Resolutions and Other Dumb Ideas…

Hello Troubadourians! Do you make New Year’s resolutions? The start of a new year seems like the perfect time to make changes in our lives, or so traditions would have us believe. I bought into that concept several times in my past with mixed results. Most of the things I resolved to do or change fizzled out within the first month. Once in a while, something would stick around long enough to become a part of my routine, habit, or being. I’m an analytical person by nature, so years ago I decided to try and figure out why some things stayed while most drifted away. The simple answer for me was that those things that I kept in my life were things that felt normal and natural, and that I would have started doing them whether it was January or June. I just required the inspiration—or permission—to start doing them. As a result, I’ve realized the best resolutions come in their own time, not just once a year. If something is worth trying, why wait for January? I also think that changes should start simple and grow or evolve as needed. The initial idea might require some tweaking to become something we can actually do regularly, so don’t be afraid to change it up if you find that something else works better.

Practicing an instrument is like that. I’d like to practice more than I do. At least more regularly than I do. I go through times when I play as least some time every day. And there are other times where I go days or weeks without any serious practice. And then there are the binge sessions where I’ll play for several hours without even noticing how long I’ve been playing. Some of the things that I come up with during those sessions are pretty cool, and I make sure I revisit them within a day so that I can commit them to more long-term memory. Still, I wonder how healthy it is to play from Friday night into Saturday morning… And the temptation to do it on a work night is a really bad idea. I’ve also found that long practice sessions can have diminishing returns over the short term. If I play for three hours on three consecutive days, the third day is often the weakest creatively. I’ve probably run out of ideas by then and haven’t had time to let the previous day’s ideas process into my playing, so I end up playing junk and getting frustrated because nothing is working like it was the previous couple of days. You’d think that I’d have figured that out after all this time… well, maybe I have now. I guess we’ll see.

Try to be open to inspiration so you’ll be prepared to go where it takes you when it arrives. I think that readiness starts with not being anxious or stressed about what you think you should be doing, just do it when it feels natural. If you’re busy and really don’t have time to play, then don’t. And don’t get upset that you didn’t play. Come back to it as soon as you can and make it feel normal. Give it 15-20 minutes and if it’s working, keep going for a while. Don’t put conditions or deadlines on your playing. If you have an hour, take an hour as long as you’re enjoying the practicing. If you don’t have that much time, just play as long as the time you have and let it go. Come back another time. While you’re away from your instrument, let the music that you made play in your head. Imagine the feel of the instrument in your hands. Hear the sounds and tones and how they affected you. What moved you and what would you change? Could you make the music that you wanted to make—what you heard in your head—or did you struggle with something? Was it a physical challenge or an emotional one? That’s a heavy question… but a valid one. Sometimes the reason we’re not playing what we want to play isn’t because of our fingers not being cooperative.

Making music requires listening as much as it does playing. It can sometimes be difficult to hear what we’re actually trying to play. Arrangements can be dense and individual parts overlap in ways that make it difficult to descern what is what. Melody becomes harmony, then becomes something else, and what comes out doesn’t sound right and we don’t know why. Or sometimes there’s just too much other noise in our head to hear the music. That’s when you have to do what you can, go with what you have, and come back to it with a clearer perspective another time. Trust that you’ll know when it is coming together for you. It isn’t something you can force. We all hear things our own way. Some of us are gifted mimics and can hear parts easily and replicate them exactly. But others interpret parts in their own way. I was trained somewhat in between those two positions. My early guitar lessons were informal and relied on my feeling the music. My formal lessons taught me how to analyze music correctly, but my teachers also recognized that I had the ability to take a song or a part and make it my own, so they strongly encouraged me to do so. As a result, I really have to work at note-for-note performances of songs that I might be asked to cover, but I can create original parts on demand and in the moment with relative ease.

But we started with the idea of resolutions so let’s end with that idea. There’s nothing wrong or counter productive about resolving to change your musical habits. But you don’t have to do it just because it’s the New Year. If the time is right, do it, but if you haven’t been successful with keeping your resolutions in the past, don’t force yourself into failure. Take your time and make those positive changes when it works for you. Procrastination is a hazard but if you really want to change, you can at any time. I think what I’m getting at is maybe we need to resolve to not resolve. Better said, change doesn’t require an artificial timeline, but it really only happens when we are ready to put in the work. Are you ready…?

Need to know? Just ask… Charlie (ask.charlie@hotmail.com)

Charlie Loach has played guitar in the San Diego music scene for many years, primarily with the power-house original rock band the Wild Truth and the elegant Americana ensemble Folding Mister Lincoln, performing and recording several CDs with both bands. More recently, he has performed with the vocal trio the Outliers. Charlie is an accomplished session player who is well versed in multiple genres of music from bluegrass to rock to country, and his playing is both smooth and tasteful whether on electric or acoustic guitar.