I really appreciate this link, Robbie.

It is interesting to hear the critical/theoretical constructions growing up
around James's playing. I'm especially attuned to this because of my years of
incarnation as an artist. In art, the critics have played a HUGE part in
re-defining what the art experience is, or isn't, and what it is valid for an
artist to be doing. One of the consequences of this, IMNSHO, is the deepening
alienation of the ordinary person from the world of art. Elephant dung hung on
a canvas over cut-out shots of vaginas from skin magazines, all touted as the
latest in cutting edge art.... So when I hear these guys creating a critical
structure around James Blackshaw making a more English and symphonic kind of
composition (and this is for someone who admits he can barely read music), I am
amused.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy Blackshaw. Only that I have an extremely
low tolerance for bullshit, and a great wariness for the devastating effect that
artworld bullshit can have on both artists and audience.

I did want to address an extremely important issue brought up in the interview.
This pertains basically to repetitive stress injury, tendinitis, carpal tunnel
syndrome, and related problems. I had not known that Kottke experienced this,
and James mentions how his right hand especially gets cramped.

I have spent the last 3 years working with a fantastic classical guitar
instructor who himself had to re-work his hands, the musculature and precise
attacks involved, etc., in order to work out of the beginnings of this kind of
nerve damage. There is now in the world of classical guitar (and this knowledge
and teaching should be spread out for all other guitarists), a new awareness of
what muscle systems should be involved in the attack on the strings. One can
actually learn to play as though not playing. This has to do with the way our
brains and muscles are hardwired to bring force to bear through the fingers.
and that hardwiring has to be changed, and re-wired, so that one is not forcing
muscle energy (beginning with back, upper arms. etc) down through the
fingertips. Instead, one needs to learn to initiate muscle impetus from the
first knuckle and use just the WEIGHT of the finger to accomplish power, as it
is swung through the string. This, instead of the muscles that run around the
biceps, triceps, and upper part of the forearm.

I hope I have described this well enough to at least correspond to the
"proprioception" (interior perception of how the body is working) of guitarists
here. Let me know if any of this makes any sense.

regards,
Rich

--- In robbiebasho_forum@yahoogroups.com, "Robbie Dawson" <robbie.dawson@...>
wrote:
>
> I have added a recording of James Blackshaw being interviewed for BBC Radio
4's Today programme this Monday. For those who don't know it, the Today
programme is the main morning (6:00 - 9:00) news and politics programme for the
BBC. It's usually where all the big MPs (and even the PM) appear to be
interviewed. Shortly after this slot, Jack Straw (Secretary of State for Justice
and Lord Chancellor) came on to be interviewed about press access to family
courts...
>
> The piece also has some choice clips of Basho, 'Far-hee' and Kottke too.
Potentially the first time Basho's ever been heard on BBC radio, in a while at
least.
>
>
> RD
>