Exhausted

I'm sitting in the house with heavy fog outside. Rain about to start. The rainy season. I love it.

I have staved off a nap so I can write a blog. It's been a while and my blogs for May have been few and far between. I finished my guitar practice, only 2 hours today, an off day for me. Now for the blog...

For the last 6 days, I have rehearsed and practiced music for at least 5 hours a day.

Saturday we played at Las Ruinas for 3 hours. Earlier in the day, I practiced for a couple of hours, pedaling fast so I wouldn't humiliate myself during the performance.

Every other day had a rehearsal and me practicing after rehearsal to keep up.

My head and spirit is full of music.

I am now in 2 bands and taking music lessons to boot. If anything is worth doing, it is worth over doing.

I have so many songs, solos and exercises that I need to learn, write, practice and create that I have at least a small portion of my brain engaged in music all the time.

And I like it.

Being full of music is a good way to go. As my friend says, music is good for the soul.

I agree.

I am amazed at what minutia will trip you up during a live performance.

A couple of weeks ago, I was playing a lead at a gig at The Oasis and I went for a really high note on the guitar neck and missed it. I couldn't see the guitar neck because the light was bad. I could see most of the neck but not the part I needed.

On Saturday, the keyboard player pre-programmed all his settings --which are extensive with modern keyboards--when he got to the gig and they were all gone. Why? The batteries in the key board went dead. Hours of work down the drain.

I was playing a hot rock song that needed a distorted guitar and the guitar went dead. I was using a splitter, a 0.50$ connector, that went bad...right during the song. Damn! I wanted that song to sound good.

That is the thrill of live performance. There is always some tension because things may not go right.

Spicy!!!

Playing this much music is accelerating my development. Which needs it, of course. I find myself, from time to time, noticing that I can play something that I couldn't do just a couple of days ago.

Now that is thrilling.

I am committed to becoming a great guitar player. I will settle for being a good player.

It is a race between the time it takes to develop my skills and the relentless onset of arthritis in my fingers. At some point, the two time curves will cross and the development of my skills will be over...at least in the getting better department.

I hope I have at least 5 years...maybe ten.

All this seems worthwhile now.

Rock on dude!