Yes, it’s that time of the year again; the end of the year. That time when we start to drool with anticipation and count down the days to see if our loved ones got us all of the guitar goodies we asked for. (And I know one of those things was our Scale Mastery eBook, right?)
The big day arrives, you get all of your new gear and toys, and you spend the next week or two shredding up a storm and sending the neighborhood pets running for cover. It’s a great time to be a guitarist, and you’re loving life.
But after that, then what? You probably tuck your new toys in the closet with the rest of your stuff and don’t pull it out again for a month, right? Life getting in the way of life and all that stuff.
Every year, millions of people try to set goals for themselves – things they want to accomplish or change about themselves – in an effort to improve their daily lives. It’s a noble cause, but unfortunately it’s also one that 99% of us stick with for about a month and then give up on. And yes, we all know the world is going to end in some Mayan apocalyptic catastrophe that would make Mel Gibson proud, but until that happens we’re going to help you set a guitar goal for 2012…
Notice I said a guitar goal, and that is the crux of it; we’re going to set one single goal and work on it for the entire year. Why? Because we all know you’re not going to get through an entire list. But, if you give yourself one goal and work on it while doing all of the other music stuff you like to do, the chances of you actually sticking with it and achieving what you set out to do becomes much greater.
To give you a head start, here are some examples/suggestions you might want to consider to get your brain flowin’:
- Master the melodic minor scale
- Learn 20 new chord voicings
- Memorize a favorite solo
- Stop listening to Nickleback
- Improve alternate picking
- Learn to sight read
- Write five songs
You get the idea. As you can see, I didn’t write “learn every scale” or “practice every day for five hours a day” or something insanely implausible. First and foremost you need to be realistic. My goal? Well, mine is very easy:
- Become better at improvising over ii-V-I and iii-VI-ii-V-I progressions in all 12 keys.
What’s great about this goal is that there are 12 keys to learn and 12 months in the year. Spread out, that means (obviously) I can work on one key per month. Granted, this goal is a bit open-ended in that I can easily get carried away by adding different scales, arpeggios, substitutions, etc. But I’m not going to do that. I know what I already have in my improviser’s toolbox, and so I’m going to focus on what’s already there. I’m also going to focus on what I know but cannot naturally implement. I know the melodic minor scale. I know how to play extended arpeggios. I understand how to use the minor pentatonics over each chord.
But I’m not as good as I want to be with them yet.
And so that’s my goal; one month, one key. Really nail those changes so I don’t have to think about them at all anymore.
What about you? Do you have something in mind? Comment below and let me and the other Fretheads know what you plan to work on (the ONE thing) next year.
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