The Morse Code

I look up to people who are endowed with expert knowledge but always work within the limits of humility. The worst of people are the ones who imply themselves to be a knowledge source & tread the grounds with snobbery only for them to be proven wrong- pride before the fall.

One such person is Steve Morse. He is a very humble player who maintains a perfect balance of internal & external perspectives. At the end of it all, he makes it a point to better himself for the greater purpose. I'd like to share some anecdotes which I've embraced & I believe these are common references we all could relate to in making ourselves a better person (not just a better player). Steve More's quotes are in blue, so here goes.

1. People say they can identify my playing. I find this important because we tend to start off by emulating our heroes. We impress others this way but it's a better part of copying than being true to ourselves. The guitar is our paint brush; do we copy other paintings or take pride in being able to paint our own pictures? Yes, we adopt what we learn but that has to be the limit.

2. I'm a replaceable cog in the wheel. Literally anybody else could be in the same position as I am. For many of us who have made it to the top (whatever top means to you), we tend to forget that there are others out there who equal our abilities or even surpass our expertise. When it comes to a knowledge-based discipline, every moment is a learning moment. Learning is limitless. We learn from everyone even from those who we deem to be of a lesser qualification than us. As long as there's a gap in our knowledge base pertaining to anything at all, it reduces us to a learner status.

3. ... my right hand is now becoming an issue, as things wear down & don't work right any more. ... It's forcing me to look at other ways of doing things. For many of us who ply our trade on a daily basis, one of our greatest fear is loss. This will make us a lesser person & reduces our abilities greatly.  Soldiers who lost their limbs, musicians who lost their hearing, the list goes on. As human beings, losses will slowly & surely occur. It's unpreventable but we can work our way round it firstly by accepting the limitations & secondly by changing our ways. More often than not, we don't make it a point to accept changes, we have no contingencies to deal with changes. We are not ready. So in life, whatever our professions, we need to be ready when changes come crashing on us. We get ready now, not when the situation becomes dire.