I guess if I write it here I might be more likely to stick to it, huh?
Anyway, I had decided to dedicate myself to getting better or sell everything, probably before the first of the year but it makes for a nice time to reflect and make plans/goals. I first started trying to learn at about 40ish. Might not have been exactly 40 but call it 10 or 12 years ago. I have typically gotten inspired, played for a while, got distracted and didn't touch a guitar for a while. I think in some cases I've gone a year or two without playing. I'm not even sure the longest run I've had of actually picking up a guitar regularly. I can play a few things and can pick up songs, at least strummers fairly easily most of the time. I still suck at lead/solo/improv or whatever it's called. And I still suck at playing and singing at the same time. Unfortunately, those are the two things that I think in the back of my head I got into playing for. Not necessarily to perform but to be able to do those things for myself. So it's time to fish or cut bait.
I've developed a plan of action and a practice routine. Everything is written in advance and timed. In other words, if I'm doing skills like scales, I have the timer set and I work on it (with a metronome) until the timer goes off then move on to the next thing. I have limited time so this has been very useful. I break it up into sections. Skills stuff, improvisation, learning a song to play and sing, learning cool things to play (for example I learned a version of Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker, a blues thing I found online that has the rhythm and lead parts together and I'm learning the cool riffs in Yellow Ledbetter, etc.). I can't work on everything every time but I plan for the week and make sure I get time on everything. And it is all geared toward eventually being able to just jam with friends or to a track and to be able to play and sing.
The more specific goals are:
- Stick to the plan
- Play something every day even if it is just one thing
- Record something at least once a month even if it is just noodling to a backing track.
- Play with others. I have a couple guys I've played with but need more options because we have a hard time getting it done due to schedules. Local music shop was doing a weekly jam but interest must have gotten low because they haven't been doing it. Going to see if they are planning to get that going again.
- Play in front of my family and friends. We have people over a lot so by the end of the year I want to have started playing for them some.
- Play an open mic. The local shop has one every week. My goal is to play a song there by the end of the year.
So there it is. If I don't pull it off I'll have a fire sale.
). What I should do is find someone else to play with as that would probably help me more than anything but that's not going to happen given other plans this year (and the fact that I am somewhat embarrassed about playing with/for others)
