Journal 2012-02-05 Guitar Bushido
Guitar Bushido - Mentoring Course !, with Sensei Ben Higgins
Sensei Ben's Guitar Bushido
Guitar = Guitar
Bushido = Way of the Warrior
You're 2,000 ft up in the mountains. The icy wind is blowing across your face and chilling your bones. In your hand you clutch your guitar as you make your way towards the big, wooden pillars. Each heavy, laboured step takes you closer to what lies beyond these mountain gates.. a harsh, almost cruel regimen of physical and mental discipline and forging of willpower and character.
Your knuckles are already anticipating the push ups.. your fingers are already trembling at the thought of legato on an empty stomach and your hands are almost frozen in fear at the thought of constant palm muted down strokes. Welcome... you have reached my lair of guitar abuse. This is Guitar Bushido and I will be your Sensei.
I ask only one thing: empty your cup and be prepared to give.
Now that I've set the scene in my slightly unhinged way, I'll tell you what this all about 
I'd like to mentor you in your guitar playing and help you identify problem areas and work to improve them. For those of you who are new to GMC, my main interest in guitar playing is in the rock & metal areas so this is where my main levels of experience reside although, regardless of what genre of music you like, I can help anyone reach a certain level of dexterity and ability before you may want to concentrate your focus in a specific musical area.
How I'm going to do it is have 3 groups – Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced. Some of you I already know and can make a judgement on what might suit you best but for anyone interested in attending the Temple of Guitar Bushido please direct me to some visual/audio footage of yourselves. Also, I'd like to mention that even if you feel like you're too much of a beginner, you're not, any time is the right time to start learning more. Also, being a beginner is a good place to be because I won't have to beat any bad habits out of you, unlike some of the characters here at GMC...... 
Once I've got a few of you guys into one of the 3 groups I'll make 3 seperate threads and start giving some weekly tasks which are exclusive to each group. I would call them assignments but that's too friendly and reminds me of school. Tasks are what Hercules had to do.. a task requires strength and courage.
There will be a deadline set each week, a different one for each group so keep an eye on them so you know how much time you have. I appreciate that everybody has other responsibilities in their lives and a week isn't a very long time to learn something but an inspiring thing to remember is that we all get the same 24hrs in a day, which is the same 24hrs that Steve Vai or Guthrie Govan gets. It's how we use it that determines our results. Whatever time we do get to devote to something we want to excel at, as long as we give 100% during that time, even if it's only 30 mins, then we're still giving everything.
So, are you ready to make your way into the temple ? If so, grab your guitars and sign up here...
