Guitarist New Year's Resolutions

Guitarist New Year's Resolutions
By Pappy

OK, let's be honest here: even the people that say they don't do New Year's Resolutions probably have SOMETHING they want to do, some goal they would like to achieve, some mountain that they want to claim and they just don't want to admit it's a resolution.  I can see doing this for two reasons:

1) Basing a resolution on an event on your calendar is stupid unless it's specifically tied to that day (birthday, anniversary, etc).  Anyone who is waiting until the 1st of January to start working out is doomed to eventual failure because they're using logic to hold off and if they're using it now, it will be easy to do later.

2) Resolutions as they are, are incredibly easy to fail at.

They're hard by nature.  No one makes a resolution that's easy because if it was easy, they would already be doing it.  No one says "this year I want to dedicate myself to gaining twenty-five pounds of pure fat from a diet consisting of lunches at Burger King."  Instead they say things like they want to drop their weight down to "high school level" or "work out 360 days this year (I'm giving myself some wiggle room in my schedule for off days)."  They want to break bad habits (hard) or start new, good ones (harder).

But we all have goals and your terminology or hiding them from others isn't going to make them go away or become less of a failure on your part when you can't commit to them.  The one consolation you'll have is that no one else knows you failed because you didn't tell anyone.

I used to do this and be this way.  In 2010 I made two resolutions, one to play every day possible for at least 10 minutes and to record something by the end of the year.  It turns out I did both and that was with me forgetting I made the resolutions in the first place.  Funny how that worked out.  In 2011, my resolutions included making two of my guitars better.  My thinking was that I wasn't going to make enough money from the blog to buy a new guitar and since I had a couple that were getting to be either unplayable or was already in that state, I figured I would make the most of what I had.

I didn't even start.  For one thing, I didn't make enough to mod them in any serious way, though I could have done MOST of what I wanted to do to my Les Paul.  Instead I bought a bookshelf that was used to organize the room that all my guitar stuff is in.  It was needed and appreciated.

So what will 2012 have in store for me?

Well, I have three resolutions:

1) Get through as much of Learn & Master Guitar as possible.  I feel like some of the people doing this are blowing through as fast as they can and missing things or not letting the lessons have the greatest level of impact.  Perhaps this is so there's always something new and fresh to do, but I think my method will be very slow and deliberate, MASTERING what they give me before moving on.  I hope i can stay motivated.

The sub-goal for this is:

a) At least 10 minutes of real practice every day.  Not noodling on the couch, but working through the book and DVDs and trying to become a better player.  If i have to stay up late, that's 10 miserable minutes, but at the end, hopefully I will have improved at least a little.  No wiggle room.  Every day.

The next resolution:

2) Become certified in power tools at my local hobby shop.  I love community centers and hobby shops.  You get to see some real artists there that you would never expect to see (especially with that level of quality) and my local hobby shop offers classes every Wednesday I believe, where they certify one power tool and once you're done with all of them (I think there's five), you're free to use the shop at a ridiculously cheap rate per hour.  I believe the lessons/certifications are $5.00 each time.  I've always wanted to be a builder and this is a good first step.

My third and last resolution:

3) Using my above certifications, build either a workstation or recording desk.  I'm being kicked out of the office and am taking over a different section of the house.  It will be my domain almost all of the time (I'm still cool with my wife using it for photos because the light is good), but me moving means I won't have a desk, a table, carpet, a chair, or any creature comforts like that.  It will start very sparse and hopefully build from there.  I know I want a workstation to build things because I've grown to really enjoy kits.  I also like the idea of a recording desk because, well, because I like sitting down when I record podcasts and (less often) music.  If i build my own desk, I can do a two-tier like is popular, but I'll be able to build the gap between tiers big enough to accommodate something like, I don't know, a Peavy Vypyr 60 which I think would be a blast to record with or play through.  I've heard very few bad things about them.

And I can build it durable too.  I bought a desk years ago that I swear is holding on from the sheer persistence of my wife's frugality.  She's so cheap she's WILLING it to keep from buckling.

Those are my three resolutions!  What are yours?

Once you 'fess up with your goals, how can you help yourself follow through with them?

1) Tell as many people as possible.  Tell everyone here.  Tell everyone at your home and work.  Make a blog and keep us all updated on your progress (throw a link in the comments section and post every now and then letting us know when new posts are up so we can be supportive), just put yourself in a position where others know your goals so they can help you accomplish them or put your feet to the fire about sticking with them when the going gets tough (and considering the amount of crap life can throw at you in a year, odds are good it won't be following a trail of Starbursts on your glittery unicorn).  We all need outside motivators so we can't convince ourself it's OK to cheat as much as we WILL want to cheat.

2) Set goals that are realistic or at least attainable.  My resolution is not to build a house, merely a desk OR a table to work on stuff.  If I do both, great, but the goal is ONE thing.  I have a whole year to get certified and build ONE thing.  I hope I can follow through with that and 10 minutes of practice every day.

3) If possible, try to document your progress.  If you can do it in a blog like I mentioned above, great, but if it's something like weight lifting and you just keep a log, keep up with that log.  If you're trying to cut down on smoking, count how many cigarettes a day you smoked on 1 January so you know when you're seeing a trend of less cigarettes.  The more motivation, the better.

I hope these help and I wish you all the luck and persistence with your new year's resolutions.  Go get 'em, tiger!

XXX---XXX

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