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Craig Smith's Music

Craig Smith is a guitarist, composer and songwriter. He has played and studied the guitar for almost his entire life. Whether on acoustic or electric guitar he plays exclusively in the classic/finger style. This gives the player the use of five fingers instead of one pick, usually making it sound like there is more than one guitar playing at a time. In this style the guitar can be more than just a player along with others in a band... it can be the whole thing. The composer Beethoven after hearing such "solo guitar" playing by one of his contemporaries said, "the guitar is a miniature orchestra in itself". In his music, Craig likes to present the guitar in this style, either solo... or with little accompaniment.

In his "Guitarworks" recordings, Craig plays original pieces as well as other music in what he calls "spontaneous composition form". That is, just picking up your guitar and playing what you feel at the time. There are thousands of influences that are part of any musicians playing, but in music, as in any art... the idea is to individualize, to become yourself, and express how and what you feel through your art...not copy someone else. However, being that we are shaped by the influences we have experienced, it is almost impossible to prevent the styles of others from sneaking into our work. The goal, therefore, is to try not to copy any other players style or music exactly. The idea is to approach music as an artist does in painting, for example... see things and paint or, in this case, listen to lots of music and then just play. This is actually the "Way of Art", to create new impressions of that which is already there, or create something entirely new altogether.

Creativity ~ A Stolen Right Of Life

We all come into this life with an immediate abundance of ability to be the "Next Big Thing" in any area of life we should so desire to explore. We are born into the Natural World of Creativity... with all the connections in place, like those of the processors and programs of a brand new computer, just waiting to be presented with ideas and images from the outside that will take us on an inner journey of imagination to discover who we really are and were meant to become to the world. Then... it starts to happen... The Shut Down, like perhaps a computer virus that takes over from the outside of our true self... and slowly... bit by bit... piece by piece blocks, controls and destroys all the great things we could have uncovered and offered to the rest of the world.

It seems almost deliberate, as if those around us in our lives... from family, friends, teachers and later others in our working environment... everyone, everywhere has taken an oath based on perhaps the fear of change, a pledge to stop us from the uniqueness of ourselves. It's as if they want us to follow a specific road map... or guidance system that "keeps them safe from us". Why is this... What is it that they are really so in fear of... is the fear really based on their concern that we will be better off by complying, or that they will be less threatened. This is the question and a dilemma for ourselves as to how we can not be infected by this virus of insecurity when they are the carriers of it. It seems to be their sole purpose only is to take over our lives, destroy our potential of individuality... and protect themselves from the fear of any type of change. Just like the pathology of any infectious disease, or a computer virus... We Are Gradually Taken Over To Become "THEM", and serve only their wants and needs. How can we protect ourselves, how can we immunize our creative mind to this epidemic of fears that is focused on us so that to comply and do only what the program allows.

Have we forgotten... We Are The Creators... We Are Man! Creativity is in our nature and in our hands, and has been since the dawn of mankind. We are the only species of animal on the planet that continuously pours out new ideas every second of every day, and has been doing so for as long as any historic records have been kept... and even far beyond that into the deepest past of pre-history. Our very essence is Creativity and , we were put here, placed here... or whatever to continuously bring about Perpetual Change. If we have any purpose in life at all it is that, to create and move the world into the future with our ideas and what we make and bring into reality. Why are people so determined to slow things down to a halt, to cause things to stop... or to say in other way... To Imitate Death, that condition where there is no movement.

In my art... music, there has to be movement... music is like a living organism at it's best... ever changing, twisting stretching and exploring new worlds of sound. Music is non-static design, it is A Sound Sculpture in Sound, always In Motion. Music moves like all healthy living things... not trapped, inhibited, restricted or enslaved to any outside force... Not Dead. Music is A Pure, Living... Creative Flow of Energy, unfolding before our ears... as if they were eyes. This is what has made music a very special and important part of our lives... it is a pattern or blueprint of life itself. Like DNA music shapes our lives mysteriously in ways we cannot even begin to know. Music takes on a journey to our own soul, a place we seldom can visit without such a guide, a guide to a part of our self we cannot experience any other way.

Craig Smith

Music Is Energy In Action

Music is like clouds... music is like water in the sea... or a river, it's always moving. In this way music is like life itself... animated always... until like life, it ends. This symbolism of music could be more significant than we might think, perhaps it may be that when the music stops... so will all life on earth cease to exist.

By it's very nature of movement... energy in action... music is the supreme "Non Concretized Form" in the universe. In fact, within music lies the universe in miniature... continuously changing... evolving into a new shape every moment, a New Sound Sculpture made from nothing but vibrations floating through the air.

Craig Smith

The Natural Heritage Of Music... The Family Of Your Culture...

We all enter this world complete, with a brain... The Processor and Operating System, and also with a Natural Heritage of Our Culture of Origin... The Programming for that system. From the beginning everything is in place all ready to be used. All we have do is unpack the box and start using the equipment inside, that is... inside us. With this, let it be said... as with any equipment, we have to not be in the box itself, but just like using a new computer... outside looking in. Letting any piece of equipment to remain in the box makes it unusable... and nothing changes... things do not grow... and we access nothing from the wealth of information and applications that we have available. Things remain at status quo... still, un-moving, in a state close to that of death itself, No Movement, the basic indicator of the non-existence of life, as that of a piece of stone.

We were not born to be a solidified mass of nothingness, with no objectives or purpose in this thing we call life. We were all put on this planet to be part of the planet's own life energy field; and interact with all things around us in creative ways which allow for survival. We are to be using Our Natural Bio-Computer, The Brain, to help the world and all that is a part of who we are keep moving forward in the endless Procession Of Creativity Unfolding for the betterment of the whole including all mankind.

This is our reason for "being"... that's why we are Human "Beings". As I have previously said "We Are The Creators... We Are Man". However, are we really alive... acting in the responsible way that we were put here for, or are we just standing there "still"... not much different than that image of death itself... caught in the Death Trap of non-purpose without any direction. Trapped in the conformity of those who are our jail keepers, our slave masters?

The answer is NO. We ascribe to and follow these almost dead "call them zombies... perhaps" beings that make us believe this is the way it is to be. But, we are not actually enslaved or trapped, we hold the keys to our imprisonment... all we must do is unlock the cell of illusion that others have made us believe that this is all there is. Once again, "We Are The Creators... We Are Man": And we have all the equipment and natural resources within us to free ourselves from the "Daymare" of waking life and move into the World Of Our Own Reality... and Live Our Dreams. Life is not that, that we are being told it is... Life Is Freedom and Continuous Movement. We must create the world we want to live in and the life we want to be ours.

Life is like a river, or a natural spring... it is meant to be flowing... not dammed up, or diverted in it's course. And, as we so often seen... water so diverted or blocked frequently causes devastating changes to an environment, turning what was once a green pasture into a desert... making life no longer the same, or maybe even totally non-existent... or... Dead.

Craig Smith