The pace of modern life is filled with a lot of information. We live in a world of social media, dozens of emails, messages, web feeds, online games, reminders, pictures, videos, and so on and so on. All this is turning into a huge flow of information that is not always helpful. It’s all about each of us unless you live somewhere in the middle of nowhere where there’s no Internet or other benefits of civilization.
In my line of work as a guitar teacher, I have noticed a very interesting peculiarity. It is amazing but kids are very focused on playing the guitar. They are involved in the process in their natural environment and do not even misbehave. In the classroom, teenagers are even more focused on one thing than the average adult. So as a parent and as a father, watching my wife, I have found out the next thing.
Both parents, but mostly moms, take care of their children. They plan a working day, regulate the amount of time per day spent with a tablet or a phone. Moms enroll their children at different sports clubs, drawing, and music classes. They are active in the development of their kids. Children have more useful information than adults. Adults choose their lifestyle independently and do not always pay attention to their own time. There might be useful information, but often it is just «some noise». A phone game is better to replace pleasant silence and calmness. By doing this, you’ll have time just to have some rest.
I’m so grateful that I have an opportunity to interact with people of all sorts of activities. I have noticed that the lack of concentration can be seen among people who need to deal with multi-tasks.
- How many tasks do you set per day?
- How many commitments do you make on time?
Nowadays, everyone has access to an endless stream of information. That is why people try to do everything by themselves. This is considered to be a norm. Still, it has resulted in a reflex and a rapid shift of focus. Let us think, what does guitar play have to do with undivided attention? What is concentration? It is how a person is capable to focus on one activity.
My observations led me to the following conclusions. When a student comes to his or her first guitar lesson, learning begins with a couple of simple exercises. And after a while, our guitarist can learn and play a small work of music. Still, to play from the beginning to the end is not always possible.
I often can hear my students tell me such words: “you know ...I was playing…. and began to think about something ... something distracted me ….. I was playing and then everything completely slipped my mind... I was thinking about my work ... and so on”.
A good teacher always has a piece of advice concerning working on a work of music. And if a student listens to the solutions proposed by a teacher, he or she will be able to develop both concentration and a sense of integrity of a work.
Although I am totally devoted to pedagogy, I practice playing the guitar every day. I'll tell you what I'm thinking. At first, sight playing an instrument can be somehow compared to meditation. But playing the guitar or any other instrument is a little bit more complicated. You have to learn the text, teach your fingers to press the guitar strings. And then you study how to play the guitar, remember the melody and think ahead of your playing fingers. You need to think about dynamics and fascinating peeping on a guitar fretboard to add to your playing some flexibility and beauty.
The moment the musician plays the guitar, his/her focus on the performance has to be at the highest level. Otherwise, the musician can’t concentrate and we will hear something like this: “…. I was playing and then everything completely slipped my mind...."
If you play a few pieces of work from start to finish, you will learn to work on them properly. It develops a necessary skill - to finish everything. It is very important to understand the process of getting a result. Concentration is not the only or the main reward here, it is also about but the ability to play the guitar, a clear understanding of the music at concerts, profound musical and stylistic knowledgeability. Moreover, a small bonus can be a pleasant and wonderful hobby of your lifetime. Inspire and just do it!