Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar Review

Overall Rating

Philip Toshio Sudo
October 20th,1959 - June 9th, 2002

I was very sorry to find out that the author of Zen Guitar died recently. His work is worth checking out ...

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Zen Guitar is about the journey of musical discovery more than nuts-and-bolts guitar tuition. You will not find any actual scored lessons or fingering exercises here, just a whole new approach to playing. Philip Sudo is honest with his reader from the very start, "Beginning students often ask 'How long will it take me to learn the Way of Zen Guitar?' My answer is as long as you live - that short". In Zen Guitar we are invited to consider the guitar in a new light, with heightened passion and deeper understanding. Throughout, learning and playing the guitar could be a metaphor for life. It is the same "get your hands dirty" message that Pirsig taught us. We must submerge ourselves in every task, and engage with life, rather than simply observe it from the wings. Sudo writes, "The... thing I mean by 'pick up your guitar' concerns the way you physically take it in your hands ... maybe you just want to noodle on it while watching TV. Then pick up your guitar with the mind of noodling while watching TV ... when you pick it up, pick it up". The book's chi is well-balanced between a healthy humour and a tunnelling insight into our strengths and weaknesses. The few overly-cosmic statements can be easily forgiven, whilst the efficient lesson format ensures the message survives even the shortest attention span. Each lesson is headed by a Guitar Hero quote with this John McLaughlin classic from Guitar Player (May 1995) leading the chapter on 'Ego', "If I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have and my own preconceived, silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me. And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen".