Relearning

I've been working on a side project book called "Music Theory for the Ukulelist" over the past couple of weeks.  It is amazing how much I find myself knowing and how many little gaps I've got.  It's been a great exercise for myself.

The book is hopefully going to be available for PDF by Christmas.  Before then, I'm using it as the basis for a workshop series I'm doing for a local community ed class.  It will be my second full class I've done for them (the first being beginner ukulele).

I enjoy doing those classes because it really puts me into my place as a musician to learn exactly what I'm talking about.  Students will keep you humble and will make you prove it sometimes.

Time Keeps Slipping...

Things have slowed down for me musically. Much much more than I want them to.  Between family and work I'm finding myself trying to carve out a half hour here and there to really dive in.  Some days I have the time, but I've so stressed or worn out that it doesn't much matter.

I'm thankful that I have a routine that I can push through as a minimum goal.  It consists of major scales in five positions on the neck played linearly, in thirds, and five notes up four down.  Add to that an arpeggio exercise that I learned a couple years ago plus working on a triad pairs lesson from Matt Warnock and I can get about fifteen minutes in.  I'll usually fill in another fifteen on a song or two just to get it a solid half hour.

I'm hoping to get some free time in the next couple weeks where I can record a video or two and get that up.  Just something to remind the world I'm still here and I'm still creating.  I did one on vacation and it was great.  I want to chase that a bit.

~Danny

Slow Progress

Today's Total:  20 hours 9 minutes

I can remember a time about five years ago where getting 3 hours a day in playing and practice time was easy.  A buddy of mine has at one point logged closer to 8 hours a day average.  However, being that I'm a stay at home dad with a kid that just learned to crawl... I'm averaging 45 minutes a day so far.

The trick I'm finding is trying to look in between activities to get more time in.  Even if that is just running a scale up and down and then playing through the changes of a random tune.  Really, content isn't my problem. It's freedom.

I figure to reach the goal in two years (May 6, 2018), I would need to average about an hour and a half each day.  That actually puts me ahead a little.  I think I actually got 1.36 hours as my number.  Either way, I'm half way to my average goal which means I have a lot of catching up to do.

The good news is that I've recently hit a streak of booking gigs.  Adding a 2 hour gig into my mix hear and there makes a huge difference!  Plus, I work a couple days a week at my church and I hadn't gotten to focus on music while there the last couple of weeks.  Starting this week, that will change a lot.

There is a lot to be hopeful for.  I'll be making it eventually!

The Thousand Hour Project

For a couple of years now I had heard this rather new adage that mastery of anything comes at about ten thousand hours.  The idea is basically that if you spend ten thousand hours of concentrated study on a subject, then by default you have mastered it.  It's a great idea and definitely a way to give some sort of quantifiable idiom to mastery.

But, I don't necessarily believe it.

Still, the challenge of getting ten thousand hours gets at me.  If you break that down, that is 416.66 days.  Over a year straight of playing before you are a master at your musical instrument.  When you put in all the other things in life like family, food, sleep, church, video games, movies, driving, etc, etc...  That sort of commitment and achievement is sort of awesome!


Doing a small amount of research as I am writing this post, I came across someone who is working on 10,000 hours towards golf mastery.  Apparently, this guy quit his job and devoted himself to it.  I can't tell if I'm inspired or skeptical.  Either way, I'm not alone on my quest.


For me, I can't see myself getting more than about a an hour to two hours each day of practice and play time.  I would wrap any time on the fretboard as counting for this because I try earnestly to be learning even in a performance situation.  I don't believe you can ever not be learning.  So, at 2 hours a day, it should take me 5,000 days to achieve.  That's 13 years.  Damn.


But what about just a thousand hours?  I mean, I've already been playing music since 1992.  I've got a lot of back time to look at.  Now, we are just talking 500 days.  Even though I see 13 years as obtainable, just under two is much more palatable.


So, there is my first goal... Log 1,000 hours of play time.  Once I've accomplished that, we'll see what is next.

Wearing It Down

One of my goals in music is to have a guitar that is worn out.  I want the finish rubbed off of the neck, holes where the pick guard should be, refretted a dozen times, divots in the fretboard...  All of that.

But, I want to come by it naturally.

I know a few players who have worn their instruments through like this.  And it speaks to so many things not only within the culture of music but also to the individual.

A hundred plus years ago when the average family didn't have electronic entertainment in the house they almost always had some sort of musical instrument.  For rich folk, that may have been several instruments including a piano.  For poorer folks, you know the salt-of-the-earth types, that was more likely a fretted instrument like a guitar or a banjo.  If you were a particularly musical bunch, each family member might have their own instrument.  Each evening after supper was over, families would gather in a parlor or on a front porch and play music.  Neighbors would sometimes join in.

This is the origin of folk, blues, country, and nearly every other vernacular style of music.  Barn dances would be played by these same musicians once or twice a month.  People participated in their music.

Now, Sears catalogs aside, there wasn't much for gear heads back in those days.  Mostly, once you got an instrument you had that instrument for life.  If you were particularly good, you might upgrade once or twice, but mostly you would play the same one for the duration.  That nightly picking for an hour or more took it's toll and most musicians had instruments that had worn patches all over.  These instruments had character.  They were authentic.

For me, I have already started to see the signs of wear on some of my instruments and I am delighted by it.  Nowadays we seem to look at that as a reason to replace.  Ironically, some people take the flip side and pay extra for a brand new guitar that is "weathered" or "road worn".

But again, I'm looking forward to the music that happened to make my guitar wear down.  I see the scratches and the dents or chips in the finish and remember when they happened.  I see the uneven frets and realize I've played too long low on the neck.  I see the buckle rash and think I should lose a few pounds.

All in all, I like the character my instruments are becoming.

Allan Reuss

I'm reposting a bit here because I feel it is warranted.  A buddy of mine, Ed, clued me into taking a look at Jonathan Stout's video on Allen Reuss's chord soloing style.  Here is the original blog for context:

http://www.campusfive.com/swingguitarblog/2014/9/29/video-lesson-allan-reuss-style-chord-melody-soloing.html

It doesn't matter if you are playing guitar or uke for this method since much of the soloing happens off the top two strings.  The approach is the same.  Try some of what Jonathan does out for yourself!

Ukulele, Guitar, and Music Notation Software

I cleaned out one of my music folders today.  The one that I use primarily for beginner uke workshops.  I recycled about two pounds of paper.  I feel bad about the waste, but it's kind of what happens when you are a uke instructor.  People constantly "give" you more and more music.  Most of which is either not good for what you are doing or has a lot of errors.

The plus side is that now the folder is clean again and only contains what I use to teach.  The next step is a further redesign of the course (which I've already sketched out).  This will put me in front of the computer making lead sheets and chord diagrams along with writing out exercises and organizing things that way.

Just as an FYI, I thought it would be good to describe what I use for all this mess.  The unfortunate thing is that most software for music is expensive.  I would love to own a copy of Sibelius or another high end notation software, but I'd also like to pay off debt, feed my family, and put gas in my car.  I have cobbled together a modest collection of software that does about 90% of what I want.

Neck Diagrams

This is a great software that isn't crazy expensive.  It does a few things like designing page layouts and helping to create books of music work.  What it excels at (and is about the only good thing out there for) is making neck diagrams and charts.  The biggest downside is that it has no notation or tabbing ability.  But, you can easily import images of tab and notation and organize it on the page.

Noteflight.com

Noteflight.com is such an awesome community notation website.  It is a very powerful tool for creating notation music charts.  Lots of variables to make layout look good.  It is limited in some of the layout and that there is no ukulele tablature nor is there any chord diagrams.  But, you can sign up for a free version to get you started or pay a monthly fee for unlimited access.



Guitar Pro 6

This is probably the best compromise between the need for chord diagrams in a score, music notation, tablature, and multiple instruments.  It's extremely powerful and rather easy to use compared to some of the other notation softwares out there.  And it doesn't break the bank by comparison.  Sure, it's limited (just like everything is).  The biggest negatives are in text size of lyrics and the slash notation not being available in the standard notation (minor pet peeve of mine).  Overall, though, it's great.

Things I Would Like

If there are any developers out there that want to make a musician happy, here are a few things that lack in most software that I really wish I had:

• Ability to take notation with chords and lyrics and create a lyrics and chords only lead sheet.  I think this is a feature in some software, but it is very lacking in most.
• Drag and drop stuff around.  Let me tell you where I want to put that chord diagram!!!
• Line by line exporting.  It would make it so much easier to write a music book if I could just export a line at a time to a small image file.
• Fully customizable tablature.  Some do this, most limit to guitar and/or bass.  Even when you have customization in some, it's limited to some "standard" tunings.
• Capo ability.  We all use them, let me notate it.

There are more out there, but for the most part, this is what I use.  Add in the occasional use of word processing software and image software and that makes up the majority of my creative music suite.  And I got all of mine for much less than the $500 price tag of the big notation softwares.