Customer Reviews

Zen Guitar

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Philip Toshio Sudo is not Mel Bay--if you buy Zen Guitar looking for scales and chord charts, then yes, you will be disappointed. But the book's concept--the "path of Zen Guitar"--is not how to play, but _how_ to play and, depending on your interpretation, _why_. It's about motivation and fulfillment, not technique.

What the book does--or did for me, at any rate--is help you evaluate why you play guitar in the first place and gives you some food for thought as you go about achieving your guitar goals. I am a sloppy, self-taught player, I have no experience with Zen teachings, and I'm not big on books that offer fun new dogma--but I found the book's focus on the spiritual and emotional aspects of creating music on a guitar as well as the musician's unique and personal relationship with the instrument both fascinating and extremely valuable. I feel I'm a better player now, practicing with sharper goals and better intentions; the book's advice has helped both broaden my outlook and focus my efforts. At no time does Zen Guitar neglect the importance of practice; it is, in fact, at the heart of the book (its First Point Of Focus: "Don't ask, practice"). Many of its concepts are direct from Zen teachings and beliefs, but the book neither preaches nor drags.

Zen Guitar is a difficult book to describe, but I didn't find it difficult to comprehend--and I was able to apply its wisdoms to my playing immediately. As long as you *want* to explore the spiritual aspect of playing guitar, the book can be an invaluable tool.

Someone who is a great guitar player recommended this book to me. I study art and very interested in philosophical interpretation of music, art, life etc.

Once I started to read it, I could not believe how many great thoughts it had. This book has SO many valuable sayings written in such a simple language! Take for instance couple of these, "if you can't play what you hear, then hear what you play" or "do it [practice] as much as needs to be done, as well as it needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and do it this way every time."
I don't like to read it too fast though because I need to put it through my own "filter", well, I just like to chew on :).

I would say that "Zen Guitar" is for anyone who is interested in philosophy or/and any kind of art. I play some music instruments as well, and I think this book will help you depending on what you are looking for. For some it is strictly for that specific instrument (read: GUITAR) and will put some more soul in their sound but for others it just can be a starting point to many exciting discoveries in LIFE... enjoy!

If you can only play one string - then play it! That is the spirit of this book. it connects the basics of guitar playing to spiritual development. Start with the basics, play what you enjoy, do what you are good at. Such easy advice, yet so difficult to embrace. To really understand the book the reader needs to go through it several times, and really ponder what the author means. All chapters start with a quote from famous guitarists, people who know, and is worth listening to.

In this age of mainstream music and synthesized music and voices, and [disappointing] boy bands, VERY few musicians, unfortunately, carry any passion at all for their instrument, or even their craft.
Since the first time i picked up a guitar back in 1995, i've been completely and utterly awed and inspired by Johnny Rzeznik of the GOO GOO DOLLS. His songwriting and guitar playing always amazed me, and in one interview i read, he had spoken about this book and how it had helped him.
Now, i have been playin guitar for 8 years now...and i'm pretty damn good! I've played for professional theatre productions, various bands, i even played in the band for Late Show with David Letterman. I thought i was good ~ Then i read this book and realized just how much i was MISSING!
Don't get it wrong ---> this book isn't going to poison you with some strange new dogma. All you need to do is believe that there is in fact a spiritual connection between what your fingers are doing on the fretboard and what is going on in your heart. This book teaches you how to harness that and use it to your advantage. I honestly believe, and dozens of my co-workers and friends have agreed, that my guitar playing has been taken to a whole new level.
ALL YOU GUITAR PLAYERS OUT THERE, I URGE YOU TO DO THE SAME. This book will be the best ... bucks you'll ever spend in your musical career. Enjoy it, and learn something. You might be surprised by what you find out.

My first reaction was to laugh out loud at how Zen has become a way to make anything seem mystical. However, I forced myself to keep reading and soon found myself caught up in the flow. I soon found myself picking up my guitar with "intention" and paying much more attention to what sounds were coming out. Looking back about a year after reading this book I suddenly realize that my playing has improved, I now practice 1-2 hours a day on average instead of 1-2 hours a week. I have a deeper emotional connection to my music than ever before. Just read this book and do what it says. Don't think about it because it will just make you laugh.

I was pretty much gushing about this book for a while..., it felt life-changing..., but things usually do, and the initial excitement wore off, and i forgot about it for too long. i need to make sure that i read this thing every night..., or every morning when i wake up..

i am a musician who has always had a profound problem with laziness.., then inability to focus on practice, and embarrassment at the prospect of performing.

this book is a guide for me to confront many of my personal issues and overcome them..., though it's what i need to do with my playing..., not just reading this book..

anyways... i later read
"the secrets of succesful practicing for guitarists" by k downing or some such name..., and it was dry and boring in comparison, with rules etc...,

this book's attraction is that it is not really about playing guitar..., but it is more about guitar than any other book.... it is not a book with "information' as the author states..., i am working throu leavitt's modern method for guitar and countless supplementary materials for that now..., but this book is like...,


i hesitate to use the word spirituality...

but many would call it that..

it's just that it deals with the psychology of playing guitar... the feedback loop that is your mind..., and inserting these words into that feedback loop is bound to do good things for your playing.


everything in here i agree with. the name zen is misleading to many peopple..., as it has been with his other books..., but this is more of a practical manual..., still, i must regret that so many people feel as though a spirituality with such history and power is being gradually lost and forgotten to a bunch of misinformation.

. whenever i read this book i feel so incredibly happy and motivated to play music and live in a way that will promote my ability to make sound and be creative and happy..., without being embarrased of sounding sappy or new-agey. i am the anti-newagey person, a skeptic..., who believes in pure science as a governing principal..., but there is a grey space of unknown and this book is a guide to this unknown for me, in this area.


--Daniel Page

I really dug this book. It inspired me to get an old guitar out of the closet and start plucking away again. It is really an approach on life in general but applied to guitar. It makes you want to play guitar, not for the glory but the love of music and a spiritual connection to the music within.

I like this book quite a bit. Some find it lacking as a zen text, which it doesn't really claim to be. Others find it comes short as a guitar instructional, which is also not its intent. To me it seems like a book which tries to place a guitarist ina relatively zen state of mind. It does so without going into the type of rigor that would require the reader to be a student of philosophy, religion, or zen itself to understand.

Its greatest triumph is its ability to focus a guitarists on self-expression and fulfillment through guitar. There's no competitive, flashy workout mentality, no boistrous 'do everything the way I do' bullying. Sudo comes right out and says that you'll need other resources for the nuts and bolts.

In short, this is a great book to help a guitarists get into a good guitar state of mind.

There really isn't much I can add to the reviews already here. They are all right. I bought this book based on these reviews and I didn't like the book at all, at first. I thought it was just a bunch of esoteric eastern jibber jabber...and it is. It's rather silly at points. Sprinkled with quotes from artists most of whom have sold out whatever musical spirit they had years ago. All of that given, there are tons of books out there designed to tell you that all you knew before was completely wrong. You're holding your fingers the wrong way, real guitarists don't play those guitars, this style is better than that, you'll never be as good as so and so, etc. etc. Sound familiar? There is no end of people out there who live to tell other people their technique is wrong. This book dosen't do that. This book says if you feel it inside, then it's good music. This book says that good technique is important too, but the wrong note in the right spirit is better than the right note in the wrong spirit, and I have yet to find another book that just made me feel good about playing and learning, and not inadequate. Buy it for inspiration. Put it on your amp or music stand and just read a page of two when you feel like you'll never get there. Then you'll realize you're there already.

PROS: a sentimental, warm fuzzy, encouraging, inspirational read.

CONS: unlikely to make one a better guitarist or deeper person, and often reverts to Taoist cliches.

RECOMMENDATION: If you have a contemplative personality and play guitar, by all means, read this book. You will enjoy it. If you are more of the pragmatic sort, let it pass. Whether or not you get much out of this book will be determined more by your own personality than the quality of the book.