Skip to main content

Day Fifty Three (Year Three)

So, over the years I've signed up for all sorts of emailed guitar lesson-type things, where some hotshot or some blowhard tries to convince you that you can "shortcut" the hard work and make blazing progress in 8 days or some such B.S.  It always makes me laugh.  I get that I'm not where I thought I'd be when I started blogging about my musical explorations a few years ago, and I also get that most of the reason I'm not is because I haven't put in enough consistent work to get where I want to be.  Still, any time they offer me something for free, I take it, if only because I'm curious where they start to hook you in.  Tonight, as it turns out, they are starting in the same place I have started with my students: learning the notes on the neck.  I know, big surprise there, right?

I puttered around late tonight with the acoustic, searching for a song idea to get me back on track with writing.  I stumbled across a few things, but nothing that really set the world on fire, so to speak.  I know I can't expect miracles when I'm not (as of yet) putting in 8 hour days working solely on music, but I'm human, in that I want progress to be faster, even on things like this, where I'm not always 100% in control of what happens.

Didn't get a chance to finish off that Green Day article today, either.

My only defense for the lack to quality music time today is that SL and I spent most of the afternoon/evening catching a mouse that had gotten inside, and then trying to ensure that no more of his friends were going to get in.  Lost time away from music. 

Better tomorrow.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.

Day Three Hundred Forty Two (Year Four)

Tonight was a slightly unfocused night in the studio. It was a night of acoustic stuff, but most of what I got accomplished involved tinkering with different songs by Jackie Greene and Johnny Cash.  If nothing else, I set up the next list of songs I want to figure out. Tomorrow night I need to start getting back to the Acoustic Goldmine book, as well.  Every time I sit down with the acoustic for an extended period of time, I reconnect with the emotional side of that instrument.  There's so much to learn still in that book, so much information designed to improve my playing.  I need to take better advantage of it. I know it's crazy, but I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I really need to spend a lot of the day in the studio.  Getting a weekday off of work is such a rare commodity.  I need to do a good job of using my time wisely.