Deign to finally learn something.

I've accepted being a mediocre musician for far too long, and I'm just tired of it. I love to write. I love to perform. I find instruments themselves to be beautiful and fascinating. What I don't like is feeling afraid of a challenging lick, doubting my own ability, and wallowing in mediocrity. But that means overcoming a lifetime of laziness and pathetically feeble will power. I have always coasted along, and I'm tired of it.

What I do respond to, however, is goals. And that is why, starting this week, I have accepted a challenge from one of my best friends, in which we both select songs that we enjoy and cover them.

Not such a big deal, right? people cover things all the time, right? Well I never really did. Despite being in bands since I was 13, I have almost exclusively played originals. I always thought that made me a better musician, but in reality, it meant that when my classmates were tackling covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, and Nirvana (almost exclusively--that was all anyone in my class covered), I was playing my own stuff. The reality of that is...they learned to tackle solos and riffs and forced themselves to play challenging parts that, quite frankly, were too challenging for them. The resultant effect of that, was--pretty bad performances at the time-- but also learning things the otherwise wouldn't have.

Now I'm at the age where it's embarrassing to do shitty covers, but I feel that I have given myself no choice. So I'm going to start with a hard rock/metal/post hardcore "set-list," and start recording all of the parts (Guitar/drums/bass/vocals). In my mind, this can be nothing but a good thing. Even if it sounds like garbage to everybody else, hopefully I will learn something about composition, performance, practice, recording, and WILLPOWER.

...I realize this isn't the most interesting piece of bloggery that was ever written, but it's my first step on what I hope is a long journey towards being a competent freaking human being who can respect himself.



So, the goal is to record a part a week, via GarageBand, make an accompanying video of that track, and post it here as well as youtube or something. Since I live in a tiny apartment at the moment, these will mainly be guitar parts, with drums recorded as I return to lovely Champaign, Illinois, where my acoustic drums are! If that is just taking too long and holding up production, I will use my electronic drums instead...but that would make me a sad panda.

ANYWAY...the songs.

The idea here is that I will increase difficulty as I go. The goal here is to learn a thing or two about precision and nuance. Therefore, I will be starting with pieces that are on the simpler side.

The first three tracks I will tackle are...

1. Celestial Crown/Barael's Blade--by The Sword.
2. Fiend Club--by The Misfits (Michale Graves era)
3. Little Sister--by The Queens of the Stone Age (this one actually has a solo that I've had some difficulty with already, so I'm a little afraid. BUT THAT'S THE POINT OF THIS LITTLE EXERCISE.)

I'm going to try to stick to one song per band until I've hit a lot of different stuff, and then may return to bands I love to try new ones! The idea here being that I will expose myself to as many different types of styles of play as possible, and in the end possess a diverse repertoire of tricks in my tool bag. Other songs I plan to hit....

Black Tongue OR Curl of the Burl OR Octopus has no Friends by Mastodon.
Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath
Starlight OR The Small Print by Muse
F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X. by The Fall of Troy
Viscera Eyes by Mars Volta (x_x scary. Especially Pridgen's drumming.)

Definitely want to do a Metallica track, but haven't decided which.

Anywho, that's all for now. First track post THIS FRIDAY.