Sunday, December 29, 2013

2013: A Year of Growth – Part 2: Music

2014 is just around the corner and I can’t wait to see what it brings.  I just hope 2014 is as at least as good as or better than 2013 has been. Of course 2013 had its challenges, but through these challenges I have learned quite a bit about myself and the world around me.  These challenges definitely made me a better person. My experiences with my family, music, travel, and career all had challenges to overcome, but were all extremely rewarding to me in the end.  Over the next few days I will discuss each of these important areas of my life.

Music

2013 was a year of increased focus on playing guitar and singing.  For years, I’ve said that I would spend more time becoming a better guitarist, improving my singing, recording original music, and playing live for an audience.  While I still have a long way to go, I’ve made progress in all these areas.  
I started 2013 focusing on improving my guitar playing.  I made quite a lot of progress, but not as much as hoped. Business travel and other commitments got in the way. At least I have significantly improved.

My vocals have also improved.  I’ve always had a tendency to over sing.  While for the most part it was passable, I knew that most of the time I went off key or stressed my voice too much was because I was pushing too hard and not using proper breathing techniques.  Again, more improvement.

I purchased some new equipment. The equipment gave me more ability to record music and play live.  During early September I played for a large party at a friend’s house.  I played and sang well, focusing on the songs I love to play.  Mostly 80’s songs.  I also jammed with some others who brought instruments.  The party ended with a group of us playing and singing along with the music a DJ was playing.  It was a crazy party.

Most importantly, since the time of the party onward I have been using the new equipment to record again.  For the most part I have been working out a technique and getting the proper sound.  I’ve re-recorded some original songs written between 10 and 25 years ago.  I’ve also started writing some new songs. In 2014 I will continue this process and hope to have at least 8 original songs recorded.  Mainly a bucket list type of thing.  Hopefully some of the songs will be something I might consider getting published.  I’m not sure about the process for doing that, but it has been a dream of mine to create music that others would play.

Musically, I made some positive progress in the last year.  I’ll keep grinding away doing more of the same in 2014. Next up, I’ll discuss my career in 2013.

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