Bridge the Gap

Three days have gone by, all filled with the same inanity found within the majority of days throughout the year. Unless you're a pirate, treasure-seeker, ninja or all three but that is too much awesome to fill a single body. The awesomenicity levels would obviously be too imbalanced in ratio to the mass of the body and the very fibres of the body would.. well I won't get into it. The science is far more gruesome than anyone should ever encounter. I had planned to try adjusting the bridge on my guitar (the piece of plastic at the bottom that holds the strings up from the body.) I may still do this, but I don't want to risk taking too much off. Oh well. I'll try anyway... (hurray for motivation!!!)
One of my favorite activities is making the minor tweaks and meticulous adjustments required on a guitar to make it function to the best of its ability. This also makes it so that the actual playing of the guitar is much more... endurable.
Not many people without musical ability understand the intricacies involved in making your instrument become the extension of your being.
This is true for all instruments. Drums, guitar (bass included), clarinet, trumpet, violin, even singing.
They all start as a sort of clay for you to either let stand in the basic shape of the object-in-reference to perform with mediocre quality, or shape into an ethereal form, sharing the inner glow of the illumination of your soul to produce a sound capable of making Teletubbies cry, babies giggle, giraffes dance, Lincoln shave and other related events.

In lieu of my writer's block, I have been working to hone my skills after going quite some time without practice or writing. I moved to Utah in July of last year but previous to this, I had spent quite a bit of time with quite a bit of time on my hands. I dedicated my efforts to learning about the recording arts (as it is as much of an art as the music itself, not to mention a science in its own right). I had set up my own small home studio in an attempt to pull a few of my songs together. In the hustle and bustle of moving to Utah and establishing a life in a state in which I had never been, I had forgotten a small detail; if I don't keep practicing, then motivation disappears along with the callouses on my fingertips. It would be about a month and a half before I even thought about picking a guitar up. I had been asked to be in my cousin's band playing the music I play now, and the shock of suddenly playing again was not the most comfortable thing I have experienced.
If one does not take proper measurements before playing, especially after taking a hiatus, then one can do some extensive damage to one's self. For anyone just beginning guitar or even anyone that would consider themselves "amatuer," I would highly recommend remembering to do warm-ups and stretches regularly. Even if you don't plan on practicing or playing a song, just pick up the guitar randomly throughout the week and just do some exercises. You can do them as little as 5-10 mins at a time. This may seem like a fruitless activity and after a while you will find that they are quite boring and not doing anything for you.
This is a great sign for two reasons:
1) You are getting bored because the exercises have become so fluid and natural to you, which means that you can apply the principles of the exercises to the songs you play as well as the songs you write. It will feel like you've always known how to play that way and to others it will look effortless.
2) Exercises are never-ending. You can always speed them up, add flourishes, and slow them down to work on accuracy, etc.

The reason I stress the exercising, stretching and warming-up is because the damage that I mentioned earlier that one can do to one's self can range from having a sore hand to even crippling your hand. Now, keep in mind that you would almost have to try to cripple your hand so you shouldn't be wary of playing guitar for fear of this. The more serious injuries usually occur in fast playing, but if you can play that fast, then you would know what you're doing which means you would be stretching and warming up before you seriously get into it ;)

Here are some links to good warm-ups:
Jazz Guitar (good technique builders that apply to all genres)
Guitar Lesson World (several different areas for excersize. It has pictures!!!)
Cyberfret.com (I personally love this place. I've linked directly to the technique section, but I would suggest browsing around. It has just about everything.)
Ultimate Guitar (this guy has a really good pre-game warm-up going on)

These are just a couple of places that really have stood out to me or places that I have trusted in the past. I encourage you to search for yourselves, deep inside your interwebs to find self-satisfying programs of progression. Tune in next time: I'll go into guitars themselves. It'll be an epic struggle of life and death as I try to escape! *Insert dramatic outro music*

Life is an adventure... but so is music :)

A day, no more.

A peaceful morning, chirping birds, sun gracefully sliding its way over the mountains. The smell of dew-laden grass wafts through the air. A loud crash. The birds fly from their trees, the peace flees with just as much flight and the sun ducks behind the mountain again with a cringe on his face. I had slipped and fallen down my stairs due to smooth heels and a groggy demeanor. My only thought was, "what a theatrical way to start another day." I just now realized that this line would go great in a song :D All in all, my yesterday's morrow began with the wrong sort of bang, but who's to say that we can't all be human, anyway? (another line for a song! See, kids? Songwriting can be easy!)

Work was work, Bob's your uncle, it's 5pm. I get home from work and the first thing I do is pick up my guitar. The second thing I do is put it back down. I discovered that my muse decided it was time that we should take a break and start seeing other people. Luckily she isn't the one I'm going to marry. Instead I went to the kitchen, grilled me some chicken breast, and threw it in a Caesar Salad. I grabbed my dinner, made a bee-line for the couch and feasted my eyes on Mythbusters while I feasted my mouth on the salad. Beautiful thing it was, the sunset. Casting its red-orange-pink hue across my living room, making sure to put an ample lighting on the TV set just to make sure I was seeing it. I never thought Jamie Hyneman could get any redder. It was quite a treat, indeed.

I finished dinner, enjoyed the rest of both the grandiose light show and the incredibly fascinating display of science, and decided to watch a movie. I like movies. I like them a lot. I didn't like this movie. It was a psychological thriller named "Nine Dead" starring actress-turned-director, Melissa Joan Hart. No wonder she turned to directing. Anyway, the movie was bad, the ending was worse and I couldn't be happier for watching it. It gives me hope that movies like this are released to the general public. It means that I have an even greater chance for inflicting people with my entertainment. It's gonna be so much easier than I thought! Muwahahaha!!! Er... ahem.

Fast forward to present moment. "Bones" graces my telly's screen to keep it company while I again prepare to clean my home. I have a certain room that I desire to furnish into a practice space whilst also providing a crafting area for my other half. I believe I will retreat into here in a little bit to get some practice in. I'm heading over to my cousin's house tomorrow to go do the recording for the rest of the demo, seeing as how I have nothing to do during my evenings. I'd like to have the demo finished so that we can whore our music to venues during my wedding preparations and the big day. That way, when everything is done and the dust has settled (sexy dust for that matter), then we can be ready to go with gigs.

Future awaits us.

Intro

So here I go. I embark on what will hopefully be a fabulous journey. This journey: Blogging. I begin with shoes on my feet, albeit the wrong ones but I'm sure nobody will notice ;)

I guess I could start by cluing you in on the writer. I'm Kevin! Hi, how are you? I'm fine, thanks for asking. I've been playing guitar for almost 10 years. Unfortunately, I also act like I'm ten years old. There is naught, save a few special things, that gives me joy more than sitting down and diddling the strings on my guitar. The notes. The chords. The music. They encompass one another to invent themselves into a beautiful, flowing structure to give house to emotion. Emotion then can then live in this house and create a life for itself. Go out and get a semi-successful job. Start dating, perhaps even find that special someone he can come home to and by whom he can be told to take out the trash.

I digress.

Me, myself, I'm a simple man. I like sunsets, Chinese food, (virgin) piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. I don't like making love at midnight on the dunes of the cape, however. 'Tis far too sandy. Indeed, I do try to make life as fun and interesting as I can make it, though normalcy does reserve the point of perspective. I am a good driver. A wee bit slow for some, but don't try to race me... you won't win :) That being said, carefulness is a trait that has become a small sort of pride for me. I enjoy a good adrenaline rush every now and then, but what's the use if you're not going to live long enough to enjoy it often.

I do expect for my personality to shine forth through my writings and perhaps you will get to know me that way instead of me running my mouth like a leaky faucet. (Though, I do believe, in this case it would be my fingers pecking away at the keys like an anorexic woodpecker that just made a life changing decision. Again, I digress.)

On with the blaggin'.

Today, after work, I started on my set list. My compilation of songs, written by myself and others, to learn for acoustic guitar to both improve skill and give me an arsenal in case anyone challenges me to a sudden guitar battle. Thankfully, that would probably only happen in a Guitar Hero environment, in which I could hold my own. *smirk* Amidst my hard work, the aforementioned addiction took over, so I played GH to loosen up. To my all-too-often dismay, it did not loosen me up, but make me furious. Cursed Steely Dan. I stopped playing. I am now starting on my housework to clean things up for the upcoming onslaught of guests to fill the house due to the ever nearing wedding I get to share with one of the only people I love more than music.

Ah yes, the wedding. Twelve more days. I would put a counter on here, but I'll be married before anyone reads this. I know it's juicy knowledge and people eat it up, but I will put the details of the lady and the marriage aside and write about it in a future blog. For now, I have house work that really should be attended to. Even the glamorous life of a musician demands organization and cleanliness. It is next to holiness, after all. :)