NEIL COWMEADOW - THE EXPERT GUITAR TEACHER IN TELFORD. GUITAR TEACHER AND AUTHOR. GUITAR LESSONS THAT WORK! DEDICATED TO TEACHING SINCE 1999 - ACCELERATED LEARNING TECHNIQUES: LEARN FASTER, PLAY BETTER, AND UNDERSTAND...

The Thursday Thesis  - 28/09/2017

A guy goes to see a psychotherapist about his problems. The man is in his fifties, married, with three grown-up children: he is also a multi-millionaire. Though he’s very successful and highly respected by his peers, he’s not well-liked: he’s miserable, bitter and unhappy.

The lady therapist steeples her fingers as she waits for her client to gather his thoughts.

“I’m so tired” he says. “Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve had to do for myself – and I’m so tired of it. Nobody is there for me, I have to do everything – same as I always have...”.

And so it goes for the next hour as the man complains and bemoans his life. Finally he falls silent, and the therapist leans forward a little, softly whispering.

“Who changed your nappies?” She asks.

Silence.

“Who gave you the breast when you were hungry and helpless?”

Silence

“Who cared for you when you were sick?”

Silence.

The questions continue, and the silence booms.

“Who drives you safely home in your limo?”

Silence

“Who cleans your offices and bathrooms?”

Silence.

“Who drew the pictures that you stuck on the refrigerator?”

Silence

“And who kisses you goodnight and prays for you?”

The man sobs, eyes closed as the truth breaks over him like a tidal wave.
 
Nobody makes it on their own.

Whatever you or I do, however much we achieve and whatever we aspire to, we cannot do it alone.

Close your eyes and take a moment to be thankful for the multitude of reasons to be grateful that are present in your life – because they are there. Take just one thing and thank the person who did it for you, a phone call, a card, a visit – let them know that you noticed them, noticed what they did, and that you appreciate it.

Notice it, and give thanks for it – because nobody ever does it alone.

So here’s me, to you: you make the writing worthwhile, and I am in awe of you.For your comments, your shares, and for reading the blog, I thank You.

The Thursday Thesis  - 21/09/2017

Malcolm Gladwell devoted a chapter of his book “Outliers” to the idea that it takes around 10,000 hours of practice to achieve Mastery in a field.

The book sold well and made Gladwell a ton of money, simultaneously propelling him to the status of credible pundit and positioning the journalist as an expert on learning.

But here’s the thing: the 10,000 hour rule was Gladwell’s invention, and it didn’t reflect the essence of the research that he referred to – a 1993 study at the University of Colorado.

So when Gladwell declared 'Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours', the chief of the research team, Anders Ericsson, was royally pissed-off.

“Gladwell cited our research on expert musicians as a stimulus for his provocative generalisation to a magical number", Ericsson said, then wrote a rebuttal paper entitled “The Danger of Delegating Education to Journalists”.

Nice one, Anders.

Gladwell’s snappy 10,000 hour “Rule” didn’t take much notice of the real conclusions of the researchers: significant variation of time taken to acquire skills, a variety of practice methodologies, and the apparent non-existence of anything that could be identified as “natural talent”.

I get it. I’ve been teaching guitar for 18 years, and I don’t believe in talent, either. There are a pile of books out there discussing Talent with a capital T, but I believe in acquiring the necessary skill – and that means learning from someone else, testing the skill by doing it badly at first, then refining it and making it automatic by consistent repetition. This is exactly like tying your shoelaces or learning to drive a car or ride a bicycle.

When was the last time you had to think about tying your laces?

So the 10,000 hour fallacy entered the canon of conventional wisdom, along with a load of other unhelpful “wisdom”. If you want to know more about how nonsense like this infects people you’ll find plenty in the blog archive and in my book 9 Weird Things Guitarists Do.

You see, I have a problem or six with conventional wisdom, and I have a problem with Gladwell’s assertion of certainty in areas where he is not a practitioner.

The 10,000 Hour Rule is a journalist’s opinion, rather than the conclusions of the guys who did the work.

And, tragically, the 10,000 hour fallacy deters people from pursuing their dreams because it sets up a high barrier to entry to a new activity – such as learning to play the guitar or any other musical instrument.

As my friend and former student, Tom Boddison observed in a recent email questioning Gladwell’s opinion, “10,000 hours is a bloody long time!”

And what about Mastery – did you notice that the idea of an observable standard snook in on the coat-tails of the 10,000 Hour Rule?

There’s a presupposition that one must achieve Mastery, isn’t there?

Bunk!

Mastery is neither or relevant when one is pursuing one’s own pleasure and following one’s own path – as one must when engaged in any of the so-called Arts.

I say we murder the myth of 10,000 hours!

I say we murder the illusion of Talent!

I say we murder the mischief of Mastery!

I say, let’s get these monkeys off our backs and do our own research!

Are we foolish enough to just accept the opinion of a journalist when deciding whether to pursue our heart’s desires?

Get yourself a guitar, flute, sax, or whatever – a football or golf club and start hacking. Play some bum notes, miss the net and hack up a few divots - who cares if you suck?

This is supposed to be fun, isn’t it?

Am I making sense, here – am I convincing you?

Get out there and have some fun, make lots of mistakes and enjoy every single minute of it.

Fail gloriously - because only by learning to miss the net can you ever hope to score a winning goal.

The Answers Have Changed.

Albert Einstein famously gave the students on his course the same examination paper two years running.

Einstein’s assistant asked the professor if he’d noticed it was the same paper with the same questions he’d set the previous year, to which Einstein replied “It’s not a mistake, the questions are the same; but you see, the answers have changed”.

Back in the 1920s and 30s scientific theory was advancing rapidly, so Einstein wasn’t just kidding his assistant – the answers had changed in the intervening year.

And isn’t that true of almost everything in life?

The answers we have as children and teenagers are different than the answers we have when we are older and our lives have changed: parenthood changes everything, divorce and the death of our loved ones; accidents, injury and illness all conspire to keep the answers we need on the move and elusive.

Because everything you currently know is only your best guess, based upon currently available evidence, and that’s the reason why it’s so important to keep learning and to stay curious – because the answers have changed: that’s a fact of life.

If you’re not busy finding out those new answers you’ll probably keep on using your old answers, even though your old answers don’t produce the results you want anymore.

Think of life as being a long corridor with doors all along both sides: you can’t open a door until you’re right in front of it, so unless you are moving along the corridor you only have access to the one door. Learning and growing is what allows you to progress along the corridor, open more doors and find the answers that you need.

So, what are you learning today?

It might not be The Answer, but it could be a clue to where The Answer is hiding.

Stay Curious.

Magick - The Science of Success
Part 2 – The Rituals

The Thursday Thesis  - 7/9/2017

Every single one of us has our own daily magic rituals, but don’t panic - we haven’t gone over to the Dark Side or contracted religion, so breathe...

What I mean is that we all perform rituals every day: we brush our teeth, tie our shoelaces, commute to our workplace, and do a hundred other things every day without really giving it any thought. Our daily rituals help us to get through the day in much the same way that we did yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that, too.

Forming a ritual or habit allows us to have a reliable, pre-set way of performing an action. Once we have a ritualised way of doing something we don’t need to think about it, we just do it the same way that we always do it.

Ordinarily this is beneficial to us, as we can delegate our performance of a routine task and free-up our resources for other things.

So it makes sense to consciously craft our daily rituals to serve us, doesn’t it?

Because when we design our rituals to produce what we want we are truly using "...The Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with will..." as Aleister Crowley put it when he defined Magick.

If you are not already consciously challenging your normal, habitual ways of doing things then today would be a great day to start thinking about how you do things. Chances are good that most of your habits and rituals were learned accidentally and without a thought as to whether they were going to advance you toward your biggest ambition or hold you back from it.

Change your rituals and it will change your life.

Simply ask yourself “is this helping me or is this hurting me” when you do anything – especially if you do it in a certain way because that’s how you’ve always done it. If it helps you to achieve your defined goals, let it continue: if it isn’t helping, then do something else.

Build your own rituals, rather than doom yourself to repeat other people’s unhelpful ones.
If you are overweight, change what you ritually buy when you shop: make a list of healthy foods and ONLY buy what’s on the list. I know a guy who does this, and then (bizarrely) rewards himself with a bag of cookies for being such a healthy shopper! That’s certainly a ritual that he might want to change.

If you smoke, change your habit of reaching for instant relief whenever you feel a pang of craving: do something else – anything at all - other than lighting up. Prove to yourself that you are not a helpless, pathetic slave to a manufactured addiction.

Each morning I use a handful of designed activities to kick-start my day and move me towards my short, medium, long, and lifetime goals – I call them MAGICK, and it’s probably no surprise that it’s an acronym.

Movement: exercise and stretching to keep my body fit for purpose.
Affirmation: reinforcing my positivity, goals and my reasons for living.
Gratitude: recognising the great things in my life and nudging my mind to find more of them.
Inner-vision: solitude, meditation and self-examination.
Creation: bringing my dreams into reality – I have to do The Work, nobody is coming to the rescue.
Knowledge: keep learning and challenging what I know.

 So there you have it – my MAGICK rituals.

What about you – what are the rituals you want to keep in your life, which ones will you change, and which ones will you begin?

The Thursday Thesis  - 31/08/2017


I am a huge fan of self-help books – I’ve read or listened to hundreds of them since I gave up my glittering career as a teenage drunk – and I’ve noticed that they all have two big ideas in common. Since both ideas are super-important and interesting, I’m going to cover one this week and one next week.

Firstly, there’s the theme of our will and the power to choose the changes we make in our lives: as Gandhi put it, to “be the change you wish to see in the world”.

Call it self-mastery, success, or the secret – call it what you will – it all comes down to "The Science
and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will".

That’s the thrust of what almost every self-help writer and guru preaches.

But hold on a minute - that definition didn’t come from Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn or Napoleon Hill - it came from the English writer and occultist Aleister Crowley, as he explained what Magick is.

By the way, Magick is the archaic spelling of the word – it’s not a typo – and since this is my blog, I’m going to flit from one spelling to another, so there!

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the self-help field who would disagree with that definition as a recipe for success.

So, who was Aleister Crowley?

Born in Leamington Spa in 1875, Crowley was the son of a successful brewing family who held Christian Fundamentalist beliefs. At Cambridge he captained the university chess team before dropping out to spend his fortune pursuing esoteric and occult knowledge, sex, drugs and adventures of every kind. In time, his infamous lifestyle earned him the title “The wickedest man in the World”, according to the British press, though he preferred to style himself The Beast 666.

But he wasn’t just a sex-mad, drug-taking, bisexual, eccentric genius – though that would be enough for many of us. Crowley was also a journalist, novelist, poet, painter, ceremonial magician, mountaineer, and – quite possibly - a spy for the British government.

Yet this libertine defined Magick in terms that closely resemble most modern day definitions of success - as extolled in thousands of self-help books, DVDs, online courses and 3-day “Ra-Ra” guru events in arenas all over the World.

It’s interesting, isn't it?

Every time you see someone who is exceptional at what they do you’ll notice the same thing: they make it look easy, effortless and completely natural...

Almost like magic.

Non-experts, like you and me, wonder how they do what they do, what their secret is, and how they make it look so easy.

There is something magical and spellbinding about mastery and expertise, but it isn’t magic – it’s just technique and technology.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” wrote Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, many science fiction books and the inventor of the communication satellite.

Our experts don’t have magic on their side – they have advanced technologies and techniques which we don’t have, yet.

And the most important word in that sentence is “yet”.

“Yet” tells us that we can acquire the skills and habits of experts, adopt their practices and become experts ourselves – “yet” implies that the skills are learnable and that we can learn them, sometime.

Follow your “yet” with “but” and you’re really opening the door to change: say aloud “I don’t know how to do it, yet, but...”

What else do you want to add to complete the sentence?

If you said “I’m gonna” or “I will”, you’re going to learn how to do it, aren’t you?

Words are powerful – perhaps even Magical.

But there’s no magick to excellence: I ask you, is effective time management magic, weight loss mystical, or success in business esoteric?

I don’t think so.

And there's no Magic involved when you are learning to play guitar or any other musical instrument, either. Just find an expert guitar teacher, find out how they do it and do what they do. Not what they appear to do, but how they really do it, because if you learn how it’s really done, you know it’s not magic and you can do it, too.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) tells us to model very specifically what experts do and how they think in order to perform just like they do.

That sounds like learning to perform a ritual, doesn’t it?
 
Next week we’ll look at the practical implementation of Magick into your everyday life and how to harness the power of Rituals.
 

The Thursday Thesis - 10/08/2017

It is always 99% easy.

Yes, easy: the hard work, day in, day out, that produces the bulk of a project - that is the easy part.

The problem is always that last 1%.

At university the last 1% was submitting the assignments; today it is publishing a finished book or piece of music.

You’d think it would be easy to just press the button and breathe, wouldn’t you?

It isn’t easy - the fear contained in that last 1% can paralyse even the strongest person.

But that last 1% is all that stands between the work and the audience: the people we wrote, composed, worked and dreamed for.

In soccer, it’s the last 1% that makes all the difference. Between a goal and a miss, between winning and losing – that’s the 1%. If the ball never crosses the line – the game ends in a nil-nil draw: that’s all that gets written on the score-sheet.

In life, it’s the 1% that sorts out the wannabes from the gonnabes; those who succeed and complete the job, and those who give up on the one-yard line.

What’s the point in writing the world’s best novel, symphony, pop song or movie script if it sits, forever in your desk drawer or lurks in an obscure folder of your hard drive, unread, unheard, unsung and unseen?

To paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes: “the tragedy of the average man is that he goes to his grave with his music still inside him”.

The last 1% is the showdown between hope and fear.

And fear fights to kill.

Game on!
 
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
 
 
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Love Overload...

The Thursday Thesis  - 27/07/2017

It’s a funny thing, but most people complain of being overloaded – you, yourself, might even think it’s a bad thing.

You would – of course – be wrong.

Every piece of research I’ve ever read suggests that Overload is a Good Thing – with capitals!

Here’s how it works: every time you overload a muscle it suffers damage. But our bodies adapt to that damage and overcompensate: they seem to assume we’ll do the same stupid thing again and provide us with more muscle in a bid to protect us from future damage.

A similar process occurs in our brains, that trembling network of connections and cells. Use it, push it, load it up and it will begin to morph into a faster and better brain. The process even has an expensive-sounding name: neuroplasticity.

So we are built to grow, but it takes the threat of damage and a crisis situation to trigger that growth – it’s all tied in to our innate fight or flight response to danger.

No crisis, no growth.

So it’s essential that we do things that Overload and scare us: how else can we develop and grow stronger?

I’m currently training to improve my public speaking abilities, which are already pretty good. But what’s fascinating to watch is how I and the other trainees smash through our fear and emerge unscathed.

Within three days, one lady went from Overload and total meltdown to confident speaker: a little more practice and she’ll be rocking the house down.

How did she get there?

Incrementally doing a little more, a little more, a little more...

Things stuck, ideas gelled, words tumbled...

Do a bit, add a bit, do a bit more.

Now repeat.

Rest and sleep complete the process.

I love Overload, so give me more, more, more!


 
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
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Neil@cowtownguitars.net
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The Thursday Thesis  - 20/07/2017

The very excellent Angi Magic’s favourite word is “Outrageous!” – with an exclamation mark.

And, a couple of days ago, I got to thinking about setting some “Outrageous!” and unreasonable goals for myself – wondering what I could do to power-up my productivity and catalyse myself into action.

I asked myself “How can I share what I teach - music, guitar, happiness, and all the rest - with the 7 billion or so people I can’t work with face to face?”

After one too many espressos it dawned on me that if I got my sorry arse into the chair every single day and wrote for a couple of hours every single day, I could probably finish a book a month – that would be a start, wouldn’t it?

Outrageous!

Unreasonable?

Do-able?

Let’s see... I already have over 140 outlines and/or ideas for books sitting on my hard-drive, where they are doing no good at all and helping nobody. My “Outrageous!” Idea looks like a great plan to get them off the drive and into ink...

It’ll keep me busy for the next few years, at least.

I’m up for the challenge, and I realise that going public with my “Outrageous!” goal is going to nail my backside down: if I miss a deadline, I know I’m going to hear about.

Going public with your own Goals and Ambitions might just light a rocket under you, too.

The poet, Mary Oliver asks, in one of her works, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

But don’t tell me – tell the people who will inspire you to do it, and who’ll hold you to account if you don’t.

© Neil Cowmeadow 2017

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The Thursday Thesis  - 18/05/2017

“Why Being Sure is Stupid"

The danger isn’t what you don’t know, it’s what you DO know that imperils you.

These are some of the wisest words I’ve ever read.

It means that being absolutely sure of what you know is a very dangerous position to find yourself in.

The Scientific Method is the dominant theory we use to try to understand our world and what happens in, on and around us. Yet science presents no facts and makes no claim to absolute certainty, because that is not what science is for.

That’s why ideas in science are called Theories, rather than facts. Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity isn’t called the Fact of Special Relativity.

After all: it’s just a theory.

And when all is said and done, theories are only the currently accepted explanations we have for phenomena. All theories are there to be attacked, tested, torn down and replaced with something better.

That’s why it is what you DO know that imperils you: if you are so certain of what you know, there can be no search for better. If you are so sure that you have incontrovertible knowledge, the chances you’ll never even look for anything better.

Dissent and the quest for better has given mankind the world we know today. Every innovation, every invention, and every new development has been a result of someone asking “what if...?” and looking for a better solution than the one they had.

The very soul of progress is dissent, and constantly challenging one’s current thinking is what advances understanding and knowledge.

So, if you look at your life and find it uninspiring, unhappy, unfulfilling or unsatisfactory in any way, just ask yourself what would be better than your current way of doing things.

That's the Science of Happiness - it’s as simple as that.

Keep asking the question and acting on your answers until you realise that there is nothing that would bring you more inspiration, happiness and fulfilment than you are currently experiencing.

Ask better questions, and remember that what you know, right now, might be all that stands between you and a better tomorrow.

Stay Curious.


© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
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It’s a funny thing about psychopaths – they all think that they are completely normal and totally sane.

They would think that, though, wouldn’t they?

Oddly, doctors seem to think that they are completely normal and totally sane, too.

The American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) currently lists over 450 mental illnesses or conditions.

Back in its first edition (DSM-1, published in 1952) there were only 106 listed disorders.

Unbelievably, one of the mental disorders listed was male homosexuality – which seems shocking these days. More surprising is that it took the American Mental Health industry until 1974 to remove that particular listing.

The Land of the Free?

Our American friends have been busy inventing labels and diagnoses for everything and everybody, so there’s no need for anyone to feel left out.

If you can’t sleep or you get jumpy after drinking too much coffee, there are serious-sounding syndromes and disorders available for you (Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder and Caffeine-induced sleep disorder, respectively).

If – like me – you prefer to sleep at a time of your own choosing, rather than what is considered “normal”, you can be given a diagnosis of a mental illness known as Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder.

Congratulations - here, have a badge!

The thing is that mental health is highly subjective and diagnosis is often unreliable because there are no hard, clinical tests for mental illness.

So, if it’s not clinical testing and hard data, what’s driving the invention of these new conditions – other than the egos of “mental health professionals” handing out spurious diagnoses to anyone foolish enough to pass through their doors?

Are we getting more and more mentally ill, or are our doctors?

From my point of view I see a business model building a market.

Yes, I’m cynical about the global mental health business, its quack practitioners, and the massive pharmaceutical industry whose interests alone are served by making everybody eligible for their products.

Furthermore, I believe that we are being conned into powerlessness: gulled and deceived into believing that the answer lies in handing over responsibility for how we think and how we live to The Men (and Women) in White Coats.

I don’t believe that we need to be “treated”, medicated, cured, homogenised and normalised.

This is the same profession that has “treated” schizophrenia in countless thousands of people by imprisonment, which they call “sectioning”, since it sounds so much nicer.

This is the same profession that forcibly administers drugs to non-consenting patients – though “victims” seems more a accurate name for those unfortunate enough to be in their care.

This is the same profession that applied powerful electric shocks to the brains of their terrified victims.

It sounds exactly like torture, because it is torture.

And that’s what those bastards did to my mother.

And this is the same profession that thinks giving Ritalin to your kid is a good idea.
 
Perhaps I should tone-down my optimism a notch or two, just in case there’s a new syndrome that’s been invented for unacceptably happy people?

© Neil Cowmeadow 2017

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The Thursday Thesis  - 27/04/2017

“Beauty, Death, and The Angel’s Navel”

I asked Gianni what the dim orange lights were, down the hillside from the road that snaked up his home near to the funicular.

“Candles, in Staglieno” he answered. That seemed to be enough for him, and he fell silent.

I was (as usual) ready to display my ignorance and asked what Staglieno was; and so began a peculiar love affair, between a Brit abroad and The City of the Dead.

You see, Staglieno is a cemetery, and it is – for me – one of the World’s most beautiful places.

Built on the banks of the River Bisagno, its great walls enclose a vast complex of elaborate tombs and shrines, with a population comprising hundreds of statues.

And one statue in particular.

She stands in niche XIII of the Upper Western Arcade, sullenly staring out from the Oneto family tomb – a beautiful angel, complete with feather wings and flowing gown.

But there’s more to her than the usual angelic attributes: first, there’s the undeniable sensuality of her pose and the way her hips tilt forward.

Then there’s the cold intensity of her unerring gaze.

After that you can marvel at the apparent texture of her dress, hemmed with stars, and the perfection of those feathers.

And there’s the little thing which Monteverdi gave her that makes her so enigmatic and fascinating: she has a navel.

And that’s odd – given that angels are created directly by a supposed god...

That’s why she’s so fascinating – she’s a perfect angel with a fatal flaw.

Nobody is perfect, and – in many ways – it is our own lack of perfection that makes us who we are.

And It's the way that everyone is imperfect in different ways that make teaching such a pleasure.

Perfection is bland, sterile and anodyne: who would be daft enough to want to be that?

Here’s to our imperfections - every single one of ‘em - because that's what makes us interesting, special and unique.


See more of Staglieno here: www.staglieno.comune.genova.it/en/node/199


© Neil Cowmeadow 2017

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The Thursday Thesis  - 20/04/2017

“Birds of a Feather, and all That Jazz...”

It’s often said that “birds of a feather flock together” and it’s true.

But there are some birds which fly alone. These soloists are the hunters of the avian world, the eagles, falcons and hawks who rule the skies.

The proverb says that “the purpose of the hunter is to hunt”, to be committed to the pursuit of the prey – or the goal.

I think that these solitary hunting birds are beautiful, elegantly savage and rare.

And they are terrifying – if you’re a duck.

Ducks are the slow-moving types of birds that cluster together, each watching the other for clues about how they should behave.

Imagine a falcon on the wing, it’s hunt directed by a committee...

Ducks cluster, falcons swoop.

Eagles soar alone.
 
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017

I heartily recommend that you visit Chris Neale Falconry - you will never forget it.
http://chrisnealfalconry.co.uk/

The Thursday Thesis  - 13/04/2017

“Is Your World full of Jerks...?”

Ever notice how certain people sail through life and seem to make friends everywhere, whilst other people you know seem to always be in conflict?

It happens. And just like me, you know who those people are, don’t you?

What’s going on – are they just unlucky and keep on bumping into jerks and idiots with “attitude”?

I don’t think so.

So what else could it be?

Well, people respond to us in the way we act towards them: it’s an evolutionary thing, caused by the vast number of “mirror neurones” that everyone has. Their purpose seems to be in generating empathy and understanding, but the flip side of that is a mirror of our behaviour.

So, if you’re encountering happy people everywhere – smiling at you and being helpful – chances are they are transmitting (Tx'ing) back to you exactly what they received (Rx'd) from you.

Because Tx = Rx

So smile and be positive today– just for research purposes – and see what happens.

The people you meet, and how they are with you, holds up a mirror to yourself.

Encountering jerks everywhere might be a clue...
 
 
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
 
 
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