Blueprinting

Playing classical guitar:
A comprehensive method for classical guitar

Introduction
Though blueprinting is now an antiquated printing process, the term has come to be used as a popular expression for describing a working plan or construction documents. In music the blueprint is the musical score, provided by the composer, and blueprinting is the process of learning to play that composition by breaking it into its various parts and putting them back together. If this process is done haphazardly or inattentively, you will never have a perfectly coordinated piece of music; foundational flaws will make it lurch and stutter. When done with attention paid to every detail, the music will glide frictionless from your fingers; eloquently expressing the transcendental. 
A building, when seen from the outside, is a glorious piece of architecture. But the living structure is filled with mechanical systems that provide heating, ventilation, air conditioning, natural and artificial light, plumbing, electricity, wiring for phones and computers, back-up safety systems, and more. In a well designed building you never see the many layers that make it work. As a user you get to enjoy the beauty of the building, living and working in its functioning spaces; the offices, classrooms, studios, concert halls, lounges and bathrooms, without having to see how the water, power, heating, lighting and ventilation get there. Like any complex structure, a piece of music is made of many operating systems working together. The mechanical systems that make the piece of music work are those that you have built into your body and mind.

Though there are many similarities between the blueprints for a building and the musical score for a piece of music, there is one major difference; the blueprints break the systems down and the musical score presents all the working systems together. Additionally, the many mechanical systems needed to bring a composition to life are often implied in the score or are part of the performance practices associated with that particular musical tradition. The job of the performing musician is not just providing the moving parts; it is fundamentally to bring the music to life.