Building Hand Made Instruments

Is Science or Intuition Best in Hand Crafting Instruments

Does one need to use Electronic Instruments in Building Hand Made Instruments

First let me define what I believe is Intuition for building instruments. Yes there is a mystical element to intuition but in some ways science is present heavy duty in intuition.

Where does the science come from in Intuition? Our minds take in data and store it all the time, in absolutely everything we do. It is said that all that we have ever seen or heard or learned is actually in the inner mind’s memory system and I believe this is true. We cannot always access all that is in our memory but it is there. I think what we call memory is our ability to access our memory and not the memory itself.

Our minds take in data that is fed to it. And we made decisions based on data. Our inner mind remembers all this for it forgets nothing. I sincerely believe that if science look deep enough that it could be proven that our memory cells in the brain have stored absolutely all our experiences from when we were born, and perhaps even before the time came for to us go from the womb to the outer world. What we call memory is the ability to access the memory cells that have the information stored.

Guitar, Mandolin, Lap Steel, Dobro

So an instrument builder builds and he learns. Some builders learn faster than other builders, but eventually all builders learn close to all they can learn, according to their inborn talents. And how much each builder learns varies greatly according to his inborn talent and the motivation of the builder. A builder with no passion for building instruments is not going to be that much of a builder, at least in my opinion for I believe that motivation is of the utmost importance in become a really superior instruments builder.

Some instruments builders will never be much more than carpenters who build instruments. This type of builder will never build a truly superior instrument no matter what kind of instrument they are hand crafting.

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The builder who becomes really good, in my opinion, has a passion for Building Instruments, and they have a good deal of inborn talent, and they learn as they build. The really superior instruments builder develops a feel for what they are doing and what the feel is, is very hard to put into words, but it is there. In some ways the feel that super builders develop is very much like intuition and it may well be there because of intuition.

Intuition uses all the knowledge that one has taken in consciously and this is the science part of intuition. Intuition also has a mystical connection that no one can fully understand and explain, but it is there.

A little Girl Described intuition this way, It's knowing something but not knowing how you know it." That is a really good definition of intuition.

The intuitive leap does not come from conscious thought, it’s just there. What happens is below the level of conscious thinking. It’s like background processing by a computer. In the background processing the human mind uses all the knowledge and intelligence that has ever entered the mind. And intuition also has access to knowledge that has not entered the mind through the senses, or conscious thought. Scientist give recognition to intuition for no intelligent person can deny that intuition exist for everyone experiences intuition.

A Guitar player was asked who his favorite Guitar player was. He answered, "Without Question it is Eric Clapton." He said "I toured with Eric Clapton as his back up lead Guitar player." He continued, "When Eric Clapton gets going he plays licks that he does not know how he plays." Of course Eric Clapton’s Intuition is working heavy duty when this happens. Many Guitar Players have experienced this phenomena. They play Guitar Licks that surprises them and they wonder how they did it. The height of this kind of intuitive playing is when a musician loses consciousness of his surroundings and he is totally immersed with the music. There can be no doubt that this is when any musician plays their most creative music. I have known one musician that said the first time he lost consciousness with his surroundings and came back to the consciousness, it scared him a little, but then he realized what had happened and thought it was neat.

As the better, superior instrument builder progress, they have a huge data base of knowledge to call on. They also have their inborn ability, and they have access to knowledge through the mystical part of their intuition. Using all this they build great instruments, instruments that no one could ever build using science or conscious thought alone.

I read on the net on some builders web sites where they say they use some electronic instruments to examine wood to see if it is good tonewood. This is fine for the beginner. They have not the ability to determine the best woods. If someone is a very good carpenter and they use the electronic instruments to determine if they have good wood, they can probably build a fair Guitar, if they have taken someone else very good design to build the Guitar. However, if someone never develops the feel for the tonewood so that they can abandon the electronic instruments, they will never build a truly superior Guitar that the best Guitar Player plays and love. A Guitar player to the level that Andres Segovia Reached would not even consider playing a Guitar from this kind of builder. Segovia would strum across the strings and hand the Guitar back to the builder. Just a strum across the strings would tell Segovia all he needed to know about the Guitar.

Only a builder who reaches the higher level where they have a feel for the tonewoods and for the construction method itself will ever build a really great Guitar that the finest Guitar Players, the highest level Guitar Players will love. Only that Builder that acquires so much knowledge for his intuition to work with that he understands what makes a Guitar Sound the way it sounds, understands it to at least a certain level, will ever be able to build a truly great Guitar.

The highest level builders will experiment. They are not happy with building someone else design all their life. They want to know what gives the Guitar it’s sound. So with experimentation the Builder learns much. They learn what works and what does not work.

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I had a Violin Builder to tell me that Stradivari had to experiment till he was past 50 years old before he built the Violins that are now worth millions of dollars. Stradivari had something his copiers do not have. He had the knowledge that went with building the Superior Violins he Constructed that are not worth millions of dollars. If design was all there was to it then any good music instrument carpenter could build Violins that sounded as good as the Million Dollar Stradivari Violins and no one can do this, absolutely no one can duplicate what Stradivari put in his Violins.

Everyone tries to figure out the secret of why Stradivari Violins sound good. There is no secret. The Stradivari Violins sound so wonderful only because Stradivari was a great builder, there is no other reason why his Violins sound so great.

The only reason any instrument will sound great is because the man who built the instrument was or is a great builder. The great builder can identify the best tonewoods. They understand design and they understand how to build and they can build great instruments. There is never a secret involved in good building of musical instruments. Good or Great instruments are built by the great builders for the great builders know how to build great instruments.

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The great builders operate at a level that the new builder can never imagine for the Great Builders have gathered a huge data base for their intuition to use to give them intuitive leaps in building Great instruments. Great Builders have to have a high level of inborn ability to use the data base of knowledge they gather. If a builder does not have an inborn ability to build great instruments they cannot gather the huge data base that is necessary to build great instruments.

I will not attempt to define inborn ability. I will say that no matter how much inborn ability someone has they do not wake up some morning and build a great instrument on their first build. They pay their dues and learn, no matter how much inborn ability they might have, this process still has to take place.

So is science or intuition best in being a great builder? By far intuition is best. But the intuition of a great builder has in some ways used scientific learning to develop the necessary data base to be a Great Guitar Builder. A certain amount of mysticism is also there. Edison said, "Inventing new things is easy, you just grab ideas out of the air." For Edison this was true, but how many people can grab ideas out of the air? Only the Genius can grab ideas out of the air the way Thomas Edison did it.

Everyone does have intuition, but few people understand and trust their intuition. The truly intuitive person recognizes his/her intuition and they can recognize intuitive leadings consciously. A truly intuitive person consciously knows the difference between a guess and intuition.

By Robert Lee Johnson

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Video Streaming is beginning to take off big time on the internet. Google is offering free Video Streaming to anyone and that includes more than music.

I checked out Google Streaming Videos the free Videos from the Unsigned Artists are pretty bad as videos and the level of music artistry is pretty low. The Musicians have someone with a Video Cam to take a pictures of them singing or playing the Guitar or whatever. Of course the musicians are thrilled to see themselves on the Internet, on the Google Free Streaming Web Site and I suppose friends and family like the very amateur level videos of someone they know. But the average person cannot be much turned on by the very amateur level Videos the Unsigned Artists are posting on Google Free Video Streaming.

Will some worth while Music Videos come from local and unsigned musicians in the future? Good question and one that I cannot answer. Local Bands can get fairly decent recordings made of their music, or do it themselves. Making Music Videos that are worth watching is much more difficult than recording the sound, just the music with no pictures.

The sound and video quality is often not good on the home Music Videos. However there is something refreshing and enjoyable about watching the home music videos that are on Google. The Streaming home music videos on Google have a kind of lure that brings you back again and again.

On Google Video you can search for about any type of music you can imagine.

It’s kind of fun to watch the homemade Videos at:

http://video.google.com/

Since Google is a search engine Google Video is set up so you can search on most anything.

A Bike Ride down a Colorado Mountain Bike Trail:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4005876984556810237&q=colorado

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=snowmobiling+in+colorado

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5652240362725168363&q=skiing+in+colorado

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=colorado+mountain

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=boulder+colorado

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=aspen+colorado

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3138700032525230691&q=guitar+builder

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=328329887634575124&q=musical+instruments

You get the idea you an search on most any subject in Google Video and find Video that someone has made on the subject.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=type%3Amusic_video&so=1

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=bluegrass

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=blues

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=r%26b

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=jazz

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=country++music

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=classical+music

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=classical+guitar

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=jazz+guitar&page=1&lv=0&so=0

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=blues+guitar

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=+gospel+music