Inspiration

My friend Thiago just finished up the cover art for The Beckoning Lake. I will not post it up yet. It looks amazing and exactly what I wanted. The song has also greatly inspired him to do more with the music which is exactly what I want!! This song is the essence of my music and self and the best way to show connection. Everything is slowly coming together in a process and it is just inspiring. I have done my job and everyone else is doing their jobs!!!

Going back to basics

I have not been updating much due to lots of stress, but slowly I am getting better...

Going back to the roots, or the basics is always a good idea. That is how we develop because it builds us a solid foundation. I randomly got the urge to listen to Atheist today, and I am hearing so much heavy metal and thrash in their music, that it is making me want to learn their songs or just general heavy metal. And guess what I started learning when I bought a guitar. Heavy metal. Metallica and Iron Maiden. I want to start learning songs again just for the fun of it. It will also help from a practical sense, especially considering I have begun down-picking once again.

Down picking is a great technique, but one that doesn't go so far. Alternate picking is almost always superior. For a while I switched to only alternate picking and no down picking, but down picking helps for palm mutes, just look at Master of Puppets and a ton of other Metallica songs and you will see.

I will also be having a new student shortly. he is 16. This kid also draws *really* well, especially for his age. I will be adding him to The Beckoning Lake.


My newest project that I am working on will be me writing a sound track to a story. I recently have been writing more and more in the vain of short stories and it is something I thoroughly enjoy, so it's only natural to put the two together. I am not yet sure what the story will be about.

Motivation and important practice tips

"If you are looking for motivation, or inspiration, change something." It doesn't matter what.

Well, first and foremost, I was in a terrible rut recently, for weeks. I had no desire at all to play guitar and was somewhat depressed and what now, but it has come back and I am loving to practice yet again. I have also killed my facebook addiction which probably had a huge impact on my practicing habits.

A big part of practicing and learning is also not practicing and de-learning. When you are learning/practicing something, your subconscious mind absorbs EVERYTHING you are doing, whether or not it is correct or incorrect. As a result it is important to do things slowly and do the best of your ability so that you learn more correct than incorrect. Regardless of how well you practice, you will learn both good and bad. That is why it is good to stop practicing at times. You need to give your mind a chance to absorb what you have learned and sort through what is good and bad. Your mind will also lose the bad habits, aka de-learning, which will in effect make you much better at what you do. I have experienced this many times and continue to do. It is also a good way to break through plateaus.


Another subject I would like to touch upon is standards. So many times I have been criticized that my standards are too high, and that goes for pretty much anything I do. First things first, if I did not have high standards, I would never be anything "special" and I would just fit another common mold like everyone else. The obvious benefits of high standards is for self improvement. The harder you judge yourself, the harder you will push yourself. Standards are the foundation to goals. Holding high standards is also how prized objects gain more significance. The higher your goal, the harder it is to obtain, the more you will have obtained by the time you reach it. It is the difference between reaching 100% and 50%. It will be quicker to reach 50%, but 50% really isn't a large value. It will take a very long time to reach 100% and that encompasses everything that you want. Which is more worth it? Well for some it might be the 50%, but not for me. Upwards towards 100% is where I lie, that is what I shoot for, that is what makes my self as well as the things I obtain unique.

uninspiration

I have gone through and am still going through a long period where nothing is inspiring me. I am not sure what to do about it. I asked Ken the librarian and he suggested to change something. That sounds right, but what should I change? I need to get my ambitious self back. Metaphorically i see myself on this huge ocean or sea with stepping stones in front of me and I am slowly walking across the stones. It is very clouded and i can not see ahead of me. There is an impenetrable mist. I am starting to write a lot more. I have been foolin around with short stories. I seem to have something in my head that I want to get out in words, perhaps what my music is not explaining. Not imagery, but more concrete situations, themes, and descriptions. I have been leaning towards combining the two to make my work even more dimensional. I haven't practiced guitar in a long while, I have barely been playing and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Perhaps I just needed a break from it. I really don't know how to account for these periods in which I don't want to play.

I tried to show you the way but you didn't step through the portal
Why? What was so wrong? My logic and theory are those of happiness

my deeds and practice are unknown
you were weak, you are weak,
idle deeds fills your void
but strength fills the fulfillment I crave
the scent that burned from your eyes
will never come back my way
the loneliness without you, lends itself to me
A warm heart was thought injured, but i was delusional
the loneliness without you, flows to my void

A garden of embers, glows my name
a garden of ash, crumbles yours
my self fulfilling journey
is the utopian ideal
the path that you chose
is the hell that will never heal

Album number two

The point of the album is to make/influence the listener to listen to/see the guitar in a different way. I think the reason I was stuck playing in the same spectrum was because I was listening to it the same old way. The idea is to listen between the notes, the sounds, the recording and to not identify specifically the melody, chord changes, rhythm, etc. So the music I am writing can be looked at as mundane, if you are identifying with those elements of music, or it can be treasurous (not a real word) if you listen in a different way. I want to really make this album visual like I did with my last one. Yes we all can hear music, but what about see it?

as far as the title goes, I think it will be the color of mirrors. The idea is that if you have mirrors facing each other, they are reflecting the space between them back and forth, much like music. The vibrations are sent between the air and react off other vibrations. The color will be that unique sound. The sound that is there that isn't a melody or chord change.

Sometimes it is good to relax about certain things, even if they are problematic. In fact, when I am relaxed, I can be much more efficient. That is why I need to practice more. So that I can be that relaxed, on the spot, and be able to play much cleaner. I was very focused on where my next step in music would be, but I stopped thinking about it. As a result I was able to relax my mind. I came to an answer, THE answer. I just want to write. I am going to stop writing for "this project" or "that project" and just write. When I write for something, other than myself, it changes the limitations, variations, experiences, and many other things that will make the music what it is, for better or worse. At this moment it has been changing them for worse. I have now told myself that I just want to write. If that means bringing influence from other bands to the drawing table, then I will do that. Today I was insanely productive in such a short time for the above reason and also for another reason. I have broken out of laziness. It used to feel like a chore to plug in my interface and set up my recording program and record. Well, not anymore. I was inspired by a new Ulcerate interview. The guitarists were saying how they jam, record, improvise, and send it back and forth. Then it hit me, why don't I just record, improvise, and send it back and forth (to myself) and jam on some riffs. That is exactly what I did. I so far have about 4 minutes of a song written. The song, right now, is largely inspired by Ulcerate, but that is not just because I like the band. We have a common vision. I want to make a huge sound with the music I write and that is what they are focusing on right now as well, in a very broad sense. I also metaphorically compared myself to a tree. I like to have all these complex branches and odd leaves sticking out every which way, but I like to keep a big, strong, stable core. It's funny that my tattoo idea a long time ago was a tree, and that was supposed to be a representation of myself. Well yet again, I am coming back to being a tree. That is what I want to reflect in my music, but it is not just a huge sound I am looking for. I am looking for those complex branches and odd leaves and anything else that interacts with the tree. That will be my sound.

With that being said, today I started recording/writing. I did two straight improvisations and then i did real writing and recorded it right after. It was easy to do and very productive. It has made me want to start practicing again. I want to be able to play fast AND clean, effortlessly. This has motivated me to once again begin practicing regularly.