Since it occurs to me that filming myself is going to be a very rare opportunity (it can only happen when my little girl is away somehow), I could just type something either insightful or just descriptive regarding the time I spend practicing, some sort of log if you will. So having been keen to try and be more focussed on my blogging lately, this seems like a good opportunity both to find time to practice and to have something to write about.
It’s difficult to put things into context, though I believe my first (and so far only) v-log, does show what sort of level I’m at. I know I want to reach a level where I can be creative without thinking about where the notes are. This part is going reasonably well, I can more easily find my scales and require less time to think about them. However, I still need to visualise the scales on the neck which is good to produce something which is musically sound, but on the other hand, creatively it can be a little dull. The other important thing I need to work on is technique. This is somehow easier to practice as I can just run through all sorts of exercises I have which are aimed at one particular thing. Speed and accuracy are my main objective with technique, now and then I have melodies running through my head which cannot be translated by my fingers yet as it’s similar to a toddler trying to catch up with Michael Johnson. So in that regard, patience is important, trying too hard can result in unfortunate results.
I’m also keen to find the right sound but I think for the moment, I’ll have to make do with what I’ve got as it’ll need time for my ear to find out exactly what it wants. I’m also lacking a budget to change my equipment so this makes decisions easier.
I’m usually happy enough even if I can just squeeze 15 minutes of practice. I have nobody – except for my tutor- to play with so every little session is quite pleasant. Lately I’ve been working on figuring out some basic tune based around the key of C minor. I have a decent chord progression that I can use as a skeleton and have been experimenting with restricting melodies to root – b3 – 5 adding notes here and there from the scale. Tonight however, I chose to return to tunes I’m working on, namely The Call of Ktulu by Metallica and Always With Me, Always With You by Satch. I’m yet to play either tunes at full speed as it requires a great amount of control to master the fast parts. But, I can definitely use the practice as a technique practice for the days I want to try and compose.
It’s quite rewarding to notice little improvements when you go back to a tune you’ve not played for a few weeks, so I’ll keep doing that and hopefully some day one of these tunes will be as easy as cutting butter on a warm summer day.
