Day Job
I landed a web programming job, started today. It's pretty fun.
Like I said last month, I'm not practicing full-time anymore. I've been cut down to 2-4 hours a day. That's not bad, but it's no 8-10. It'll be nice to work for money for a while, even if it's not in music yet. Especially after being Craigslist Jockey all month. I responded to over 70 job listings in 4 weeks.
Last time I was working and practicing guitar without playing in a band was the summer of 2004. I was a software engineering intern by day and working exclusively out of Shelton Berg's Jazz Improvisation: The Goal Note Method by night. (That's my favorite out of all the musical books I own.) I think I made more progress in my jazz playing during that summer than I did in this past year. I was focused on working out of a single book, and I was motivated by a specific goal: to get into Bobby Bradford's Jazz Ensemble at Pomona College in my final year at Mudd. It paid off.
I spent the first half of this year working for that LAMA scholarship. I'm proud of the demo videos I produced, and I started developing a unique playing style, but I wasn't studying as much jazz as I would have liked to. I think I'll shift my efforts in that direction again. I've been learning CSUN's and SDSU's repertoire of standards from my fake books (PDFs, all digital, w00t) for a couple weeks. I'm still only halfway through the Berg book, so I'll hit that for a few hours every night again.
20lbCat is the Son of Dog (27 Aug 2008 at 6:27am)
Right on Cat. Keep going for it - love you man.
Joshua (28 Aug 2008 at 12:40pm)
You might find this video inspirational: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-lv9ltZ2cw
Jonathan (28 Aug 2008 at 1:22pm)
Hi mate,
I've been reading your blog for some days. I'm from Germany and i'll start studying jazz guitar in Leipzig in some weeks.
You can find me @myspace (see website) and youtube: http://de.youtube.com/user/Jazzjonny87
Go on, learn learn learn! :)
Oh btw, i think those bendings in your Charlie Parker peace sound kinda mean - but all those slides are nice and an unique approach i've never seen.
Cheers from Hamburg,
Jona
Joe (28 Aug 2008 at 10:29pm)
> sound kinda mean
Exactly what I was going for, thanks. I better keep going on those Bird songs on top of the Berg book.
Stephen (6 Sep 2008 at 4:12am)
My brother went through the classical guitar program at SDSU and is now in the Masters program in classical guitar. (And he's going to go on to some sort of music Doctorate.)
Jazz program's separate, but if you have any questions I could put you in touch.
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com (15 Sep 2008 at 11:55pm)
The fact is that a man's got to live, you need money, so having a job is always a smart thing to do. But never quit your practice. The fact is that probably this will make you even more willing to play and spend quality time with your guitar.
christine (16 Sep 2008 at 4:15pm)
Ovidiu's right -- I often find I'm much more productive in the periods when I have other, less exciting responsibilities to take care of! And congratulations on getting a job -- work is work!
Dave (17 Sep 2008 at 5:38pm)
Funny, I actually know the guy (Tosin) in that video. He's roommates with a good friend of mine (also a guitar player) from school.