reality check
well then there's that.
i'll start off by saying that the past 2 months have been really rough for me and my focus, discipline, and practice has really suffered. i lost cucs, daddy's big little girl, and that really derailed me in all ways. he was the sweetiest ever ever. i miss him every day. i got asked by a friend to play bass in a Saves the Day cover band for a one-off halloween…
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nostalgia
syncopations feel good. fact.
looking back to my earliest years of playing something had occurred to me. like so many kids in high school bands my house became the jamb house. it was the house than any one of the several bands any one of us were in at the time would end up practicing at on the weekends. and for convenience reasons a drumset was basically on permanent loan by one of our friends, b…
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practice routine
shift+n to normalize
for the past month i've been working off of the project management software. i gotta say, it's super effective. i've been fairly loose with my planning and it's changed a few times but it really keeps me on track. each day i sit down i know exactly what i'm working on. everything has a due date, which is probably the most important part of the sys…
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practice routine
warm-ups and visualizations
getting refocused on a practice routine has been productive so far. the hard part was actually sitting down and spending the time to do some long-term planning. well, long term being 6-months, which is about as far-out as i'd like to plan... any further and i think i risk drifting or changing the goal and losing focus. 6-months, though, is a pretty good sweet spo…
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practice routine
time management and time feel
practice and development... i mean, they're pretty well-defined concepts but fairly nebulous in practical terms. for years i've learned about learning an instrument. how to practice. how to measure progress. and that's all well and good but the tricky part is implementing it into your routine for real . i've certainly done better at this in the past.…
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inspiration
ear chops
for a long while i've known that developing my ear would be invaluable in my musical life. it's just another one of those skills that probably a small percentage of guitarists ever really develop to a decent degree. i've certainly been there for 20+ years. sure, certain licks will be familiar or some chord progressions... or even just through experience …
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practice routine
check, check, 1-2-3-4e&a
arguably the most important part of playing is rhythm. yes, the actual pitches you play matter, but when is probably more important. you can certainly play all the wrong notes but if they're right on time then i guess it's just "jazzy". for years my rhythm was trash. i understood "the beat" and i safely stuck to 8th notes. those pesky 16t…
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reality check
trite and maybe a little cringy, in an ordinary way
i'm sure any mixed-media 101 professor in art school can tell you that every year they get the same tampon glued to a canvas covered in red paint that says "slut" and there's probably a reason for it. every artist has to go through a a time when they make trite, shallow, well-worn, cliche, and just awful art. maybe it's because we don't know…
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practice routine
leaning into weaknesses
the other day i was working on learning a song that had a bunch of guitar layers. there was a basic acoustic part strumming out big ol' cowboy chords at the bottom. it was more of a rhythmic *chick*chick* than a harmonic foundation. then there was an arpeggiated electric part that just stated the harmony with little flourishes. on some chords it strummed out the …
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rut rants
blahrgg.
pursuing a completely solo endeavor like learning an instrument can be fun, challenging, rewarding, and frustrating. there are many ups and downs, starts, stops, and plateaus. obviously, i'm going to focus on the frustration part today because i'm frustrated. duh. being a solo endeavor it means it's done... alone, i suppose. not having anyone to work with…
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rut rants
practice space
i've been very displaced lately. spending more time at the ladyfriend's house means i'm away from my gear and my preferred practice space. sure, i brought a yamaha THR practice amp and a guitar and it's been working out, but it's not the same. my practice has suffered and i'm feeling fairly disconnected from the instrument. that's a bumme…
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inspiration
i forgot how to count maybe
i've gotten back into guitar, finally. my hand strength is back and so are my callouses. i'm still crazy rusty but at least i'm back at it. it had gotten to the point where i developed some sort of anxiety about picking up guitar again just because i knew i had lost a lot in the months of just playing bass. i clearly was actively avoiding it, procrastinat…
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inspiration
knocking the rust off
i've slowly started working my way back into guitar and although it's a big serving of humility it's also quite exciting. don't get me wrong, it absolutely sucks having to start many steps back after working so hard to get wherever i was, but at the same time i know how to get there much faster and get to experience the all of the rewards all over a…
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inspiration
bassic style
at the end of every year i do a self-evaluation on my progress. i take a look at my notebooks and each month's goal sheets that i write up. it's interesting to see where i was pointed a year previously and whether or not i stayed on course, drifted due to lack of focus or intentionally, and where i ended up. sometimes i'm surprised at either how astute i …
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rut rants
ah, fuff
for the past 7 months or so i've been completely focused on bass. to the point that i haven't even picked up a guitar since the summer. that's okay though, bass is rad and i'm consistently playing. all the knowledge i've learned is applicable and i've learned a lot more in terms of how the instrument works within a song and how to construct be…
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