So I am 4 weeks into the Blues Guitar course at Berklee and I am having the most amazing experience, and the biggest surprise is that what I am taking away from the course isn't in the area I was expecting it to come from, i.e. guitar technique. I feel, the biggest challenges I have faced and the areas if feel I have learn most from, have not been from a technical guitar playing perspective, but from a life affirming mental perspective. What do I mean by that? Well, the art of the blues or should I say the root of the blues is in suffering and out of suffering hope, it is a heartfelt art form, full of story telling and emotion. It isn't about technical prowess, it is about conveying the emotion that the musician is feeling....but then again we know this stuff already, so why has it come as a surprise? Well, firstly I have found that I am really, REALLY, having to concentrate on these parts of my playing, and I am nowhere close to mastering them (and perhaps mastering isn't the right word, feeling them might be better). In particular, I am taking away that I need to work on the the followingPhrasingWhen you have spent 20+ years practising 16th notes to a metronome, it is really hard to break out of that patterning, being a bit 'lazy' in the phrasing is very difficult. Nuanced slides, ghost notes, 'sloppy' runs, 16th note runs to a shuffle feel, slides with no real start or end. I feel now that my actually playing at this point in time is so robotic, I am feeling I am going to have to unlearn all those years of metronomic precision.BreathingSo what has breathing got to do with guitar playing? Well this is the area of this course which is also having a direct wake up call on how I also live my life and how that actually impacts on my guitar playing. What do I mean?Well, I have noticed that I tend to fill all my guitar parts to the brim, never really taking room for a breath, filling every bar with a note (or many many notes!) and wow.....I guess it is symbolic of my life too, I fill every second with doing something.The Blues is teaching me to slow down, take a breath, not fill every second with something, take time to ponder, time to breath!! What am I saying?I think the key issue I have taken away from this is to think about what you are saying and what you want to say, say it with emotion. Pause and reflect and make every moment (note) count. It is exciting that learning the guitar (after all these years) also relatedListening to what you are saying. You are telling a story! I did post a lesson on this topic before, but it is becoming more and more important to me and my playing! PeaceNeil