Waiting for Vizzini

When things look bleak and you don't know what to do, you go back to the beginning.

I've been feeling a strong longing to play more guitar. I think about it while I'm at work. I think about it when I wake up. I have dreams that I'm performing again. Then, when I have opportunity, I pick up my Strat and...blah...

I started thinking that the problem is that, in my mind's ear I hear myself playing like I did when I played hours every day. I'd go to all-night jam sessions and when I left I'd feel great. Now, I play for 15 minutes and my hands hurt and are tired. I can't seem to get the sounds out of my head into my hands. I drop the guitar in frustration and the cycle starts again.

So, I go back to the beginning. In 1988 I graduated from what was then "The Professional Guitar School (A Division of The Guitar Center)." It was not the retail giant, but a small music school in Minneapolis that eventually became "Music Tech" and now I see that the originators are McNally Smith College of Music. Awesome. Anyway, in 1988 there were about 20 of us in the second graduating class. We spent a year playing major scales, learning music theory, how to read music, the difference between harmonic minor and jazz harmonic minor scales. I played every day, and played a lot.

So, as I was thinking about that time in life, it just so happened that I stumbled across the green photo-copied text "Fingerboard/Theory and Improvisation" written by Jeff Wressell. I opened it up and started running my major scales through the circle of 4ths using a metronome. Wow. I used to be able to do these at a pretty high tempo, and my fingers don't quite do what I'm asking them to do as cleanly as they used to. But like I did in the beginning, I practice them daily now. I write down the tempo I start at and the tempo I end at to measure my progress. I'm improving again...

It's not exactly a weekend performing at Carnegie Hall, but it's greatly therapeutic and I'm having fun. Thanks Jeff Wressell - your influence spans 20 years and your legacy lives on.