Filip's story: from YouTube to understanding music
I started playing guitar 11 years ago for a simple reason: I adore music. A friend who has been playing far longer than me lent me a classical guitar, and I began learning chords and playing songs.
At the beginning it was really hard. My fingers hurt, I learned everything from YouTube and I didn't know why I was playing what I was playing. I learned the G major chord without any idea what it actually was. All I knew was that it's part of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" as played by Guns N' Roses, so I just kept playing that way.
I progressed as far as YouTube would take me without a teacher, and that wasn't enough for me. Quite by chance I met professional musicians who run a large and interesting music project in Croatia. With their support I learned the music theory you need to really know music and playing. Helping out on the project, I played with children with developmental difficulties, and from time to time I helped a friend who is a professional violinist and another who is a professional double bassist.
It's in my character that what I know is never enough – I felt I could do more and do it better. Absolutely everything interested me: from why notes exist and why the human ear hears them the way it does, to advanced fingerstyle techniques and the solos of the songs I love.
My goal was to understand music: why some notes fit together and others sound dissonant.
With that understanding, today I can play almost any simpler song in a few short steps – and that, I'd say, is 95% of music. For the remaining 5% I have to work harder, but I understand what I'm playing and why it's put together that way, which helps me enormously. All of it took a great deal of time, study and effort, with one short break from playing along the way.
I love listening to Dire Straits, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Parni valjak, Prljavo kazalište, Bajaga and the rest of the ex-Yugoslav crowd. I like classical music too – but only if it's fast and cheerful.
I started this little project because I love music. I've worked a lot with children and young people, I have plenty of patience and I love passing on what I know.
K'Rocko