By Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
Philip Sudo feels zen with his off-the-rack
'87 Fender Stratocaster.

EVERY now and Zen, while "playing guitar in a rock band in a Minnesota college, in front of 10 people, at midnight in a bar," Phil Sudo began to muse about his place in the universe, in the flow of his lifestream, in the moment, in the now.

These thoughts stuck with him, and later, working as a musician, began to coalesce. When the opportunity came to put these thoughts on paper, he moved to a family home on Maui, where he felt the spirit of his father looking over his shoulder.

"Dad was a Japanese-American businessman and we spent a lot of time in Japan," said Sudo. "He bought this place on Maui with the idea of retiring here, but he died before he was able to do it. We buried him in Wailuku, where he always dreamed of being."

Sudo's middle name, Toshio, is his father's, and since his father's spirit infused the book in progress, "Zen Guitar" is authored by Philip Toshio Sudo, even though his musician buddies know him as Phil.

"Zen Guitar" was released this week by Simon & Schuster, who snapped it up.

"I was prepared to publish it myself, because I believed in it. It was a quick sale. I had mapped out my goals for the next 10, 20 years, and wanted to hold myself to that line. I wanted my kids to be able to see what I believed at this moment, and I guess the people in the (book-publishing) industry could see that I wrote it to please myself. It had that authenticity."

The book is both easy to read and useful, said Sudo, because he studied self-help books to learn what not to do. "They were either really academic or just terribly written. I wanted anything I did to be as compelling as possible."

"The book isn't just for guitar players. Guitar playing is a metaphor for any action you want to take. There are universal principals that can be applied to surfing, cooking, anything. I just got an e-mail telling me how the book helped with a woman's flying lessons.

"Playing guitar is a physical action like any other, with Zen at the heart of it. Like sports, like anything. You're focused on the moment, your whole being is in the action, a harmony of the whole mind and spirit. You know that when the best music occurs - during such transcendental moments.

"Like anything, playing guitar requires practice; through repetition your muscles develop a memory. It should get to the point where you don't think about it, thought becomes action simultaneously."

Sudo, like every other American kid, got into music through love of rock 'n' roll, "banging around the house and making noise," and eventually learning that the professional music business has little to do with music and a lot to do with plain hard work.

He has a web site at http://www.maui.net/~zen_gtr where sample chapters and other information are located.

Sudo, 37, just finished recording a CD in the house. "The technology today is incredible.

"Five years ago you would have needed a 16-track studio and a LOT of money to do what I can do in my bedroom."

Sudo still plays daily, an '87 Fender Stratocaster with a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier.

"There's nothing like a Fender into a Fender. When the tubes warm up, it sounds like the angels singing."