# Your own musical growth



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

So this thread is meant for telling others how have you grown musically recently.
Its meant to inspire you to grow more rapidly because when you see your own posts and posts made by others in this thread it will inspire you to do more ( At least my own & other peoples growth always inspires me to grow more rapidly).
Even if its just a slight improvement post it!

Let me start:

I have had pretty major growth in my ability to copy music only by ear and copy the music i hear in my head.
Also my ear for form has grown a lot!


----------



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Today I realised that I don't have any concept of how to even begin composing.

Such realisations are always interesting, and I usually take them as a positive sign, that I have noticed something which I had no idea about before and is thus lacking in my composing ideas. I find it hard to describe though... I guess I realised that my compositions aren't really _engaging_ enough, and that I am trying to apply contrast without any real meaning or narrative strength or anything... I have no idea how to start making my pieces engaging. It seems like a difficult task.

This may not seem like positive thinking, but for me it is over the moon :lol:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Ramako said:


> Today I realised that I don't have any concept of how to even begin composing.
> 
> Such realisations are always interesting, and I usually take them as a positive sign, that I have noticed something which I had no idea about before and is thus lacking in my composing ideas. I find it hard to describe though... I guess I realised that my compositions aren't really _engaging_ enough, and that I am trying to apply contrast without any real meaning or narrative strength or anything... I have no idea how to start making my pieces engaging. It seems like a difficult task.
> 
> This may not seem like positive thinking, but for me it is over the moon :lol:


These kind of "moments", in which you realize that your current approach is not leading you to the goals you are interested, are very valuable, they are an opportunity to grow. My advice is to relax your boundaries and start to investigate, not necessarily with an aim, just for the sake of studying, and for the _fun_ of it. I think that it's necessary for composing to have a general philosophy of music, in what aspects are you interested, etc. I don't think it is useful to plan in a very detailed way your next composition, but I think that it _is_ necessary to have a general philosophy about what do you want in your music in order to _guide_ the process of composition.


----------



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I had my guitar properly intonated on a music shop(2 weeks ago), and now my bends are a accurate!


----------



## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I've been playing guitar for almost a quarter century and one never stops learning! Thanks to youtube, I just began taking country pickin' lessons and learning a lot of virtuoso country styles and I will soon add that to my arsenal. Just before that, I began to learn the blues but I realized pretty quickly that I already knew it; just had to think differently. Eventually, it'll be Spanish guitar.


----------



## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

^Tons of work for Spanish guitarists if you know where to look!





In the last 3 months i've gone from a ham fisted strummed version of Animals version of House of the Rising Sun to playing and singing the boxer by Simon and Garfunkel. 6-8 hours a day for the last month or something. I'm terrified that as a 22 year old, i am already 'over the hill' and deteriorating when it comes to anything involving muscle memory, and the fact that i have to catch up to Joe Average guitarist of my age as soon as possible.

If i can knock out most of Asturias by June, i'm on track.


----------



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Now that i have started to record on a daily basis again i am getting off my timing rut etc...
Now i am starting to get those "Perfect takes" on a first try etc...


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I joined the band at a new church. They play in different keys than my old church. I'm having to strech again.


----------



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Well, I've been off for one week. However, my new piano teacher advised me to tap or clap out the rhythm in a song BEFORE I even try to play it. Rhythm is a weakness of mine, so I can tell already that this is going to be helpful for me.


----------



## rborganist (Jan 29, 2013)

About two years ago, I made my first attempts in about 25 years at composing, and was amazed at how much better the music was. I found an excellent composition teacher (unfortunately recently deceased) who taught by inspiration--he would focus on something that was good and tell me to explore it further. He even got me to try writing for instruments other than piano and organ, especially strings (which meant learning the alto clef) and acoustic guitar (which meant learning tablature). Yes, it was quite a bit of work, but it was also fun.


----------

