I'm moving soon and me, being me, decided to start packing this weekend, despite the fact that I still have weeks before our moving date. I have many, many books so I started with those and it took a few hours, but I finally managed to cram them into 8 boxes or so. Then I started to look around for other things I wouldn't need in the next month. I decided I'd box up my CDs as well. I put the discs I liked into a case so I wouldn't be completely deprived, but I packed everything else. "What next?" I looked at my DVD shelf and laughed. "Yeah, like I could go a month without watching a movie or a season of Stargate." That is when it hit me. That is exactly what I should do. Lately, whenever I am bored, instead of practicing one of my TWO bass guitars or strumming on my electric guitar, I watch a movie or screw around online. "What is the point in owning two bass guitars, if I can only barely make a sad attempt at playing?" There is no point in that. Which is why I went ahead and packed all of my DVDs with the exception of a few I have yet to watch. I figure this plan is two-fold: !) It forces me to read, or practice guitar in my spare time but even if I must watch a movie @) it'll be one I haven't seen yet. Bam! Take that! Creative problem solving at its finest.
I've been really inspired by The Beatles lately, ever since my History of Rock-n-Roll professor played a clip of "Tomorrow Never Knows", which just took my breath away, so their songs were the first I searched for tablatures of. Obviously I picked the easiest ones, generally off their earlier albums, songs like "All My Loving" and "And I Love Her". I've also been practicing the 8 minute song "I Will Possess Your Heart" by Death Cab for Cutie. Its got a fun, repetitive bass line, which is perfect for someone trying to work on accuracy and speed. I even tried to sing along as I played. It was short lived but I managed for about a bar. So anyway, I don't have a music stand so in order to be able to achieve optimum viewing of said tabs, I taped them all onto my closet doors. It looks like this:
It is the perfect layout. I sit, or stand, facing my closet, with my headphones coming from my laptop on my desk and my amp beside my chair. I never thought I would use the Targus Noise-Cancellation headphones my grandpa got me with my laptop two years ago, but here I am. Using them. Yay me! They are perfect for tuning out all the commotion in my house and focusing on the music.
Music is a ridiculously important aspect of my life and its always been a thorn in my side that I can neither sing, nor play any musical instruments. Sometimes you just want to play along with a really groovy tune and it sucks not knowing how. So instead of living with the sucky, I'm gonna teach myself to be some sort of Jaco Pastorius or Jack Bruce or Flea. It may take the next decade, but by golly I'm gonna try. And I know, Yoda, "There is no try". Well this time there is. I just wish it didn't hurt so badly. These blisters are murder.
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