Finger dents
So I did something tonight that I've almost never done before, even though I've been a musician for twenty years: I practiced.
*Gasp!*
Shocking, I know, but this afternoon, I had a long conversation (so long that The Wife paged me on my cell phone to ask where the hell I was and if I was planning on coming home at some point) with a fellow musician who owns a store in town (no, it's not Josh)and I found myself holding forth that either you choose to make time for music in your life or not; either you play or you don't. And it got me thinking that, hey, for a long time now, almost for as long as I've been a musician, I've been pretty half-ass about it.
Oh sure, I can pick up the horn (that'd be a 1994 vintage Selmer Super Action 80 Model II tenor saxophone with an Otto Link 6* and Vandoren Java 3s for those of you not in the know) and rip off a couple scales. I can read down most basic charts at first sight with about 80 percent accuracy, and I'm more than happy to solo over any changes that are remotely blues based. But all that's easy, and is hold-over from high school when I spent a hell of a lot of time in the band room messing around with music.
While I don't have to be furrowed-brow-hermit serious to play, I was thinking that maybe I should make a practice plan for myself, and carve out a little niche each day so that I have time to play, and a plan for what I'm going to play.
OK, so I'm still planless, but I played a little guitar tonight. I'm right at the very beginning stages of that instrument, and while it's frustrating, it's also fun to figure out things as I go. For example, I found a C major arpeggio tonight not by ear, but by figuring out what the hell I was doing. It was cool. But now I have dents in the tips of my fingers from the strings.
posted by -- aj van beest at 18:30. Perma-link
1 Comments:
That's weird. I was just thinking almost exactly the same thing about myself the other day. Here I have a vocal music degree and have drummed for 19 years, but realized that there are a lot of things that I simply can't do, like use traditional grip. My playing is not as technical as it used to be, maybe because I play in a big, dumb rock band. I made it through three music theory courses, composing and arranging, conducting, score-reading, etc...and what the hell have I been doing with my "skills?" Playing Judas Priest covers? Being a cable collections agent? Both of which aren't enough to pay for living in a flop house run by Evil Slum Lord Josh? I don't even own my own drum set. The last time I did was when I was 16! I ran across my old book of staff paper and found that I had written full pieces of music for percussion ensembles, voice, and micromoog...all unrealized. I live above a freakin' music store and have keys to all of the colleges music equipment and I sit around like some lousy TOOOOOAAAAAD.
12:43 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home