music? martial arts?

something occurred to me today.

in learning to play a musical instrument, for example piano, there are two ways to go about it. the first is to learn it the 'classical' way, as i hv done - learn everything from the ground up, spending years building a solid 'foundation' while slowly improving one's skills. thats the traditional way of learning.

the other way is to learn the 'popular music' way. in a much shorter amount of time, one learns only the essentials needed to listen to or read popular music n play it on the keyboard. by focusing on the 'useful' things, in this case the ability to play music that is pleasing to the ears, n omitting everything else that r not directly required for playing popular music, such as musical theory n overly technical finger exercises, one dramatically shortens the time it takes to 'achieve' a certain level of piano-playing skill.

in my case, i learned to play the piano the 'classical way'. no complaints about it....while i cant exactly label myself a 'pro', im at least able to play moderately difficult pieces quite satisfactorily, n hv even tried my hand at some difficult pieces with some level of success. but i noe of ppl who, despite never formally learned piano the classical way, r able to play popular music quite impressively. thus proving that we do not necessarily

so why did i suddenly bring up this topic? actually, this post is not about music at all. its about martial arts.

ive started learning martial arts at too old an age. as such, i'll never be able to hv 'martial arts flowing thru my limbs' the same way piano works for me....no matter how i train from now on, martial arts will never be a 'part' of me the same way music is. not to mention time and energy contraints that increase as a person grows older and finds himself loaded with more and more academic responsibilities, inevitably followed by even greater work responsibilities. which makes achieving a high level of martial arts proficiency thru the 'classical way' impossible.

however, as in the world of music, there r faster ways to learn martial arts. one can take only the bare 'essentials' of combat n focus on those. basic, efficient n effective techniques, physical fitness. these r obtainable in a shorter period of time than the complicated, 'deep' philosophies of traditional martial arts. n while it can be argued that the deep foundations laid down by years of repetitive practice of traditional arts can give an edge in certain ways, learning systematically saves time n allows late-starters to catch up to a limited extent i guess....

so, onwards to glory!!

disclaimer: please do not read if you are allergic to nonsense.