Rufus writes :

> And the other guitar player I often play with now, whom IS formally
> schooled and whom I consider to be a far better player than myself
> technically, often tells me that he wishes he could play half as
> expressively as I do...and another tells me that he wishes he could play
> as fluidly, and he takes both guitar and voice lessons once a week. So
> school, formality, and "rules" ain't the end-all as far as it goes.

Rules are what kills expression in music, and in anything else.
I've given this quite a bit of thought because I'm a lot like
your guitar player and trying to figure out how to break out of
these chains.

I think the problem is one of 'culture'. I grew up in a fairly
well off family within a much poorer community because my father
was a boss at one of the local chemical plants. I've always been
bothered by the differences in wealth between the different
classes of people. But I've also noticed that those with less
wealth may not necessarily be worse off.

One thing that's clear is that the more cultured your upbringing
(a bunch of rules regulating how you behave, music lessons,
travel, books, etc) the more stuck up you become. When I was a
kid I envied my friends their freedom. Their parents weren't
busy telling them what to do all the time, they more or less left
them alone.

I've been thinking that the reason why most of American music has
come from those of African descent is not because they were any
different inside, but because they were poor. Most of them
didn't have a bunch of cultural rules to get in the way of
expressing themselves. Poorer people may suffer, but it's been
my experience that they also have more fun.

You can't follow rules and be free. This is why I think it would
be much better to learn how to express yourself freely in music
-before- learning any rules. Theory later on might be useful in
describing what you're doing to someone else (who has to have had
the same education or you won't understand each other). Rules
later would probably have a less negative effect if you are
already able to freely express yourself and have the confidence
that goes with it. But I really wonder what the use would be, if
you're already playing the music you've got inside.

I'm sure I'm not the only beginner guitar player who has trouble
letting go. I've come to the conclusion that there's no point in
learning anything else until I make some progress on that front.

Paul P