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Accomplishments for 2012, and goals for 2013?


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What are a few musical accomplishments you achieved in 2012? What are some goals for 2013?

1. I no longer feel practicing scales or technical drills to be terribly tedious. I've developed a small amount of proficiency and have actually come to enjoy them to a degree.

2. I was learning the introduction to Black Dog by Led Zeppelin and had a helluva time hearing some of the notes as they were being played. By slowing down the music via Transcribe, I could finally pick out the notes, and play along, albeit at a slower pace then Jimmy. smile.gif

Goals
1. Learn the notes on the fretboard.
2. Improve my speed when changing between chords. Damn that F Barre!! wink.gif

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In general, to practice musically. I spent a great part of 2012 woodshedding to get certain things under my fingers, which meant a lot of exercises, playing individual concepts through the cycle of fifths, etc. I imagine I'll still do that when I come across something new. But generally I want to spend most of my practice time in 2013 applying concepts in musical settings rather than drilling in certain things over and over again to memorize them.


Also, I want to play more gigs. I've had my share this past year but want more. Most of that is me taking advantage of more opportunities, etc. to sit in, make connections through jam sessions, etc.

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2012 was an interesting year. I hit most of my goals. Interesting that I practiced more days, but less time than the last few years - I only missed 19 days of practice the entire year, which is a new record. On the other hand, I only got 162 hours, as opposed to well over 200 in previous years. My schedule changed, and my 3 year-old stopped taking naps so I no longer had big multi-hour blocks on the weekend to dig in. I also started counting "non-guitar" practice to award myself practice time for doing things like transcribing jazz standards to different keys, or writing out scales and chords on staff paper. I had two bouts of tendonitis this year (one is still lingering), so I did go without my hands on the guitar for a couple weeks (for a few days, I tried just playing soley with my left hand, fretting only, no picking).


Goals completed:

Learn 5 more Jazz Standards or Etudes - actually hit 6, and transcribed a couple into different keys

Finish learning Bach Sonata 1003 BMV - I have it down pretty well.

Get better at hearing rhythm - not where I want to be yet, but I've made some good progress at hearing and playing different note subdivisions at faster tempos - what do sextuplets feel like at 100bpm, what to 16th notes feel like at 110bpm. Not necessarily playing fast or slow, but being able to discern and apply these different subdivisions. When playing fast, I'd tend to just do "a fast line" without regard to tempo - sort of on autopilot. I'd end the run too soon or too late, or try to jam in extra notes that doesn't fit.. Definitely getting better at hearing it it and playing what fits. I also tend to rely on the snare drum to keep me on tempo, and if it's not there, I drift. Definitely made improvement there as well. My ear has gotten better in this regard.

Get better at alternate picking at fast tempos - spent a lot of time on this, mostly via the Bach sonata, some improvement not huge.

Continue practicing every day - nailed it.


Goals not completed

Finish at least two more songs (instrumental or not) - This one is a direct result of not having big blocks of time on the weekend to work. It's hard to write a song 15 minutes here, and 15 minute there. I did make progress, and got a bunch of things outlined and pieced together in Logic, but nothing close to complete.


Other things learned or accomplished

* The biggest thing I learned is to not focus on time spent practicing, focus on what you're learning. I always try to sit down and say "what am I going to learn in this 15 minutes" instead of just sitting down and "doing stuff."

* I learned the first 5-6 variations of Paganini's 24th caprice - this piece is like a shred clinic. Everything you'd ever want to do is here. No wonder it was so popular back in the day (i.e. mid-late 80s).

* I spent some time learning to perform vocal melodies on guitar (Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and Mahalia Jackson's "Yes, God is Real" in particular). What a great exercise.

* I spent some time analyzing songs I like - how and when do they modulate? Is there a pre-chorus? How does verse 1 differ from verses 2 and 3? How does the riff used for the solo relate to the rest of the song. Good exercise. I did this for about a dozen songs, both vocals & with instrumentals.


Not sure about 2013. I think my big goal for the year is to really hammer on rhythm. I need to learn to be on regardless whether or not there's a drummer there, and I need to make sure my improvised leads are spot-on rhythmically regardless whether they're fast or slow. I'd also like to get back to writing, and finish some more songs I'm just not sure it's going to be realistic given my schedule. Mostly just keep playing, keep learning, and not have this tendonitis come back. That'd be nice.

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I hadn't played guitar for 15 years until this year. Earlier this year, I bought a new amp (which, naturally lead to me buying 4 more guitars, in addition to the arsenal I had in the closet). My goal for this year was pretty simple: just play.


I met the goal, and then some. I started taking lessons from a fantastic guitarist. I got together with the old guitar player in my college band and we started jamming.


2013's goal is to simply play live once, even if it's at a jam.

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This past year... just playing 3-4 nights a week. Teaching 2 nights a week. Composing orchestral stuff, doing orchestrations for different artists. Arranging for different artists. Recording guitar tracks for artists like this guy: Deane Ogden And this guy: Ray Riendeau


That's pretty much it...


There are over 170 tracks on my soundcloud page. Check out my sig' for the links...

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