2023 goals so far, or "what am I doin' with this thing?"

[buster poser]

Interested to hear if any calendar-oriented people staked out 2023 goals like I did last year, and how that's going as we close in on two months down.

I spent the latter half of 2022 thinking about learning one standard a week in 2023. Nothing crazy, just the basic chords in time against a standard vocal arrangement (i.e., no bop), be able pick through the melody in a couple of positions. I'm mostly unfamiliar with a lot of the canon/standards, so did some exploratory listening from late september on, found about 60 I actually liked, and I'm on schedule through now.

Unsurprisingly, I've found this arguably "quantity over quality" approach has already led me deep down a couple of other paths/concepts (drop two voicings, thinking more about improvisation), and it seems like this is invariably the way: When I set out to learn something new on guitar or with music broadly, I end up learning entirely new things that make me better. Still feels a little directionless so I'm looking for teachers, but am not in any huge hurry about it.

Anyhow, hope it's going alright on the learning front for everyone, however you orient your playing/learning goals. Post up if you like.

 

[Mind Flayer]

When you say standards, what are you referring to? Jazz standards? Country? Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[buster poser]

When you say standards, what are you referring to? Jazz standards? Country? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Sorry I should’ve been clear; jazz, yes. I started in on jazz in 2021 in order to learn Western Swing, but still a bit of a neophyte as far as a good chunk of the songs. I’ll post the list of songs I’m working from at some point.

 

[Kano]

Interested to hear if any calendar-oriented people staked out 2023 goals like I did last year, and how that's going as we close in on two months down.

. . . .

Anyhow, hope it's going alright on the learning front for everyone, however you orient your playing/learning goals. Post up if you like.

My resolution was to learn to read music. I started in December along with some improved practice habits. I'm reading with a metronome on at all times, and keeping a daily practice journal. Trying to make more practice time and more consistent time too, even if it's just a couple of short 15 or 20 min practices each day. I have made a lot of progress on my reading goal and improved my time and picking as well.

 

[Brent Hutto]

I'm not saying this to in any way belittle what you guys are doing, I think it's great to work toward goals, challenge yourself, work toward a planned-out sequence of skills and accomplishments. It's a good thing to do, just not for me at this point in my life.

My own sort of meta-goal for this year is to spend much, much more of my music time "in the moment" and fully engaged. Of course I have tunes I want to learn, skills I want to develop but I want to get rid of my life-long habit of judging myself by thinking things like, "Wow, you just spent an hour playing the guitar. Was that a waste of time or did you make some concrete progress toward a goal".

My wife constantly has to remind me that a hour or a day or even a minute spent making music can not possibly be time "wasted". It can be playing a tune I'm working on learning, that's music. It can be improvising around some changes or a certain mode of a certain key, it can be sight-reading from one of my fiddle tune books, it's all making music.

I've got to say two months in 2023 I'll give myself about a C- overall though there have been a few glorious moments where I'm totally into the making and not doing the judging. But too many days of spending a couple hours with a guitar in my hands and walking away having talked myself into thinking I "failed" in some way to accomplish some task that I can't necessarily even describe exactly what it was supposed to be.

Still 10 months left to get that grade point average up, though!

 

[buster poser]

I'm not saying this to in any way belittle what you guys are doing, I think it's great to work toward goals, challenge yourself, work toward a planned-out sequence of skills and accomplishments. It's a good thing to do, just not for me at this point in my life.

My own sort of meta-goal for this year is to spend much, much more of my music time "in the moment" and fully engaged. Of course I have tunes I want to learn, skills I want to develop but I want to get rid of my life-long habit of judging myself by thinking things like, "Wow, you just spent an hour playing the guitar. Was that a waste of time or did you make some concrete progress toward a goal".

My wife constantly has to remind me that a hour or a day or even a minute spent making music can not possibly be time "wasted". It can be playing a tune I'm working on learning, that's music. It can be improvising around some changes or a certain mode of a certain key, it can be sight-reading from one of my fiddle tune books, it's all making music.

I've got to say two months in 2023 I'll give myself about a C- overall though there have been a few glorious moments where I'm totally into the making and not doing the judging. But too many days of spending a couple hours with a guitar in my hands and walking away having talked myself into thinking I "failed" in some way to accomplish some task that I can't necessarily even describe exactly what it was supposed to be.

Still 10 months left to get that grade point average up, though!

Being in the moment is a good way to look at it, and I don't take it defensively. I should be clear I play (and practice) for enjoyment, don't do anything heavily structured, and have no designs on becoming a Jazz Guitarist. As of right now, I don't even want to play 'out,' but I'd like to be good enough that I could stand in with anyone.

Point of pride maybe, but my only real goal is to to keep getting better, and in a way that I didn't when I was young; where people lavished me with undue praise for my ability to crank out a few licks and play pretty well by ear.

Sounds like you've done some thinking about it... no wrong answers. Give yourself an A!

My resolution was to learn to read music. I started in December along with some improved practice habits. I'm reading with a metronome on at all times, and keeping a daily practice journal. Trying to make more practice time and more consistent time too, even if it's just a couple of short 15 or 20 min practices each day. I have made a lot of progress on my reading goal and improved my time and picking as well.

I tried this a couple of years ago, got half way into the first of the Leavitt 'modern method' books, and bailed out but would like to get back to it. I played sax in 6-8th grades and sang in choir grades 10-12, so single note lines... not too much of an issue. Put some two-four notes on the staff and it becomes a slog for some reason.

 

[Downshift]

My favorite music was invariably created by novices who stumbled on some gear, made a sound, and couldn't help themselves but to play. In that spirit, my usual goals are as follows:

1) Play with friends more.

2) Have fun.

3) DON'T buy gear!

 

[klasaine]

A tune a week for a solid year, providing you can keep that schedule, will do more for your overall guitar playing and musicianship than you can possibly imagine. Jazz is a rabbit hole, but don't let the theory that you're starting to encounter bog you down (so far, it doesn't sound like it is). Learning the tunes will sort of reveal how it all works. There's a reason Jazzers dig what we now call "the standards".

 

[chulaivet1966]

A tune a week for a solid year, providing you can keep that schedule, will do more for your overall guitar playing and musicianship than you can possibly imagine. Jazz is a rabbit hole, but don't let the theory that you're starting to encounter bog you down (so far, it doesn't sound like it is). Learning the tunes will sort of reveal how it all works. There's a reason Jazzers dig what we now call "the standards".

Mornin' Ken...

I totally agree with the above and have always endorsed this approach.
If forces us to get out of comfort zone and learn how songs are constructed.
I've learned (and recorded) several songs that I've always liked in my preferred genre.
Were any of them easy?....ha....just a few of them.
But....I don't select songs to learn based on my perception of how easy they would be.
It's quite the opposite in many cases....it's the difficult ones that helps us better improve upon our desired skill set.

Many of them I thought were daunting tasks for a MOR rhythm player/song writer like myself.
But....as it turned out, I just stuck with them and they weren't nearly as 'daunting' as I originally thought and it gives us the confidence to tackle more of the same.
Ken helped me with a few of them or they'd still be in an "unfinished" folder.
They were ones that my ears just weren't good enough to detect all proper chords and play it respectably.
IE: Rio De Janeiro Blue (Randy Crawford), Close To You (Lindsey Wesbster - it was an outside request), Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan).

In this context, it's no different than many of the new challenges we take on just for our own self improvement.
If one wants to get better at pullups?....do more pullups.

That's my take.

A good day to all...

 

[buster poser]

A tune a week for a solid year, providing you can keep that schedule, will do more for your overall guitar playing and musicianship than you can possibly imagine. Jazz is a rabbit hole, but don't let the theory that you're starting to encounter bog you down (so far, it doesn't sound like it is). Learning the tunes will sort of reveal how it all works. There's a reason Jazzers dig what we now call "the standards".

Mornin' Ken...

I totally agree with the above and have always endorsed this approach.
If forces us to get out of comfort zone and learn how songs are constructed.
I've learned (and recorded) several songs that I've always liked in my preferred genre.
Were any of them easy?....ha....just a few of them.
But....I don't select songs to learn based on my perception of how easy they would be.
It's quite the opposite in many cases....it's the difficult ones that helps us better improve upon our desired skill set.

Many of them I thought were daunting tasks for a MOR rhythm player/song writer like myself.
But....as it turned out, I just stuck with them and they weren't nearly as 'daunting' as I originally thought and it gives us the confidence to tackle more of the same.
Ken helped me with a few of them or they'd still be in an "unfinished" folder.
They were ones that my ears just weren't good enough to detect all proper chords and play it respectably.
IE: Rio De Janeiro Blue (Randy Crawford), Close To You (Lindsey Wesbster - it was an outside request), Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan).

In this context, it's no different than many of the new challenges we take on just for our own self improvement.
If one wants to get better at pullups?....do more pullups.

That's my take.

A good day to all...

Thank you both, always appreciate your inputs though I post here infrequently. Self-improvement and continual learning is what it's about for me, and I feel very good about the progress I've made the last two years in particular. We'll see how I fare through the next couple of months, but so far the concrete short-term goal has kept me at it and spun me off into new things too.

Had ten standards under me from 2021-22 plus five or so Eldon-type arrangements. 2023 so far is: How High the Moon, What'll I Do, Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Only a Paper Moon, Two Sleepy People, There is No Greater Love, and for week nine here I'm cheating a bit by coming back in a deeper way (Barry Harris scale exercise I found and like) to one I only knew the chord melody for previously, I've Got Rhythm.

 

[gitold]

My goal at my age is to be able to keep my fingers moving. Some days that’s harder then others.

 

[Jeremy_Green]

I go through many phases at different parts of playing. I went through years where i scheduled, set goals etc and that was great. Presently, i am in a non goal phase. I have a bucket of items I KNOW I need work on... so I just do some of those every day, kind of like a buffet. If I feel like it I do it.

More macro goals than micro. I try to be kind to myself and just allow me to follow what I like. Personally I find, if I nurture the general sheer enjoyment of playing, then everything snaps into place organically. Took me a lot of years to come to understand that. But that is definitely how i learn best.

 

[buster poser]

I go through many phases at different parts of playing. I went through years where i scheduled, set goals etc and that was great. Presently, i am in a non goal phase. I have a bucket of items I KNOW I need work on... so I just do some of those every day, kind of like a buffet. If I feel like it I do it.

More macro goals than micro. I try to be kind to myself and just allow me to follow what I like. Personally I find, if I nurture the general sheer enjoyment of playing, then everything snaps into place organically. Took me a lot of years to come to understand that. But that is definitely how i learn best.

I do that ebb and flow thing too. Learn a little something, apply it to stuff I enjoy for a while, find gaps as I do that, reset and start learning new things again.

 

[Jeremy_Green]

I do that ebb and flow thing too. Learn a little something, apply it to stuff I enjoy for a while, find gaps as I do that, reset and start learning new things again.

Yeah man. I always think of it as “fix the biggest hole in the boat first” mode.

This gets into a bigger discussion, but I find an awful lot of players are just generally working to get better on all things. The thing is, you probably don’t need to be better at all things, ….you need to be REALLY competent at certain things. So for me, it makes more sense to focus first on what you do well and really enforce that and make it awesome.

‘Practice’ itself can be a distraction/avoidance from what you should be doing as well. I think some people don’t realize this.

 

[klasaine]

My general "guitar practice" is usually aimed at whatever project I'm either starting or in the middle of. Currently, I'm doing a musical theater show that is all 80s rock (Rock of Ages). Mostly the LA 'hair metal' thing. I knew a lot of that stuff back in the day but I haven't really played music like that since the 80s or 90s. I had to get a lot of ripping lead guitar stuff back under my hands as well as dig out a chorus pedal . I'm finding that I like/appreciate that stuff way more than I did at the time.

When I'm not in the middle of a project, that's when I practice and wotk on things for "me".

 

[ChicknPickn]

I'm such a rebel that I resist even myself when I tell me what to do.

Therefore, I just say to myself, "Go ahead, keep sucking, keep crushing the fretboard with your sasquatch grip, see if I care."

And then things start happening.

 

[chulaivet1966]

I'm such a rebel that I resist even myself when I tell me what to do.

Ha....yeah....it's a constant personal struggle..

Back to it....

 

[teletimetx]

I do that ebb and flow thing too. Learn a little something, apply it to stuff I enjoy for a while, find gaps as I do that, reset and start learning new things again.

Thanks for posting this thread. I'm not particularly goal oriented in the strict sense, yet I do understand the mantra-laden thought of "plan to fail if you fail to plan" sort of thing.

When I was tied to the daily grind, I simply enjoyed every minute I got to sit down and play. I have been primarily song focused, as that is the strongest affection that I carry for music. While some of the shredding of various genres has some appeal, the ratio of time invested and result wasn't worth it to me. I could spend an hour working out the picking technique to play something super fast - basically 4 phrases perhaps - or - I could learn 3 songs in the same time frame.

I preferred the songs - partly because I'm a singer as well, and have played in bands where my vocals were regularly part of the set list, and still are. I'm retired now, so I have a luxury of spending more time on playing.

This is sort of long way of getting around to your jazz studies. Last fall, a group that meets informally once a month (Saturday mornings) invited me to join. They play jazz out of the Real Book, Sixth edition and a few other source spots. They are all accomplished players, read easily and are musical in many wonderful ways, at least to my ears. For example, yesterday, they picked out two Wayne Shorter songs in the book to honor his tradition. Pretty much over my head. I could follow, but just tried to stay out of the way.

I'm now picking out 3 songs a month (or so) to learn, just in the basic way of being able to competently comp the chords. I'm not a consistently marvelous solo player, but every now and then, I can move the needle - which is to say, monkeys will fly out my butt and get a whole band engaged on another level - not from notes per second, but from whatever that thing might be that makes that happen. I hope that's why they invited me, but why ask why? I just show up and they haven't asked me to leave - yet...

I'm quite honored, humbled, etc., to even be there with them. I don't read (play by ear) and frequently, I'm in way over my head, TBH. However, they've all been quite kind and one guitar player has taken to mentoring me, recently, just to show me some grips that simplify the process.

I've studied, as many of us have, on my own and understand most of the rudiments. By this I mean that I know why a minor 7 flat 5 chord is a minor 7 flat 5. What I'm working on is the various means to play that chord in the shorthand way that a guitarist in a group might, to stay out of the way of the bassist and the keyboard player, etc.

The point here is getting the chance to play with others. That to me is my goal. Playing with others. So, along with your studies, which sounds great, I'd also make it a goal to find others to play with. Easier said than done, of course, but the learning opportunities might multiply. Of course, you may have some serious time constraints as well, so you do have to pick what is efficient for you.

Cheers! Was also studying Blue Bossa this last month. Fun!

 

[tomasz]

I'm not very good with personal goals, remind me too much of work. But this year my goal is "one song a week". Having fun so far

 

[chulaivet1966]

I'd like to be good enough that I could stand in with anyone.

Howdy buster....

As an old fossil, along with just enjoying playing/song writing in general, the above is what drives my interest and motivations.
I'm no solo player/performer, balladeer or crooner so I just want to keep up my rhythm chops so I can play respectably along with others if the situation arises.

Stay on the path buster....

Carry on....