basic Practice Approach, so I feel quite confident that I can vanquish this challenge with enough good practice sessions.

Okay, good, time to get to work!

Now, that is a lot of words to describe a "simple" move from a C chord to an F chord. And once you practice it according to the clarity you have achieved by performing a Verbal Event Analysis, it WILL be simple to do. But never underestimate the complexity of human movement. With all our sophisticated computer technology, science still can't build a robot that can accurately scratch it's own nose!

And let me emphasize that the "out loud" part is essential. Nothing will more powerfully show us how confused we really are about something than trying to put it into words. However, the mere act of doing so has the effect of clarifying the confusion. Words are the "handles" with which we can grasp the objects of awareness necessary for the thinking process.

THAT is what Verbal Event Analysis is all about. Verbal Event Analysis hooks the mind and the fingers together, and creates and intensifies those two essential inner forces that are the source of our power, Attention and Intention. I use this technique for myself, and it brings me my Eureka moments. I guide my students through it, and if they start practicing as much as I do, they probably won't need me anymore!

Copyright 2001 Jamey Andreas