Matthew McConaughey on Keeping Common Sense

Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here. Enjoy!

“Common sense is like money and health. Once you’ve got it, you got to work to keep it.”

Matthew McConaughey

In almost every field there is a potential for what some have called “expert error.” This is where an expert gets lazy and begins to skip steps in the process. Then preventable mistakes happen.

By the time we become expert at something, we have mastered many of the basic elements. We have ingrained the movements through repetition and study.

The danger comes when we assume that we no longer need to consider the basics. We abandon the fundamentals and focus only on the more complex elements.

When we do, we degrade the foundation on which our playing is built. We cut corners. We take shortcuts.

To continue to improve, to always get better, we must mind the core ingredients of our craft. The more we revisit and refine the basics, the better we play. Without limit.

Many lifelong musicians realize this. In their older years many professional musicians enjoy practicing slow scales. They choose easier music. And not because they can’t play harder pieces, but because they wish to focus on the fine details of the basics. They can work on nuance without the fuss of excess complexity.

“Common sense” in music is a realization of the basics. It’s knowing the right process or formula for each task or dilemma. It’s knowing what works for us in reality (not just in theory).

And as we progress from beginner to intermediate and above we seek this knowledge. We gain this experience.

But at some point, we need to seek fewer new techniques and processes. We instead do best by practicing and refining the ones we already know work.

Someone said, “simplicity is the soul of elegance.” The basics, played well, will solve most of our problems. They will take us 99% of the way to an excellent performance. The remaining 1% we gain through inspiration, emotion, and perhaps a little magic.