Yesterday one of my guitar students interviewed me for a school project. Something came out that I’ve been stuck on since.
The question (which he did not write) was a “What would you tell your college self?” kind of question. Not useful, but I gave him my standard: turn as much information as possible into knowledge and pursue as many different experiences as you can. As time passes, knowledge and experience will become wisdom. (I then told him that for the purposes of his project he could quote me as saying “critical thinking and problem solving” but the word I wanted him to remember was wisdom.)
He asked what that means for the guitar, and that’s when the surprising thing came out: “Compared to when I was a student I am slower but wiser.”
In grad school when I practiced 4-6 hours a day I could maintain a very fast and sharp technique (there is evidence of this on my youtube channel). I’m in a very different situation now, a good day of practicing is more like an hour. And yet, every year I still manage to learn a full solo program and usually a bunch of chamber music on about a quarter of the practicing. How does that work?
The biggest difference is that my knowledge of the guitar and the music is so much deeper I can turn that into playing much faster. It is wisdom to apply knowledge to information—the opposite order in which you have to learn. I can also play the same music with a lot less effort. If you’ve ever seen an old carpenter on a job site you know how this looks. Someone who seems to be barely moving, and yet walls are raised in front of them. Every movement is productive and useful, no energy wasted.