We begin where we are.

So, where are we?

Better, before we move from A to B, to know that we are at A.

How do we know where we are?

By getting to know ourselves.

How do we get to know ourselves?

We put part of our attention on the outside, and part of our attention on the inside.

We divide our attention between what we are doing, and our internal responses to what we are doing.

We watch what we are doing, while simultaneously watching our responses:

sensing our physical relaxation;

our thinking;

our feeling.

So, how well we get to know ourselves is determined by our capacity to divide the attention.

That is, how well we get to know ourselves is determined by the quality of our attention.

We know ourselves to the degree that our attention is available to know ourselves.

The extent of our attention in time is called our Present Moment.

The spacial extent of our attention is reflected in how far, geographically, our interests & influence extend.

This is sometimes referred to as our level of Being.

So, how much attention do we have?

The quick answer, from someone who has been looking at this for a long time, is not very much.

--is utterly mysterious: magical, unknowable, indefinable;
--is concrete: know-able, do-able, feel-able, available.


The artist is a bridge between the possible, the impossible, and the actual.

The centre of discipline: the degree to which we are able to hold ourselves in front of a challenge.

A comfortable life, and a creative life, are mutually exclusive.

Grace provides a Gate to Paradise fit for each and every soul that approaches with sincerity and determination.

Love cannot bear that any soul be denied its place in Paradise.

Perhaps Paradise is not what we expect it to be.

Beauty is the reflection of the appearance of truth.
Better to seek truth than the reflection of its appearance.
But better to seek beauty than nothing.

Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence.
Sound is that cup, but empty.
Noise is that cup, but broken.

Music without love is not properly music.

Music is silence, singing.

Music is the architecture of silence.

Silence is an invisible glue.

Silence is a distant echo of the approach of the Muse.

Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence that dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.

Quiet is the absence of sound, silence the presence of silence.

Silence is not silent.

Silence is a bridge between worlds.

We begin where we are.

Before we do something, we do nothing.

Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence.
Sound is that cup, but empty.
Noise is that cup, but broken.

May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.

Rightness is its own necessity.

The musician has three disciplines: the disciplines of the hands, the head and the heart.

Music so wishes to be heard that it calls on some to give it voice and some to give it ears.

Music is the architecture of silence.

Silence is an invisible glue.

How we hold our pick is how we organise our life.

Health is a measure of our wholeness.

Efficiency: the right amount of the right quality of energy, in the right place at the right time, doing what is right.

If we wish to know, breathe the air around someone who knows.

Beauty is the reflection of the appearance of truth.
Better to seek truth than the reflection of its appearance.
But better to seek beauty than nothing.

It is difficult to exaggerate the power of habit.

Necessity is a measure of aim.

A principle is an instruction in qualitative endeavour.

There is only one musician, in many bodies.

The centre of discipline: the degree to which we are able to hold ourselves in front of a challenge.

Before we move from A to B, better to know we're at A.

Silence is a distant echo of the approach of the Muse.

Define the aim simply, clearly, briefly, positively

We'll never get rich by hard work.
But, we'll never get rich without it.

Don't be helpful: be available.

Space has its own rules and determining conditions.

Being is a measure of our coherence.

Act always in accordance with conscience.

The unity of all things is experienced through the feelings.

Nothing is compulsory, but some things are necessary.

Silence is the field of creative musical intelligence that dwells in the space between the notes, and holds them in place.

Listening is a craft.
Hearing is an art.

Begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible.

The work of one supports the work of all.

Accept nothing less than what is right.

We may do whatever we like, providing we can pay the bill

Some things protect themselves by being what they are.

Anything within a performance is significant, whether intentional or not.

A test of our understanding is whether we can apply it in practice.

Humour is not permitted.

We are held responsible for our actions, whether intentional or not.

Commitments are to be honoured.

Honour necessity.

We must be able to play in our sleep.
Because usually we do.

Remain in hell without despair.

The foundation of learning is play.

We pay our own tab.

The more failures, the more successes.

Suffering of quality is invisible to others.

If we can define our aim, we are halfway to achieving it.

Listen also with the ears of the heart.

Intentional action generates intentional results and unforeseeable repercussions.
Unintentional action generates unintended consequences and inevitable repercussions.

What is right accords with principle.

Conscience is utterly impersonal.

Moving forward feels like moving forward.
It also feels like moving backwards, and standing still.

In popular culture, our musicians sing to us in our own voice.
In mass culture they shout what we want to hear

If we can't play away from the instrument, we can't play with the instrument.

We only have what we give away.

Creative work is serious play.

Suffering is our experience of the distance between what we are and who we wish to become.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

The creative impulse animates whatever instrument is placed at its disposal.

The problem with knowing what we want is we just might get it.

In the creative act, the Creation continues.

Let us embrace our mistakes as friends and teachers.

Craft is a universal language.

To try is to fail.

Mastery acts on what is below.
Artistry submits to what is above.

The quality of a person is revealed in their conduct in front of sex, money and the use of time.

Artistry repeats the unrepeatable.

Local events have global repercussions.

Nothing worthwhile is achieved suddenly.

Craft maintains skill.
Discipline maintains craft.
Craft follows the tradition.
Discipline maintains the tradition.
Music creates the tradition.

Abandon concern for hitting the right note.
Then, hit the right note.

We begin by doing nothing.
Then, we move to doing something.

The only person who doesn't make mistakes is God.

Our living is as rich as our attention is available.

Suffering is necessary, unnecessary or voluntary.

If we can ask our body to do nothing for half an hour, perhaps we can ask our body to do something for half an hour.

Right action moves from principle.

Like and dislike are cheap.

Let us find clean and cheerful friends.

Life is too short to take on the unnecessary.

Quiet is the absence of sound, silence the presence of silence.

A discipline that does not lead to a compassionate practice may be said to have failed.

When we have nothing to say, it is very hard to say nothing.
When we have nothing to do, it is very hard to do nothing.

A principle is universal.
A rule is specific.
A law is invariable.

Silence is not silent.

Comparison with others is a mark of the fool.

Understanding changes what we understand.

We begin again, constantly.

When a record company makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.
When a manager makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.
When the artist makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.

When we recognize a fault in others, we recognize a fault in ourselves.

Signposts are useful when you know where you're going.

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and never acceptable.

Even genius requires a competent technique.

We may understand our knowing, but we can't know our understanding.

Intentional action generates intentional results and unforeseeable repercussions.
Unintentional action generates unintended consequences and inevitable repercussions.

The right thing at the wrong time is wrong.
The wrong thing at the right time may be right.
The right thing at the right time is beautiful.

Begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible.

Performance is impersonal yet intimate.

Things are not as bad as they seem.
They are worse than that.
They are also better than that.

The attitude that life owes us something, if not everything, encourages life to thwart our endeavours.

Perfection is impossible.
But I may choose to serve perfection.

The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world.
How we interpret our world directs how we participate in the world. How we participate in the world shapes the world

Being a slob is hard labour.

Hearing transforms sound into music.

Discharge one small task superbly.

Just below the surface of our everyday world lie riches.

The musician and audience are parents to the music.

Each part does the work of that part, and no other.

When a musician believes that music is a commodity, music dies in them.

If in doubt, consult tradition.
If still in doubt, consult your experience.
If still in doubt, consult your body.

What we hear is the way that we hear.

Assume the virtue.

May the quality with which we live our life honour the lives of our parents and mentors.

If we don't know where we're going, we'll probably get there.

We begin where we are.

Duration is subjective.

Sometimes God hides.

Remember to play.

Establish the principle.

Cynicism is death to the artist.
Act from principle.
Move from intention.

The quality of our perceptions determines the quality of our judgement.
Our judgement determines how we interact with the world.
How we interact with the world changes the world.
So, the quality of our perceptions changes the world.

Suffer cheerfully.

In the creative leap, history waits outside.

In tuning a note we are tuning ourselves.

The presence of absence is an entry into loss.

Small additional increments are transformative.

Process is Intelligence getting to know itself.

Better to be present with a bad note than absent from a good note.

Address the process rather than the outcome.
Then, the outcome becomes more likely.

The quality of the question determines the quality of the answer.

We recognise in others what we know most deeply in ourselves.

Act in private as if your behaviour were known in public.

The science is in knowing, the art in perceiving.

Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

When we act as we like, we may get what we want.
But not what we need.

Craft is a universal language.

Turn a seeming disadvantage to your advantage.
The greater the seeming disadvantage, the greater the possible advantage.

Necessary repercussions are possible.
Inevitable repercussions are expensive.
Unnecessary repercussions are dangerous.

The mind leads the hands.

Change one small part and the whole is changed.

Discipline is not an end in itself, only a means to an end.

An honest society is an ordered society.
An ordered society is an efficient society.
An efficient society is a richer society.
A richer society may support a poorer society.

Avoid celebrity.

A completion is a new beginning.

There's more to hearing than meets the ear.

Interrogate the error.

Answers will come through the guitar.

Fear is a preparation for failure.

Life is often desperate, but never hopeless.

Good habit is necessary, bad habit is inevitable.

Trust the process.

We perceive our perceptions.

A decision changes the world.

May we have the clarity to see our work, the courage to embrace it, and the capacity to discharge it.

An artist acts with the assumption of innocence within a field of experience.

Expect nothing.

We have the right to choose our form of suffering.

Rely on what someone does, not what they claim to do.

Gradual transitions take place suddenly.

Welcome the unexpected, but not the arbitrary.

Performance is inherently unlikely.

A function of language is to disclose.
An effect is to reveal.

The act of music is the music.

The artist is a bridge between the possible, the impossible, and the actual.

We pay our own tab.

Three ways to discover our faults: ask a friend; ask an enemy; recognise a fault in others.

May we wish for others what we wish for ourselves.

Intentional poverty is fine.
Unintentional poverty is wretched.

Everything we are is revealed in our playing.

The question is its answer.

"Tomorrow" is the first lie of the Devil.

Act in accordance with time, place and person.

We may not have an equality of talent. We may not have an equality of experience.
But we may be equal in aspiration. We can be equal in commit-ment.

Offer no violence.

The artist is a bridge between the possible, the impossible, and the actual.

It is not asked of us that we never fall over.
It is asked of us that we always get up.

Define the aim positively.
Do not define the aim negatively.

There are few things as convincing as death to remind us of the quality with which we live our life.

The musician and audience are parents to the music.

Discard the superfluous.

With craft the musician can copy something old.
With discipline the musician may copy something new.

Relaxation is never accidental.

Music changes when people hear it.

The only contribution we make is the quality of our work.

May we have the courage to fail.

Silence is a bridge between worlds.

If a quality is present, it is clearly recognisable and may be named.

If you wish to change the world, better first to know the world you wish to change.

The science is in knowing, the art in perceiving.

Music is a powerful and direct teacher which speaks to us all, to the degree that we are able to hear.

Music is a quality, organised in sound and in time.

Act in accordance with time, place and person.

Helpful people are a nuisance.

We can't go far on enthusiasm, but we don't go far without it.

There are three kinds of repercussions: the necessary, the unnecessary and the inevitable.

This life may not provide justice, but it is fairer than we might like it to be.

The necessary is possible.
The optional is expensive.
The unnecessary is unlikely.

The concern of the musician is music.
The concern of the professional musician is business.

Expectation is the prediction that history will repeat itself, exactly, precisely.

Listening is how we eat music.
Hearing is how we digest it.

Expectation is a prison.

Act with courtesy.
Otherwise, be polite.

Distrust those who profess altruism.

A beginning is invisible.

The performer can hide nothing, even the attempt to hide.

An end may be a finish, a conclusion or a completion.

Honour the role.
Respect the person.

Playing fast is easier than playing slow.

Our enemy is our friend.

Music is the architecture of silence.

The simplest is the most difficult to discharge superbly.

Power is the capacity to access what is possible.

With commitment, all the rules change.

Any success carries with it an opportunity, a responsibility and an obligation.

The future is what the present can bear.

Music is a benevolent presence constantly and readily available to all.

Understanding is simple. Knowing is complicated.

Relaxation is necessary tension.
Tension is unnecessary tension.

Be very careful about the beginning.
Then, be very careful about the end.
Then, be very careful about the middle.

A lie divorces who we are from what we are.

We begin again, constantly.

Never become so popular that the public take an interest in you.

Necessity is never far from what is real.

In naming myself, I recognise who I am.

Money is not a problem, only a difficulty.
Where we're going is how we get there.
If where we're going is how we get there, we are already where we're going.

Act from principle.
Move from intention.

We also learn by osmosis.

Breathing is optional.

Effective action begins when we cease to concern ourselves with being effective.

May we have the clarity to see our work, the courage to embrace it, and the capacity to discharge it.

We have three rights: the right to work, the right to pay to work, and the right to suffer the consequences of our work.

We have three obligations: the obligation to work, the obligation to pay to work, and the obligation to suffer the consequences of our work.

The highest quality of attention we may give is love.

Trust music.


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