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| Carlos Santana giving it some, live on stage. |
“Just as Jesus created wine from water,
we humans are capable of transmuting
emotion into music."
- Carlos Santana.
Scientists and philosophers have long sought to explain how music impacts us at an emotional level. It is known that playing music alters how our brain and body functions, and therapists have long advocated playing an instrument to reduce anxiety and stress, as well as to relieve pain.
Music has also been recommended as an aid for positive change in mood and emotional states.
Renowned surgeon Michael DeBakey explains: "creating and performing music promotes self-expression and provides self-gratification while giving pleasure to others. In medicine, increasing published reports demonstrate that music has a healing effect on patients."
Nothing expresses an emotion like playing the right song, whether it’s to celebrate a positive feeling or to help manage a difficult one.
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| A youthful Janis Joplin in the 1960's. |
“It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned how to make feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel. I'm into me, plus they're into me, and everything comes together.” – Janis Joplin
On the journey of learning and mastering the guitar everyone experiences difficult emotions through criticism, frustration at not progressing fast enough, stage fright, making a mistake, or just from having a bad day.
During these times our better judgement can get clouded, making it difficult to deliver the best performance we can, progress fast and be inspired.
If emotions ever get in the way of your guitar development, try the following technique:
First, get clear on what’s causing the situation, e.g. “I’m nervous about playing live”, “I can’t play barre chords yet”, or “my last live show didn’t go as well as I’d hoped”.
Then arrange it into a statement in the form: even though (insert situation), I deeply and completely accept myself as a musician. i.e. “even though my last show didn’t go well as well as I’d hoped, I deeply and completely accept myself as a musician”, or “even though I’m not yet as technically proficient as Steve Vai, I deeply and completely accept myself as a musician”.
The next stage of the process involves tapping points on the body, derived from acupuncture, which can release the energy blockages that cause negative emotions. There are 10 points in all, 9 of which are illustrated on the diagram below.
You can tap on the points on either side of the body, using whichever fingers are comfortable. Tap just enough so you can feel it - don't hurt yourself!
First, tap the “karate chop point”. As you tap say your statement out loud. Next move on to the eyebrow point. Tap and repeat your statement.
Now move on to the “side of the eye” point. Then under the eye, under the nose, on the chin, on the collar bone, under the arm and finish on the crown.
Pause for a moment and take a couple of deep breaths.
The final stage of the process uses a combination of tapping, eye movement and humming to integrate the left and right hand sides of the brain.
The last tapping point, known as the “gamut point” (so called because it is connected to a wide range of emotions), is located on the back of your hand, around 1cm below the point between the knuckles of your 3rd and 4th fingers (see diagram below).
While continuously tapping this point, follow the 10-step procedure below:
1. Say your statement.
2. Close your eyes for a second or two.
3. Open your eyes.
4. Look down hard right, but hold your head steady.
5. Look down hard left, keeping your head steady.
6. Roll your eyes in a clockwise circle.
7. Roll your eyes in an anti-clockwise circle.
8. Hum 5 seconds of your current favourite song.
9. Count from one to five.
10. Hum another 5 seconds of your chosen song.
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