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My all-time guitar idol is Marc Ribot. I've been a big fan of his since I was a teenager,
and that'll never change. His guitar playing is very varied, but I can recognize it after only
two bars. I started reading his essay collection called Unstrung this week, in which he introduces
himself as a noise guitarist. In fact, most of his playing is loud, noisy, and distorted. However,
no matter how intense it is, it always includes an indescribable silence and sadness. It could
be a legacy from his teacher, Franz Casseus, who was a classical guitarist and composer from Haiti.
The essay about Franz Casseus is especially beautiful. I can tell Marc loves and respects
his teacher, even though he doesn't say so explicitly in every sentence. I'd like to
share my favorite part of it. Franz was a patient teacher, and in fact, much of what is taught in the
study of classical guitar is patience itself. The counter-intuitive ability to relax the hands
instead of tensing them before the difficult task of playing. The secret that impossible physical
feats become possible if broken up into tiny components and approached very, very slowly.
People say that learning a language is similar to learning to play an instrument,
and I recently discovered this to be true.
