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This question cuts straight to the heart of Life… and this series of messages goes, perhaps, as DEEP and Intelligently as possible into the Experience of Life and offers PROFOUND insight gained from a journey that has been EPIC in worldly terms, but is also littered with catastrophic losses almost unimaginable. Set in an array of settings ranging from intimate talks in the Awakened Forest to national conferences, concerts, broadcasts and various public events over the years, Andrew shares a challenges people to learn to truly live, and even embrace the struggles and heartaches along the way…and somehow reconcile and integrate the Day and Night, Pleasure and Suffering…
Andrew Reed is a True Outlier…
Andrew has gone about as DEEP as possible, through personal will, as well as through “events” into the PROFOUND of the Experience of Life. He has accomplished much in worldly terms and in a number of fields, including music, the arts, healthcare, business, wilderness adventurer, scientific research, Alaskan commercial fishermen, consultant/teacher to over 10,000 CEOs and executives, etc. But his life is also littered with almost every catastrophic loss imaginable from the loss of 2 children in accidents, loss of health, loss of a few fortunes, loss of wives & loves, and loss through natural disasters of hurricanes and forest fires. Add in - bear attacks, gunshot fragments in his head, being swept overboard a few times nearly drowning, escaping from fires nearly killing him, having multiple breakdowns and such add to the color to the philosophical topics and practical, pragmatic advice shared…
He has been described as a creative rarely seen, with accomplishments in music and the arts as well as being an expert on creating and operating World-Class organizations. He is also a songwriter and super guitarist under Universal/Virgin Music Groups and WorldSound with an international fanbase accounting for 90% outside of the US. He is the principal of Multi-View Incorporated family of companies which benchmarks and consults with over 1,300 companies, primarily in the United States.
What are you willing to throw your life away on? With Andrew Reed and The Liberation. It's a serious question, one worth pondering. Am I living the life I want, an intelligent life, or something else? How can I have a better experience of life?
Speaker 1:These are some of the questions explored in this series of messages without the brag and the advertisement. Getting beyond even human institutions and society into the wilderness, nature, the reality of how life actually operates on this planet. These messages range from intimate recordings from the awakened forest to concerts, national conferences, and broadcasts on a wide array of philosophical topics.
Speaker 2:Welcome to what are you willing to throw your life away on? I am the show's producer, Alex Hamlin, and I am just stepping in to guide you on how you should consume this episode. It is totally fine to listen to this episode while you are cleaning, driving, doing your work, not doing your work. With this episode, you may find it helpful to watch the YouTube version on our YouTube channel, Andrew Reed and the Liberation. There, you'll be able to follow along and see exactly what Andrew is talking about when he is showcasing these various guitar playing techniques.
Speaker 2:And with that, please enjoy this latest episode of What Are You Willing to Throw Your Life Away On.
Speaker 3:Okay, guitar technique. I think one very healthy thing for a guitar player to do is to ditch the pick and use your natural or semi natural extensions. Yes, my nails are a bit acrylic. But it gives you a real connection, you might say, and some possibilities that you can't do with a normal pick with the same ease. What fascinates me about the guitar here is that people can have all kinds of injuries.
Speaker 3:I've lost use of both of my hands, but most of the time I struggle with this hand because it was injured twice through an accident and then also through a physician error. And I've had to rehabilitate it, which is incredible. I've had surgery to reposition the nerves, in fact, on this right arm. But the thing is, with these injuries, we learn how to play differently. We adapt.
Speaker 3:And, I mean, there are guys with two fingers that play exceptionally well, and you adapt the tuning, the type of guitar, your picking technique, all these things so that you can, what? Play. What a delightful word, play. So, the pick you know, will give you obviously, you know, I like the plunkiness. You can't quite do that with your acrylic nails.
Speaker 3:And sometimes if you grow them out too much, can't do your pinches. They're just not as easy to hit, you know, the string and your flesh to give it that little pingy. So you could give up some things at the same time. I play with both, really, when you get down to it. But then, you know, you go back and you got that.
Speaker 3:Of the fingers, and it's just a natural thing. So, anyway, just a few thoughts about, you know, picking. And a lot of people like James Taylor would use probably, you know, his thumb. Well, my thumb has been weakened through a lot of injuries. I can't play with the same power that way, but I developed these two.
Speaker 3:I remember I was playing in New York and some of the music guys for the different labels and stuff were there because it was a little bit of a showcase. And they go, Oh, you only play with two fingers. And it's like, Well, yeah, I didn't even think anything about it. And they were commenting on that, and that's where I had realized that I'd kind of evolved on some level my own style of picking. And I guess what I'm saying is that you evolve your own way.
Speaker 3:There's no rule book in my opinion that says you have to play guitar a certain way because, again, no two people have the same consciousness. No two people have the same physical position in the world, let alone particles of dust or snowflakes. Nothing is identical. And there's no rule book about how to make music or how to play an instrument. No two people can play exactly the same style or the same feel because it comes from here.
Speaker 3:And that's one of my fascinations about music is that you can't touch it. It's somewhat beyond command. No two notes are even alike. And so it's always new. And, yeah, it's kind of magical.
Speaker 3:So, your picking technique, your playing technique, the musicality within you, are evolved over time. And so wherever you are in your musical journey as far as playing, it changes. I certainly don't play now the way I played when I was 13 back in Iowa. By the way, this guitar is DePaul, and they don't make them anymore. And it takes me back to Iowa because that's the first time I ever saw someone.
Speaker 3:They had just come out, and one of my friends got one. I thought, wow, that's cool. So of course, I have to have one now as an adult. But yeah. So evolve your own playing, your techniques, even the notes you choose.
Speaker 3:As far as I'm concerned, you can't hit a bad note. Your instruments, find ones that conform to you where the neck feels good. I usually customize so many of my necks. Like, here's this Les Paul custom that I have. You can see the whole back of the neck is shaved off, and people probably hear a gasp.
Speaker 3:Andrew would take an expensive guitar and and shave it off. Yeah. Because, I mean, my intent is to make music. These are friends. They are not just pieces of wood, electronics, and stuff.
Speaker 3:No, these are things that I bond with. And it's just strange. You can buy 20 instruments of this exact same model and make, and you'll find one or two of them that feel right and that you can play better on those instruments. And so the relationship between the musician and the instrument itself is an interesting thing. So, enough of my nonsense about guitars.
Speaker 3:I love guitars. I'm surrounded by guitars. If you can see the wide view here, there's probably 30 guitars around me. That is just how I live and how I've lived for years, And I treasure them. I don't see them just as tools or anything like that.
Speaker 3:I see them really almost as having their own energy, their own personality, having lost 60 or so of these in the great Black Cove fires when the studios burned down, and many of my most beloved guitars, Martins from, I mean, the 40s, 50s, 60s, Gibsons, old acoustic Gibsons, all kinds of classic electrics. Now, I don't take these instruments at all for granted, though even in live performances, I've been known to be very hard on guitars, but that's, I think, part of the relationship. Feel like if you're playing them, they feel like they're loved and they'll give back to you all this joy. They like being played. They like being admired for their curves.
Speaker 3:So there's this relationship. So, yeah, so you evolve, Your playing evolves. Your relationship with different guitars evolves as some of them come in and out of your favor, or you tend to grab certain ones. I'm like, I mean, I just I've been playing this Stratocaster for months, just practicing really almost my acoustic set. A little out of tune now, but and why we do this, you know, who knows?
Speaker 3:None of us can really explain our lives that much as to the choices we make, the decisions we make with our lives. Why? Because our lives are beyond command. So, again, enough of my nonsense and ramblings. But, again, explore your instrument, your musicality, your playing style, and let it flow out of you on this incredible morning.
Speaker 3:And I know I look like it's morning because it is. But the sun's out, the birds are chirping, the fish are jumping. It's gonna be a great day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you need anything further, just go to mbi.life.