Happy New Year

Happy 2012 to everyone!  It indeed is the new year and as we all know, the new year typically brings about a renewed feeling for most people in some or all aspects of their lives.  Many people will make their resolutions public and some will quietly seek out the change that they desire.  Spending more time with family, losing weight, quitting smoking, quitting drinking, and getting out of debt often top the survey charts for new years resolutions.  Many people say that they want to reduce stress and just enjoy life more.  It’s no surprise that many people will choose to learn a musical instrument make more time for practicing as their new years resolution.  Many people who are new to music will assume that taking lessons to learn music is a completely stress free endeavor.  I want you to take lessons but I want to warn you that learning music is not completely stress free.  If you are getting into music lessons it is because you probably have certain music that you enjoy listening to.  A great preparation for lessons is to get some of your favorite music, chill out, and just enjoy tunes.  It’s important to listen to music freely without judging or analyzing the song for anything at all.  At some point during music lessons critical listening will be the key to learning new things.  It is common for people to forget how to listen without analysis once they have learned so be sure to listen freely and “practice” just enjoying the music.  It is an essential skill for all musicians.  New students of any age who really want to play should just accept the fact that learning anything new will take a period of adjustment.  The amount of time to adjust varies from instrument to instrument and person to person but that shouldn’t matter.  Learn to love the adjustment period and you will love taking lessons.  Learning to enjoy the adjustment period could be equated with “enjoying sucking at it” but whatever you call it, it is reality.  Isn’t it?  It would be cool if we could download information directly into our brains from the computer but that just isn’t a current reality.  I’m sure some secret agency is working on it somewhere but last I’ve heard it won’t be available to the public for quite some time.  In addition to practicing my guitar more often and exercising more, It is my new years resolution to post something new everyday with hopefully a little bit of useful information.  Anything you want to hear about?  Let me know in the comments.