Fracture Final Performance
A lot of people like to believe that life is about the journey and not the destination. When I set out to learn Fracture in 1998, I didn’t know anything about the journey it would require, and if I did, I’m not sure I would have taken it. All I ever cared about was being able to play this song. That was the destination. Though the journey ended up being considerably challenging and extremely rewarding, I feel I’ve arrived close enough to the destination that I can move on with my life and never play Fracture again.
Listen to this quote from mental performance coach, Kapil Gupta, talking to venture capitalist Naval Ravikant:
Destination and journeys--that’s another lie. It’s not about journeys. It’s about destinations. Destinations require journeys, but everything you do in your life is defined by the destination. The moment that you leave your house every single day, you have a destination. And the destination creates the avenue.
In March 2019, I made a video called “Fracture is Impossible to Play,” which highlighted a quote from Robert Fripp’s diary saying, “Fracture is impossible to play.” Despite going quite in-depth in discussing the Guitar Craft aphorisms that shed light on what he meant, the point of the video whizzed over many commenters’ heads.
Since then, I’ve written a lengthy and very heavy book that encapsulates everything I’ve learned studying Fracture since 1998. It’s called “Failure to Fracture: Learning King Crimson’s Impossible Song” and will be out later this year on Stairway Press. I can’t wait to share it with you. Be sure to subscribe to the channel or follow @MakeWeirdMusic on social media for more information on the book’s release in the coming weeks. This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest projects I’ve ever done.
After I’m done blabbing here, you’ll see my full-length performance of Fracture, playing along with the original Starless and Bible Black recording. More importantly, you’ll see a person who is ready to take a heavy, heavy load off his back. After writing more than 300 pages of text covering the struggles of learning Fracture over the past 22 years and finally being able to perform the entire piece in front of some cameras, I am ready to never play the song ever again. Why? Because I am quite done with this journey in my life and I want to make room for new ones.
The performance in this video is... adequate. It’s not the best I could do, but the best I’m willing and able to do in front of a camera. I’d give it a B, maybe a B- considering it took 22 years to play 11 minutes of music with so many mistakes, or maybe a B+ considering how much I’ve had to overcome. It’s not easy setting up three cameras and audio equipment to film myself and try to focus solely on the performance. But at the end of it all, what matters is the quality of the music, not the quality of my technique or my personal challenges.
And this gets to a point I make in the book that Robert kindly shared on his facebook page: Learning Fracture has always been about the destination and not the journey. While I am grateful for the journey and I have learned incredible lessons along the way, I didn’t set out to learn the process of learning Fracture. I set out to play Fracture. And that’s what I’ve done to the best of my ability as a hobbyist musician with a family and an intense full-time job in the technology industry.
I’ve shared with several friends that I never want to play it again and my friends are surprised and skeptical. Even my wife challenged me saying, “I doubt you’ll never play it again.” The thing is, I am not Robert Fripp and I don’t want to be Robert Fripp. Better, Robert doesn’t want me or anyone else to be like him! I want to be who I am, and that person wants to be someone who once played an impossible piece of music like Fracture.
I also want to get back to writing and releasing my own music. There are some big plans in the works that involve some really incredible musicians. But before I do that, I’m going to release a full performance video of FraKctured as well.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this performance of a song that’s eluded me for decades, helped me trudge through insurmountable failure, and taught me what it means to be me. Thanks to all the people who’ve encouraged me over the years and thanks to the drive-by commenters who’ve helped me develop thicker skin, increased the popularity of the channel, and given me a chance to practice returning an insult. And with that, I’m closing this chapter of my life quite happily.
