Guitar and memory (not that memory)

For sometime now, I haven’t touched my guitar because I’m quite busy with school; I am in charge of the graduation practice and simply asking about 300 pupils to fall in line zaps most of energy not to mention keeping their noise level down and keeping them in line. Handling large number of pupils is very stressful, and if I am not careful I may end up physically controlling some of them which I try my best not to.  I am exhausted when I get home.

I haven’t touched my guitar for quite sometime now and last night when I tried to play some pieces, I found out that I forgot some of the passages and this frustrated me. I am not really a guitarist but because I like classical guitar music, I taught myself to read notes and even today I read notes like a grade one pupil so I learn guitar piece at a very slow rate. Learning one, depending on the difficulty level, is quite a challenge that takes me from few minutes to many hours chipping at the score a little at a time. So it was frustrating to realize that what took me hours to learn, I forget faster.

Among 19^th century philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer was among the first to contend that at its core, the universe is not a rational place. Inspired by Plato and Kant, both of whom regarded the world as being more amenable to reason, Schopenhauer developed their philosophies into an instinct-recognizing and ultimately ascetic outlook, emphasizing that in the face of a world filled with endless strife, we ought to minimize our natural desires for the sake of achieving a more tranquil frame of mind and a disposition towards universal beneficence. Often considered to be a thoroughgoing pessimist, Schopenhauer in fact advocated ways — via artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness — to overcome a frustration-filled and fundamentally painful human condition. Since his death in 1860, his philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life's meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts.(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Anyway, that’s life…time is what we do not have that much to spend. Most seemed to think that work is what gives meaning to person’s life and other activities that do not contribute to productivity is considered useless. True to a degree but it is also important to experience the beauty surrounding us because this adds meaning to our lives. Even the pessimist philosopher Schopenhauer saw that art and the contemplation of beauty is a sort of an escape or a balancer in our perpetual battle against our will (will to Schopenhauer is evil). So when we contemplate beauty or works of art, we are temporary raised above the level of our wills. That coming from a sour philosopher is something to think about.

Life without music is a mistake according to Nietzsche, so,play on!