Revealing the Timeless Emotional Connection Between Musician and Guitar
By: Alex Condoluci
Faculty Advisor: Debra Kolodczak, Ph. D.
Department of Communication
Funded by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities
Introduction I am a guitar player. I am one of many who can say they have discovered a love for something that most others would proclaim to be nothing but a piece of wood. For the past ten years of my life I have learned, and continue to explore the relationship a musician feels when playing a guitar. An emotional connection is
generated when an individual physically connects with their instrument whether they play by themselves, for an audience, or with other musicians. My inspiration to learn how to play the guitar comes from my father, and despite our differences in terms of style, our feelings about playing the instrument are the same. All
can agree that even when playing for an audience, the emotions felt and expressed by the musician are spread to those listening. By interviewing musicians, exploring quotes from famous musicians, and researching archival images of musicians found on the website of the Library of Congress American Memory
Collection (LoCAMC), I was able to show that my family is not alone in sharing the passion and emotional connection that a person can experience when playing a guitar.
My Inspiration
My father is my principle inspiration in learning how to play the
guitar. Throughout my childhood, I was lucky enough to be
surrounded by music and his collection of guitars. One day,
when I was about 11 years old, I decided to pick up a guitar,
and the rest is history. For this project, I asked my father to
reveal his inspiration and express his feelings when he plays in
order to bridge the generation gap and begin to demonstrate
that there is a shared inexpressible affection for what the guitar
creates for its player.
“February 9th, 1964. Truly a date of enduring personal significance in my life that
carries forward till this very day. Over and above my initiation to the guitar itself, I
bore witness to its all-embracing grandeur via television on The Ed Sullivan Show
depicted by way of ‘The Beatles.’ Forty-nine years, and nearly two dozen guitars,
plus a sitar later; I’m still inspired with total awe as to the sheer universal appeal
of the instrument’s ability to stimulate the mind and emotions of both its players
and/or intended recipients thereof.
On a much more personal level, to me the guitar shall stand as an ultimate form
of intimate expression. No two individuals will ever quite embrace, pick, and
strum in wholly in the same fashion as another. In essence, the instrument shall
remain totally dependent on it’s player’s particular ambience, personality and
confidence. Fundamentally, you also can’t beat its portability aspect - as you
would be hard pressed to walk about with a grand piano or a tuba slung over your
shoulder!”
- James Condoluci
Playing Alone
For me, I am most at peace when I am alone with my guitar. It is
my escape, and it is a part of me. When I pick up the instrument to
play, the strings become an extension of my fingers and my soul.
My emotion pours out of my fingertips, and the strings translate my
feelings into something that is real and audible. Sometimes, I don't
even know what I'm feeling until I pick up a guitar. Playing solo
offers an almost out-of-body experience, because sometimes, I
don’t even notice what my physical body is doing. I lose myself to
both sound and my surroundings as I enter a meditative state from
the droning and vibrations of the strings. I located images in the
LoCAMC that capture candid shots of musicians who, as they play,
seem to be experiencing passions similar to mine.
Playing for an Audience
For this project, I chose to interview my friend, Faiz Lone, to
obtain insight into what a musician feels when playing for an
audience. In harmony with Faiz’s statement, I located archival
images that support the notion that the emotions felt by the
guitarist are not exclusively experienced, but also conveyed to
those who listen.
Playing with Others
When researching this aspect of the project, it was self-evident to
ask my friend, Ron Geffen, for his perspective. Ron has played in
countless bands, and has plenty of first hand experience as to
what a guitarist feels when playing in harmony with other
musicians. I also located images archival imagesthat support
Ron’s testimony.
Conclusion
By exploring whether or not my family is unique in sharing the
passion and emotional connection when playing a guitar, I was
able to appreciate the universal and timeless gratitude that
musicians have for their instrument. Researching the archival
photos of guitarists allows me to see the emotions we guitar
players share. By applying digital effects to emphasize key
aspects of those photos, I can highlight a sense of what a
musician feels. By bringing together the reflections of my
contemporaries, key statements by legendary guitarists, and a
selection of digitally enhanced archival photos, one can better
understand the timeless emotional connection between musician
and guitar.
Statements by Legendary Guitarists “My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of
myself. It is who I am.”
– Joan Jett
“An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and
couldn't take his guitar with him. When I found
it in the attic, I'd found a friend for life.”
– Sting
“Lean your body forward slightly to support the
guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the
music should resound in your heart.”
– Andrés Segovia
“The most important part of my religion is to
play guitar.”
– Lou Reed
“God is playing my guitar, I am with God when
I play.”
– Link Wray
“My guitar is nothing but a manifestation of
perfection already from the strings which
the mind drives through my fingers...”
– Unknown
“I just go where the guitar takes me.”
– Angus Young
“It's that kind of in-born music thing - I could
pick up the guitar and play something. It's
not something I consciously do.”
– Ziggy Marley
“When I pick up the guitar I usually don’t
intend for it to be about a specific thing …
so an abstract thought like emotions can
speak for itself. Those are pretty profound
and revealing moments of introspection as
it happens.”
– Maneli Jamal
“Every time you pick up your guitar to play,
play as if it’s the last time.”
– Eric Clapton
“I just loved the guitar when it came along.
I loved it. The banjo was something I really
liked, but when the guitar came along, to
me that was my first love in music.”
– Doc Watson
“I'd think learning to play the guitar would
be very confusing for sighted people. ”
– Doc Watson
“I got my first guitar at age of 7 and never
laid it down…”
– Jerry Reed
“With the guitar I got a sense of freedom, which was
new and exciting.”
– Usman Riaz
“I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and
sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I
don't need a script, I don't need people, I don't need
anything, I just have myself and my guitar…”
– Jeremy Renner
“With a guitar I would be able to express the things I
felt in sounds.”
– William Christopher Handy
“It is the most delightful thing that ever happens to me,
when I hear something coming out of my guitar and
out of my mouth that wasn't there before.”
– James Taylor
“When I'm home on a break, I lock myself in my
room and play guitar. After two or three hours, I start
getting into this total meditation. It's a feeling few
people experience…”
– Eddie Van Halen
“A guitar is a very personal extension of the person
playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually
connected to your instrument. I'm very brutal on my
instruments, but not all the time.”
– Eddie Van Halen
“I love that I can express my harmonic, melodic,
rhythmic, atmospheric, and emotional ideas through
one instrument.”
– Trevor Gordon Hall
“Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen
to what I've done and know I was here. They may
not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my
guitars speaking for me.”
– Chet Atkins
“Playing the guitar for me hasn't always been a joyride. It was something I wanted to
do before I knew how hard it was to get good at. The only way to reach the point I
was aiming for was through practice. Like anything else that requires practice,
achieving your goals provides you with good feelings. It's those good feelings that
take me beyond enjoyment when I play guitar. It sounds good when chords vibrate
in harmony, it feels good to the touch when strings change in tension, it even smells
good when the metal from the strings rubs off onto your fingertips. Accomplishing
that "lick" of frustration, the one that took you days to play smoothly- that's
something like learning another language- you can't wait to speak it to someone who
understands and appreciates it. When they appreciate it, you know it. Their eyes
follow the progression, they are silent, they are focused. For that period of time, you,
the player, have been granted empty ears and thus a liaison to the open mind of
another individual. Here you fill in the cracks with your own imagination. Minor key
suspension, pinch harmonic, pick slide. In essence, those vibrations become vibes;
infectious and piercing, or subtle and entrancing, limitless in possibility and
therapeutic by nature. Playing the guitar is like getting it all right at once.”
- Faiz Lone
“Guitar isn’t just a hobby; it is a passion and emotional release that grows with
practice. When each string touches my fingertips, I experience a feeling in my spine
that is indescribable. This sensation becomes enhanced when playing with other
musicians. Nothing feels more satisfying than being able to bring my musical
background and share it with others to create music. When I play with other people,
we each turn into a piece of a puzzle, or a gear in a machine. We become
something bigger together. When we are in sync, hitting that one note or chord that
gives you goose bumps, it is the best feeling in the world. I say in ‘sync’ because it
is more than just playing in the company of other musicians. We connect on an
entirely different level that is inexpressible unless you have felt it yourself.
I have played with 2 serious bands, and am currently involved with a third. Each
time I connect with different musicians, I can see how I’ve improved and it adds to
the feelings I have. Playing for the past 10 years has granted me a consistent joy,
that grows stronger everyday, and it is truly a privilege from God. I have developed
a bond with my instrument that is stronger than most relationships I have
encountered. I may get married one day, have kids, and travel the world, or maybe
life has something different planned for me. What I do know is my guitar will always
be in the passenger seat as I journey through my time on this Earth.“
-Ron Geffen
Sources
Archival photographs courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress, American Memory Collection.
Contemporary photographs courtesy of the Condoluci family photo album.