Inflection is the single most important element of playing a musical instrument. It's often overlooked and undertaught. Every musician, when given a simple melody, will approach playing it differently. Guitar is a very expressive instrument, and has many options in the inflection department, including some not found on any other instrument. All of these options define a player's signature—and touch. Inflections are a permanent part of the musical examples that appear later in this book. From now on, when I introduce a scale, you'll get a more realistic idea of how the scale actually sounds. A musical example played without inflections is akin to hearing the sound of a computer speaking. All the right information is there, but it just doesn't sound right; it's missing the inflections.