Learning

Every single winter I think that I am going to spend great quantities of time, learning more about Music. It does seem that I do that, but often not as planned, and I have many many things that I know I have to learn to progress as a musician.

This winter, I have a written plan (yep, it works). I have several DVDs or online learning opportunities lined up to (hopefully) better my ability to play guitar, add fills to my rhythms, play a little lead during jamming sessions, develop my ear, learn theory and read books on music and music-making. I am most using Homespun and True Fire, but there are many many free sites online also, including Guitar Noise.

Amanda Palmers, the Art of Asking  was the first book I read. I also have in the queue: Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery (download a free pdf file here) and Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson (again, apparently free pdf here). There are others that I will write about as I get to them.

I am also studying Developing Your Musicianship online through Coursera, a free online service that offers college level material for FREE. Amazing.

This along with repertoire work, scale work and FINALLY learning the fret board. It really helps for keeping on track to have it all laid out for me in writing at the beginning of the week, and although I am working 60-90 minutes an evening, because I do a little bit of each item every evening, I am not bored and it does not feel like work.

Happily.

OK, enough here. I better get to the work  :)