2016
is upon us, and I don't know about you, but I didn't see a single
flying DeLorean all of last year.
Movies
suck.
Anyway.
I've written here before about New Year's Resolutions, and we all
know that they usually amount to no more than three days of gymn
membership before finding yourself blind drunk and face first in a
kebab (just me? OK then..).
But
it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, the whole New Year's
Resolution idea could be approached a different way. Up to now, I've
always approached the subject with my students by finding out what
they would most want to be able to do on the guitar by the end of the
year that they can't do yet. Once I know what direction a student
wants to take, it's a much simpler task to break that journey down
into a series of progressive steps to help them reach their
destination.
However,
now I'm thinking of a different approach, one to help remotivate
students who feel that they've “plateaud out” and can't improve
any more. An awful lot of the time we keep ourselves blinkered in our
approaches to many things, ignorant of what Donal Rumsfeld
notoriously described as the “unknown unknowns”. Think of all the
genres of music you've heard or seen and thought, “not for me”,
or more perniciously “I could never do THAT”.. You could be a
classic rock player aspiring to the shred approach , or a blues
player nervously hovering on the edges of jazz. You could be a “thumb
and strum” acoustic player fascinated by the seemingly arcane
intricacies of classical or percussive styles – all these styles
can seem hugely intimidating and on the face of it, utterly
impenetrable.
But
they're not.
I'm
a firm believer that there is no greater satisfaction to be had in
life than identifying something you thought you would never be able
to do, a challenge that you never thought you could meet – and
doing it. Whether it's learning a language, writing a novel, running
a marathon, learning to fly – or on a more modest guitar-based
level, tackling a technique or style that you never thought you could
– make 2016 the year you give it a shot. It may well prove easier
than you think.
