Tag Archives: motivation

When You Start Something, Early Motivation Is Easy

30 Monday Aug 2021

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When you pick up a new hobby, start an exercise program or begin anything that is new, the early stage of motivation is built in. After all, there was “something” that made you want to start something new. It’s the honeymoon and you are excited. This period works for a few days, a week, couple of weeks, perhaps even longer and then it cools off. And, then it gets harder to progress.

This is where most people quit.

This is where most people start another project, another idea, or buy another guitar instructional program.

You have to realize that where most fail is the exact moment that you have to continue the daily progress to get better.

So what is the right thing to do when you start to lose interest in whatever you started to do? Foremost, you have to understand that unless you find a way to continue chieseling away day after day consistenly, you will never achieve great results in anything. Secondly, go back to why you wanted to start the new project in the first place. There had to be a reason for it. Did you buy a new guitar book because you wanted to be better, polish up your technique and be happier? As a side note, most of the things we do in life is beacuse at the end of it all we want happiness. And if that was your starting reason, don’t you still want that today? If so, then you simply have to tell the quitting voice to sit down. You continue to work. By doing this, you will see that your confidence in yourself will rise and it becomes easier and easier to stay on task in whatever you are doing.

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Your Friends Won’t Give You A Record Deal

19 Monday Jul 2021

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An interesting occurence happens in the music business. And, I am sure this applies to several other industries as well. I see many younger musicians trying to befriend and “get in” with anyone in the music business that they think can help them further their career. For the sake of clarity, it’s awesome to be genuinely friendly with people. It’s good for everyone around and true friends you can usually count on one hand, if you’re lucky. But, it is not awesome when being friends with someone is used as a means so you might get somewhere further.

It is important to remember that no one will give you a record deal or put you on the radio, or get you a gig simply because you are supposed to be some sort of friends. Reason is that you need to have something to offer first – a reason why you should be awared such thing. Friendship is not enough. As a matter of fact, I’d be much more interested in working on something that someone might want, see value in and want first and foremost. Then opportunities will come whether you are friends with someone in position to help you, or not. When people want something you provide, you’ll know.

Above is a simple advice, or observation. I write about it today because I see this scenario play out all the time.

It Took Me 11 Years To Edge Lawn Perfectly

08 Thursday Jul 2021

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I do most of the landscaping on my property myself due a few reasons. One – I enjoy the exercise, two – I get a sense of satisfaction when the lawn, shurbs and plants look great and three, I got tired very fast of fixing someone else’s poor landcaping jobs.

But, one item that gave me a lot of trouble was using a line edger to cut perfectly straight lines in the mulch and flower beds. My work never quiete looked great. It looked amateurish for a long time. Through error and just simply doing it week after week for 11 years, I can edge the lawn in perfect lines. Not a week, a month or a year. 11 years!

You get a sense of flow and know how when you repeat a task for over a decade while trying to improve the task each time. At this time I can out-edge most “pro” landcapers I see driving around.

I decided to share that because it can provide a good lesson to music students. You won’t learn to play the instrument or learn a challenging riff, or a song in a day. To perfect something it took me 11 years of once every two week action. Remember that.

Why Bother?

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

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I am hoping to provide a quick answer to a short, but long winded question. In the age of the internet it seems that well playing musicians pop-up every 2 minutes, new songs get released all the time, new albums arrive daily. Why bother? Why would you bother to play, to record or to release your own music? It’s so congested out there with so many people doing “this” already.

The answer is this: What you have is special and unique. No one in the world can do exactly what it is that you do. There is only 1 of you in the sea of human life on earth. With that in mind, anything you do will be unique and special and this is “why” it’s worth doing it.

I have seen several guitar players play throught the same exact amp set-up and they all sounded different. I have heard guitar players play the same riff and they all sounded different. You can copy, but you can’t exactly reproduce another human being.

What is important to know is that you doing “it” is the most important task at hand. Likes, video forwards and the like are nice and are all a nod from people getting something out of what you did. But, that is not the point of doing anything. If you do it for doing “it” because what you have to offer is unique and can offer something to others to boot, then that is all of the reason you need.

Most Frustrating Gripe From My Adult Guitar Students

11 Wednesday Nov 2020

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For the most part, I really enjoy teaching guitar to students across the world. And, some of my most fun and longest standing students are adult guys who have been playing for a while, but really need the guitar playing outlet to let go of stress, or they use our lessons to just simply get better.

One of the most common complaints from them is the amount of time that it takes to master things on the guitar. And, of course I know how long it takes to learn to play the instrument properly. I have been playing for decades and still discover, go over, relearn things all the time.

Guitar playing is an never ending trip that you simply get better at along the way. You never really arrive. Ask any accomplished player and most will tell you what else they haven’t gotten down, yet.

So, I always remind everyone that guitar is a difficult instrument to play well. They all are. I think what happens is that adults have done a lot of stuff in their life, achieved a lot of things (a lot of my students are successful professionals), and they feel their life experience should allow them to learn the instrument quickly by now. But, that is not how it works. This sometimes leads to frustration, but to me it’s the entry price you play. If this might be you, remember that everyone feels the same way. This is important to remember.

Guitar playing levels people together. No matter how many records you sold, what you did in your professional life or how successful you are in your other walks of life – it squares us all off with one simple request. It asks us to play and let the music do that talking, right now, today.

How To Get Through Difficult Tasks

21 Wednesday Oct 2020

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Today, a bit of a cool lesson/tip/hack on getting through stuff that might be difficult or you just don’t want to deal with. Let’s face it, the world we live in is challenging. This leads us in having to do a lot of crap that we simply don’t feel like doing. These can be small items – like broken house/car/music gear item to practicing/writing a song all the way to real serious shit.

On a podcast “Metal Motivation” (now called University Of Baddasery Podcast) hosted by my bros C.J. Ortiz – The Metal Motivator and Pat MacNamara there was a gentleman being interviewed that had extreme health issues. Like, I might not be here tomorrow extreme. So, extreme, that sometimes he had to set a goal of making it through the next 5 minutes, next 10 minutes – however long he needed to get through. This technique allowed him to come out on the other side and has taught me a big lesson as well.

The lesson is that when I got to do stuff I don’t want to do or stuff that is freaking diffucult, I break it down into very small compartments of time or small direct tasks. Today, I was going to a meeting that I dreaded and I said to myself to just concentrate on driving to the location first. I made a point not to think of the meeting itself, or the place inside once I get there, because I did not want to paint a story of what iffs. My goal was just to get there. Once I did arrive, I said to myself that all you have to do it to find the location and tell the people that I am there. I said to myself – just do that. Do that little task, get this done only.

We usually can survive anything as long as we concentrate on surviving next 5 minutes or til the end of today. There is a saying that says you can survive anything one day at a time. This technique helps you stay in the moment on what is important right “now” and not in 2 hours or later today. I’ll have to say this is a fantastic way of going about.

Even with guitar. When I want to write a song, I chisel out task for the next 30 minutes for me to go downstairs, turn-on your amps, tune up the guitar and open up a new Pro Tools session. That’s all. Let me complete that first, I say. Truth is once I am done, I want to do more. So, I come up with a task that for the next 30 minutes I will record my riffs down to a click track. I am not looking for a complete song, or even to be incredibly impressed. I just want to get my ideas down. If that is all I did today, then I completed the 2 tasks I had for my songwriting part of my day. Sure is more than getting all freaked out with how a new song is going to come out and how will I get this “project” done. This is how to get this stuff done!

And, don’t forget to talk to yourself! Pretend you are giving advice to someone you care about. I talk to myself internally or sometimes audibly if I need to drive home a point. Sometimes it’s the only intelligent thing you hear all day!