2020 has been one heck of a year. We’ve all faced the challenges that this year has presented in our own unique ways.
With no shows or tours happening I’ve had to reorganize my time and priorities. With my personal time, I’m focusing on my family and friends, doing my best to stay in touch and have socially distanced visits when I can. On the musical side, I admit, it was tough for a while. Not having any deadline sensitive projects or gigs to work on left me with a certain sense of purposelessness. I struggled to find things to work on, especially when there were so many distractions, either on TV or social media.
I eventually found a few things to give me focus, things to bring me back back to life musically. The first was rediscovering guitar tones. I’m still working in the digital world, so I’ve spent a lot of time (and some money) on finding guitar tones. All sorts of tones. Finding out how my gear works, how it interacts with other gear, how other people approach it. There is so much that can be discovered, tonally, when you have time to tweak!
The biggest things I’ve been doing on the actual playing part is returning to the basics of my playing. I’ve known about Cracking The Code for a long time, but I finally delved into really examining my picking technique. If you haven’t checked Cracking The Code out, it’s a great resource for picking technique. The team there has scientifically broken down guitar picking to its most minute motions and really given us as guitar players the ability to recognize our weaknesses and improve.
Breaking down my picking has been hard. Very, very hard. Stripping away the poor habits and mechanics that have been ingrained in my playing for the last 20 years has been a frustrating, infuriating and, recently, rewarding experience. I’m not there yet….but it’s happening. Lots of work to go still but I’m encouraged by the progress I’ve seen.
If 2020 has thrown your playing for a loop, I highly encourage a return to the basics. Getting your scales, chords, arpeggios together can only enhance your enjoyment of the instrument. Returning to the basics has made me enjoy picking up the guitar everyday. I hope it does for you too.
That’s all for now.