I never seem to have enough time to accomplish everything, so I never attempt anything. After all, what can be accomplished in 15 minutes? I may as well surf Youtube for old Saturday Night Live clips or cool Stevie Ray Vaughan songs I wish I knew how to play. Maybe watching them would make me play better...
...and it struck me...
...I'm wasting what little time I have. Not only am I wasting the little time I have, I'm wasting time I don't have because the things I spend my time on seem to run over the little free time I have. Then I'm late for the things I must make time to do. What a downward spiral to feeling like a "zero."
So I've recently started looking at time as if 15 minutes was a large chunk of time. After all, in 15 minutes I can be out of bed, showered, shaved, dressed and in my car running to work when I oversleep. In 15 minutes I can read 20-30 email messages, or look over hundreds of RSS feeds. Fifteen minutes is a relatively significant amount of time in a day when you come to think about it.
The key is in focus and direction. I always wish I had more time to play guitar, but when I get 15 minutes and don't have a plan, I sit there and wank out on things I already know. I don't do anything new, or try anything outside my ability, or learn anything at all. I leave the 15 minutes wishing I had more time and wishing I had accomplished something. Well no more!
I decided that I would simply begin by planning 15 minutes a day to play guitar, and when I sit down I'm going to have something to actually work on to expand my capabilities. I grabbed a copy of Sonic Visualizer which is an amazing free tool for learning guitar parts, ripped a copy of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Love Struck Baby" which is a new song to be performed by Green Light Night in June, and looped through the solo section. In 15 minutes, I had figured out the first 12 bars of the 36-bar solo! I have always admired SRV's playing and always wished I knew more of his stuff but never got around to playing any, and here I was 15 minutes and some concentrated focus and I was 1/3 through a new solo.
I felt AWESOME!
And that is why I decided to call this post "Zero to Awesome." It's not that I am suddenly an awesome guitar player, or that I think I'll ever be a master like Stevie Ray by playing 15 minutes a day. I will, however, feel much better about how I spend my time. I will also know more SRV licks than I have before. Since that day, I have completed the "Love Struck Baby" solo, as well as the Brian Setzer solo in Marshall Crenshaw's version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping." That's more note-for-note solo transcription in a couple weeks than I've done in 20 years. Playing is becoming fun again!
So now I'm trying to apply this method to all sorts of things. I have an upgrade to my CCNA certification due in June. It's taking more than 15 minutes a day, but on those days where life gets in the way of my geekosity I still get a little in. The continued return and focus cements what I learned yesterday and the day before and I'm retaining more. It also helps me keep a head of steam going.
The things I am working on that are difficult to find time to accomplish:
1) Renew my CCNA Certification by passing the CCNA/Voice test. This needs to be done by June 24th.
2) I have a gig to prepare for with Green Light Night on June 16th.
3) I have a gig to prepare for with Malcolm Cloud's Urban Legend on July 27th.
4) I have an entertainment center to finish building in the family room
5) We hope to have some special guests coming to stay with us, and we have work to do on the house
I'll update more as these things take shape. Either way, I'm actually doing something instead of sitting around, wasting time wishing I was doing something. I feel good about it, and I hope to keep this momentum going.
Hope to see you at one of the shows this summer. More on those as they arrive, but for now please hold the date!
