So that’s where I’m at with music-making on the guitar:
- No more cuttin’ and pastin’.
- For the first time in my life, I know how to play and instrument well enough to play my songs live.
- I’m learning how to sight-read, and
- I’m hunting for a decent instrument.
I wish I could force myself to study every day. As it is, I play every day, and even though it’s not enough, I’m clearly progressing. I’m composing new songs entirely on the guitar, and recording guitar in large takes, with hardly any copying and pasting.
For some playing, check out the demos for my brother’s show, La pêche à la baleine (even though the recording quality is worse than usual!). You could also have a listen to Leather Jacket or my contributions to the Sons of Sarookh.
Even songs recorded with little or no guitar, such as Orange Boy and The Playground of the Baby Giants were completely composed on the guitar.
Finally, I am relearning/rearranging old favorites such as Dinosaur.
So why go though all of this effort, after so many years of musical expediency and laziness? As I said, I’ve always wished I could play an instrument well enough to render my compositions. But how can the drudgery of learning an instrument compete with the ecstasy of creation? I used to have minimal chops on the Saxophone and played live a few times in my early twenties, but I couldn’t afford a good instrument, and then computers came along.
So…where did the motivation for such unusual effort and determination come from? Well, aside from hypothetical psychoanalytical motives which I won’t go into here, I guess that if I want to be in a position to be able to play my music live, maybe it’s simply because…
…I’m hoping to play my music live at some point in the not too distant future.
Maybe after shunning real musicians for 20 years (having suffered through hell with some of them), I am again willing to entertain the possibility of playing with real people (instead of just playing with myself ;)). For now, I’m not actively doing anything to make that happen, but at least I’m in a position to seize the opportunity should it arise.
And that’s a start.