Musical goals for 2019?

I've talked about it before and then procrastinated on it repeatedly, but now finally started properly working on my guitar technique.
Tried before, but never really got going.

Was in much worse shape than I originally thought. That's what can happen when you start playing before the internet is a thing and never took proper lessons. :embarrassed:

Some improvement already after averaging at least an hour a day so far this year.
But man...unlearning horrible errors you've been doing for almost 30 years is a bit rough. :embarrassed:

Hopefully this time I can stick with it. It IS working, though it's going to take a good while.
 
Denverdave said:
I need to write down something more specific, but between February and December last year I probably played a grand total of one hour of guitar. So - I just need to start playing again. I have two acoustics and neither are playable nor fixable by myself. #1 need a new nut, a setup, and then it goes up for sale locally. The neck is too wide for me. #2 has a buzzing on the G string at the third fret (I think) I just can't fix - so that goes to the luthier as well. I did play that one a bit on Monday trying to get my fingerpicking skills out of the gutter.

So - hmmm...
1. get acoustics fixed
2. sell one
3. play the other one way more.
4. write a few songs
5. Try to find some outlet for playing ( band, open mic, etc. Church ain't gonna happen where we go now).
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This is very similar to me. I have spent the last year basically dusting my guitars, moving my pedal board out of the way, and getting frustrated after about 10 minutes of picking up either my electric or acoustic.
I planned to have a regular jam session (weekly) with my nephew but we are both exceptionally flaky when it comes to keeping plans.
My goal this year is to just have a focus. Even if that means writing down the songs I know front to back and playing through them.
Baby steps or I'll never do any of it.
 
Gear acquisition at this point is generally for touring purposes and is mostly done, as far as I can tell. There really isn't much that I need in that realm. However, what I'm focusing on now is this:

In the interest of minimizing undue friction for the purpose of playing as fast as possible, the action on pretty much ALL of my guitars is ridiculously low. The days of shredding are really quite far behind me (although I still have some chops left), so I raised the action on one of my Les Paul's recently, and liked the results. Sure, it slowed me down a bit, but while doing some recording lately, the compression that I occasionally experience on clean sounds has decreased. The interest of having a clearer/cleaner tone is paramount right now.
 
Organize pool party, concert at my house for this summer. Enlist all my super talented singer songwriter friends, try to attract a couple of friend's bands that are up and coming in LA scene, put lyrics to two new songs I wrote and shamelessly promote myself and subject attendees to my singing voice. Probably have a full bar and bartender by the pool. BYOHAB (hookers and blow).


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Psychotronic said:
Gear acquisition at this point is generally for touring purposes and is mostly done, as far as I can tell. There really isn't much that I need in that realm. However, what I'm focusing on now is this:

In the interest of minimizing undue friction for the purpose of playing as fast as possible, the action on pretty much ALL of my guitars is ridiculously low. The days of shredding are really quite far behind me (although I still have some chops left), so I raised the action on one of my Les Paul's recently, and liked the results. Sure, it slowed me down a bit, but while doing some recording lately, the compression that I occasionally experience on clean sounds has decreased. The interest of having a clearer/cleaner tone is paramount right now.
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How often do you have shit wear out or die on you? I know I’ve been really busy this year and deferred maintenance on a bunch of stuff for budgetary reasons but holy shit I’m tired of taking guitars and amps in for repair. I’m not breaking pedals much anymore sine I got the ES-8 but I think my King of Tone has to go back because something is intermittent.
 
Mark Wein said:
How often do you have shit wear out or die on you? I know I’ve been really busy this year and deferred maintenance on a bunch of stuff for budgetary reasons but holy shit I’m tired of taking guitars and amps in for repair. I’m not breaking pedals much anymore sine I got the ES-8 but I think my King of Tone has to go back because something is intermittent.
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Rarely. Touring is the bulk of my gigs these days, so (besides my guitars) I'm "pedals only" in those cases. Some of the pedals need tightening (jacks, switches, knobs) on occasion, but none have broken in any way. I keep expecting my patch cables to wear out, and always travel with a few extra, but they've held up fine. I request long 1/4" cables in my backline rider for connecting to the house and to whatever I have as a stage monitor. I bring 2 just in case, but I never have to use them.

I have a rotation of around 5 or 6 electrics that go on the road with me (always 2 at a time, and at least 1 is a Les Paul). Bringing them on the road is causing MUCH more wear and tear on them. I wait until I have a break in the action of at least a few weeks before I toss a guitar to my tech. He'll give me emergency service when needed, but I don't like to have to do that to him. It's interesting, though, that touring has made certain details in my guitars much more evident to me. For example, I have a P-90 in the neck of one of my LP's, and it sounds great on its own but has got to go. Middle position with a humbucker/P-90 combo is a weird beast.

I'm not doing enough local gigs these days to even use an amp all that much, so they're all fine. My Bogner -- hell, I've had it for probably a dozen years and have yet to have it serviced. I probably should, though. Same goes for my Boogie, and yeah probably my Fender too...
 
Psychotronic said:
Rarely. Touring is the bulk of my gigs these days, so (besides my guitars) I'm "pedals only" in those cases. Some of the pedals need tightening (jacks, switches, knobs) on occasion, but none have broken in any way. I keep expecting my patch cables to wear out, and always travel with a few extra, but they've held up fine. I request long 1/4" cables in my backline rider for connecting to the house and to whatever I have as a stage monitor. I bring 2 just in case, but I never have to use them.

I have a rotation of around 5 or 6 electrics that go on the road with me (always 2 at a time, and at least 1 is a Les Paul). Bringing them on the road is causing MUCH more wear and tear on them. I wait until I have a break in the action of at least a few weeks before I toss a guitar to my tech. He'll give me emergency service when needed, but I don't like to have to do that to him. It's interesting, though, that touring has made certain details in my guitars much more evident to me. For example, I have a P-90 in the neck of one of my LP's, and it sounds great on its own but has got to go. Middle position with a humbucker/P-90 combo is a weird beast.

I'm not doing enough local gigs these days to even use an amp all that much, so they're all fine. My Bogner -- hell, I've had it for probably a dozen years and have yet to have it serviced. I probably should, though. Same goes for my Boogie, and yeah probably my Fender too...
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The thing I've found with patch cables is that if you leave everything connected there are almost no problems ever. It's once I start swapping things around that I have issues.

Over the last few years, I've been getting better cases for everything so that has helped but my amps get banged around a bunch and I think some of my amp problems are more about vibration damage to tubes than anything else.

I've been in the habit of playing one guitar to death at a time and then parking it when the frets are done for. My tech told me that I need to start rotating guitars regularly like every other normal musician in the area and then I won't be into him for $1200-$1500 a year.
 
Mark Wein said:
The thing I've found with patch cables is that if you leave everything connected there are almost no problems ever. It's once I start swapping things around that I have issues.

Over the last few years, I've been getting better cases for everything so that has helped but my amps get banged around a bunch and I think some of my amp problems are more about vibration damage to tubes than anything else.

I've been in the habit of playing one guitar to death at a time and then parking it when the frets are done for. My tech told me that I need to start rotating guitars regularly like every other normal musician in the area and then I won't be into him for $1200-$1500 a year.
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Ah, yeah, so here's another thing...

My touring board is always connected, but TSA likes to disassemble it on the regular, and they don't do a very good job of it, it seems like there's a lot of yanking going on (and not the good kind, har-har!). I quite often get to the first show only to find that they've mucked around with it. So, I'm REALLY surprised that the patch cables still work. I keep meaning to place a laminated card on top of the pedals saying, "Please be gentle, these are etc. etc...."

I just recently had one of my guitars frets done. I'm really heavy-handed with my picking hand, but pretty light-handed with my fretting hand, so I don't burn through frets. That particular guitars' frets were pretty worn when I got it 20-something years ago. Otherwise, I've never had any fret work done on any guitar I own. I should rotate more than I do, frankly.
 
I've been playing bass in this band for about 6 weeks now. We worked through a few of their songs for the first few weeks and are now writing new material. The challenge has been to write something interesting that works with our sound. I'm writing a lot of cool stuff, but those jams end up sounding more funky or fusiony. The more basic stuff I play tends to get latched onto.

From a technique standpoint, I had some pain in my thumb and forefinger from picking for the first few weeks. I don't deathgrip the pick so I was a bit confused by the problem. Talkbass has a long thread about Carol Kaye's picking techniques and that helped me to be more loose while keeping the rest of my picking technique in tact. Oddly, I'm picking more like I do on guitar than I did before and it's working out better.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
I've been playing bass in this band for about 6 weeks now. We worked through a few of their songs for the first few weeks and are now writing new material. The challenge has been to write something interesting that works with our sound. I'm writing a lot of cool stuff, but those jams end up sounding more funky or fusiony. The more basic stuff I play tends to get latched onto.

From a technique standpoint, I had some pain in my thumb and forefinger from picking for the first few weeks. I don't deathgrip the pick so I was a bit confused by the problem. Talkbass has a long thread about Carol Kaye's picking techniques and that helped me to be more loose while keeping the rest of my picking technique in tact. Oddly, I'm picking more like I do on guitar than I did before and it's working out better.
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Nothing wrong with pick on a bass but any thought to giving fingerstyle a try?
 
smurfco said:
Nothing wrong with pick on a bass but any thought to giving fingerstyle a try?
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I’ve been working on it, just like I did in The Stand Ins and The Bird Index. I don’t have a lot of practice time. My aim is to write the songs first and then go back and learn the parts fingerstyle.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
I’ve been working on it, just like I did in The Stand Ins and The Bird Index. I don’t have a lot of practice time. My aim is to write the songs first and then go back and learn the parts fingerstyle.
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If one is an adept, skilled guitarist with a strong right-hand technique, like yourself, then you shouldn’t feel any pressing need to go “pickless” if you transition to bass.

Play to your considerable strengths, I think.
 
VoidTerraFirma said:
If one is an adept, skilled guitarist with a strong right-hand technique, like yourself, then you shouldn’t feel any pressing need to go “pickless” if you transition to bass.

Play to your considerable strengths, I think.
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At the end of the day, it's about what makes the songs better. I like working on fingerstyle because it makes me a better guitarist and bassist. Everything I've ever written fingerstyle for guitar ends up getting either flatpicked or hybrid picked anyway. All I'm looking for is to be more comfortable as a bassist, and much of can be attained learning to play fingerstyle. Even if everything gets flatpicked in performance, like on guitar, it'll change how I approach the bass, which is what I'm really looking for.
 
I just noticed today that I never updated my goals for the 2nd quarter of the year...:embarrassed:

As far as what I wanted to accomplish...

I haven't been able to really establish a regular daily/weekly routine...I've definitely been playing much more than I have been, and that has paid off to a degree, but it's still too easy to come home from a long day at work and plop down on the couch...

I did get a song done for Recordingfest...I need to get started on the next one (especially now that I took the reigns from Rev) but the song I need to pick a new song to work on...the one I was going to do SEEMED like a good idea but every time I try to get started on it I just don't feel inspired to proceed...

I abandoned any pretense of learning the solos in Comfortably Numb...I love the song and Gilmour's plying on it too much to do a half-assed job on it, so I'm putting that off until I feel ready...

As far as utilizing the resources already on hand...yeah, well...:embarrassed:

What I have accomplished, and what I feel good about, are a few things not on my list...I joined the VIP program at Joe Gilder's Home Studio Corner (and then won a free year of total access somehow) and have taken part in 2 of his monthly challenges so far...I also did a remix of one of Jonny Lipsham's songs and got featured in a live stream on it...

I'm definitely feeling motivated to continue progressing in my studio...I have a couple projects under way, and have ideas for a few more...and that's in addition to Recordingfest entries and online challenges...what's good about that is it forces me to be more serious about my playing and performances (recording really puts your playing under a well-lit microscope)...

I have not yet moved into doing any actual songwriting...I have been discussing the process with a few people, and I have some ideas for music and lyrics in the can...I just need to find the time to sit down and force myself to write SOMETHING...

I can't believe how fast this year is moving...I've lost all concept of time...
 
Well, I’m playing a lot recently. Still hitting the jam nights. Still playing with the cover band guys in Thursday nights.

I need to continue to work on my improvisation, especially where rhythm is concerned. I’m working on solidifying my picking technique with Mark. Finally, my daily battle with the metronome continuos
 
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