The Minimalist Guitarist

There is a lot of music in the world. If we limit ourselves to only guitar music, then we still have more than we could ever learn or listen to in a single lifetime. When I think about this idea, I am overwhelmed. Where do I begin? What piece(s) should I work on? Which exercises do I do to improve my technique? What about some jazz, blues, or classical? The questions are just as endless as the music. This is where the concept of a minimalist guitarist can help us answer these questions.

Definining Minimalist Guitarist

Before you begin conjuring images of an empty room with one chair, a music stand, and a simple sheet of music, let’s define what I mean by minimalist guitarist and minimalism. My favorite definition comes from author Joshua Becker, “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value by removing everything that distracts us from it.” The goal is not to get rid of everything you have, rather, it is to really focus on what is most valuable to you. For us guitarists, the “thing” we have to decide most about to promote is the use of time.

Even though our biggest choice is the use of time, the stuff we own may play a role as well. At one point, I had an overabundance of sheet music and music books that I had to store the excess in boxes shoved in a closet. I justified by telling myself, “I’m a music teacher and I might need this in the future for a student. I might play that piece one day.” In reality, it just sat there gathering dust. The truth hurts sometimes.

Excess Stuff Clouded My Mind

Having all this unused music, besides taking up space, clouded my mind. It wasn’t what I valued most in my guitar playing, progress, or teaching. It was time to really focus on what mattered most and get rid of everything else. I went through each book and piece of music deciding whether it had enough value for me to keep. Then, I boxed the ones that didn’t and made a trip to donate them at our local library. What I kept fills about a foot and a half on my studio bookshelf. What I let go of used to fill an entire wall of bookshelves.

After leaving the library, a sense of relief came over me. I’m not talking about some complete peace and alignment with the universe. It was more of an, “I’m not required to play every piece of music or all the pieces I think everyone thinks I should play” kind of relief. I could now focus on a limited amount of work that I highly valued.

The next step was to truly determine how to prioritize my time and order of the music that remained. I’ll attempt to do that in a follow-up post.

Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.