Here's a little something I thought we could all participate in. List your goals no matter how small or outlandish and let's see just how many we can reach/accomplish. They can be performance or gear related.
Here are some of my goals for 2005:
-Start lessons with a teacher meeting the criteria I've set forth for myself.(accomplished I start 1 Jan 05) :D
-Improve my listening skills along with improving my ability to tune by ear.
-Improve my sight reading abilities.
-Improve my fretboard knowledge
-Build a song repertoire.(a large one) :wink:
-Know and be able to play well the following songs by my birthday in June. (The short list Bad To The Bone, Sitting On Top Of The World, Boom Boom, Lil Red Rooster, I'm a Man and Whipping Post. )
-Write and put music to at least 3 of my own compositions.
-Tighten up both my rhythm and timing.
-Improve my vibrato.
-find, or start a band to play with by years end.
-aquire a Hot Rod Deville 4x10 60w amp
-aquire and begin using some home recording gear.
-participate in the next Riverside Jam
-Most of all HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS POSSIBLE!
There we go just a few things I want to improve on or nail down this year.
Okay it's your turn. Step up, and lay it down. :D
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- "WOW--What a Ride!"
the week before new years were gonna start having band practice, me and the other dudes, so my goal other then to become awesomer is to have my band start doing gigs
be good at what you can do-
For me:
Use less Pentatonic maj scale...
Review Pentatonic minor/work on improv and chops.
Learn the other half of major, work on improv..
Learn Blues scale or minor, I'm undecided.
And I need to start working on chord changes and learning more chords outside of the open position.
Also, I'm shooting for my first electric in the next six months.
-Metaellihead
Well for starters I want to upgrade my equipment: Basically just a medium sized tube amp (about 50 or 60 watts) and a new guitar, no fancy effects except for a few basic stompboxes (chorus, wah-wah, overdrive, delay, etc.)
In terms of playing I mainly want to keep doing what i'm doing, improve my speed even more and the strength in my fingers. Along with that I'm going to keep studying classical guitar and I will probably start studying jazz guitar as well. A big goal of mine is to start singing, I know I have a decent enough voice I'm just shy and need to just get out there and sing.
Steve-0
Goals:
[guitar]
-properly learn and use bebop scale
-properly mix major/minor scales during improvisation without sticking inside a scale for an entire lick/riff.
-Learn to better deal with modulating musicians.
-!!!!------------>Join a band<-------------!!!!
-Actually learn how to use those appergios during improvisation.
-More accurately/faster learn notenames on fretboard.
-Get a small practice amp to carry around
[piano]
-Get better, fast.
-Get an electric piano for in my appartment.
Major goals :
- learn standard notation
- improve chord vocabulary
- learn relative major / minor (goals and otherwise ;) )
- learn key-specific scales (working on A and E right now)
- learn modes
- memorize circle of fifths
- learn to play Jack's part from the guitar duel in Crossroads, one part at a time.
Minor goals :
- improve fluidity of chord switches
- increase speed, accuracy of scales
- learn to play more whole songs (I can play about 5 beginning to end very well, working on 1 more right now, and a nice little rhythm progression my teacher left me from his group's last album)
- absorb as much out of instructional books as possible
- learn at least one song out of Guitar World every month, even if it's just the rhythm section
Relative goals :
- research prices and pave the way for the acquisition of my next guitar, at a reasonable price
- find out what's so cool about tube amps vs. solid state
- check out pedals, find one that suits the "sound" I want to have (I'm thinking the Boss Blues Driver, anybody got any other suggestions along that line?)
- get a good teacher over the summer
- get "member" status at Guitarnoise.com
and lastly,
- DONATE TO THIS FINE SITE!!!!
Henry Garza, Saul Hudson, and Darrell Abbott could not be here tonight, but they all had sex and are proud to announce the birth of their two-headed baby, Rodya S. Thompson.
- Paraphrased from the Tenacious D series
My personal music goals:
Improve my contrapuntal reading on classical guitar
Master those chord fingerings that I still find 'sticky'... I can play 'em, but not fluidly - there's a few of those, like x57677 to x57577 (requiring a pinky barre and a clean 3rd string)
Work on more bluegrass
Compose a large-scale choral piece that's been rumbling around in my head
My professional goals:
Finish the text of my next book
Gig more... I'd like to do at least 100 dates this year
Land one of the high schools I've been talking to as a guitar seminar client (the nearest HS to me has guitar classes with 160 students)
Fill out my teaching schedule at my newest teaching gig (I'm going to be teaching Saturdays at a music school in Western Springs IL starting 1/8)
Start an acoustic guitar trio to do instrumentals of jazz and standards - I've run some ads, and I'll probably start auditioning folks in Jan.
Oh, and the big one that's more a hope than a goal: I auditioned a week ago for an act that's replacing their guitarist... they do 150 shows, including 2 foreign tours, each year. As an audition, I thought it went well... but since they have SO much work lined up, they're auditioning folks at the rate of 2 a day for about a month. if I get that gig the other goals will probably be scaled back - but I'll have a fabulous time :)
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
My goals are similiar to a lot of people here. they are:
Improve overall playing skill
including many new songs. But mostly theory related. Scales modes whatever it all is. Learn to play/improv jazz music, solos, whatever. Get our current half a band off the ground. Improve skills with notes chord building a lot. And become a half decent singer. Also would like to leaern a lot more on piano but this would take a large amount of dedication for me at least. Thats about it.
Mine are
1. Learn all the notes on the fretboard
2. Learn all the pentatonic scales
3. Improve Improvisation
4. Use bends more often rather than shredding so much
5. Lose 15 lbs. (off topic :)
6. Teach my bassist how to improvise (Which I completed, he can improvise quite well now :D!!
Besides that, I guess the rest you can figure out.
Build speed
Agility
strength
stamina blah blah blah
Later!
~>Marshall<~
You're a god among insects, never let anyone tell you different.
My goals for 2005 are:
1) To have a quality and efficient practice time. (I've been noodling a lot!)
- I want to have a decent practice schedule and materials.
- I want to be able to practice it everyday and review it every weeks
and months to see my improvement.
2) Learn theory some more:
- to make sure I really understand it, not just pretend to understand it.
- Major scales and it's relative minor, Minor / Major Pentatonic,
Harmonic, Melodic Minor, Blues Scale.
- Modes
- Chord Progression, 7th Chord.
- Triads , Triads Inversion (major/minor/diminished/augmented)
- Knowing the notes all over the fretboard.
3) Technique:
- improve my picking (alt/eco/sweep/tremolo)
- increase speed
- learn string skipping.
- improve my bending, legato, vibrato.
- playing while standing.
- learn classical finger style.
- using metronome correctly.
4) Playing / Improvisation.
- Putting what I've learn into actual music.
- To make my solo got melody instead of sounding like a scale!
- Improvise over blues progressions ( key A, E, D first)
- improve rhythm playing.
- to be able to play with others. My metal and blues friends.
- Record myself playing.
5) Repertoire
- Learn new songs every 1 or 2 weeks.
- Working on my band’s songs.
- Learn some more classical pieces.
- Be able to play ‘Mr Crowley’ ( Ozzy/Randy) songs.
- Be able to create my own songs and melody.
6) Ear Training/ Development
- Recognize intervals / distance / scales.
- Transcribe songs on guitar.
- Imagine melody in head and play it on guitar.
- Practice at good ear dot com.
7) Misc / Other
- Buy an electric guitar.
- Listen to a lot of different kind of music.
- Record a demo or ep with my band.
- Get Paul Gilbert 'Intense Rock 1 and 2, and John Petrucci's
'Rock Disipline 'videos.
- Doing a lot of home recording.
- Play in a gig.
- Have fun while playing.
- Reduce the amount of cigarettes or quit smoking! :wink:
Gee...Quite a lot. That's all I can think of. Perhaps, there are some more.
I hope I will be able to do that. Amen.
Hum..
-Be able to record myself and not have it sound like crap.
-Get a better feel for the guitar.
-Learn some more theory and crap like that.
-Get a CD out (with my band)
-Start gigging (with my band)
-Have a great time
-Learn to mix and record well
-Maybe teach some guys to play (maybe for money)
-Get a teacher for a bit.
-Get better at song writing (both lyrics and music)
Thats all i can think of.
aka Izabella
Hey jailhouse, nice goals (pretty similar to mine), I especially like the idea of learning Mr. Crowley... too many people up on Crazy Train, I always thought that Crowley was one of the best tracks off Blizzard of Ozz. :D
Keep me posted on yours, and I'll let you know how mine go. Y'know, kind of a Guitarnoise support group for ambitious newbies. :twisted:
Henry Garza, Saul Hudson, and Darrell Abbott could not be here tonight, but they all had sex and are proud to announce the birth of their two-headed baby, Rodya S. Thompson.
- Paraphrased from the Tenacious D series
Hey jailhouse, nice goals (pretty similar to mine), I especially like the idea of learning Mr. Crowley... too many people up on Crazy Train, I always thought that Crowley was one of the best tracks off Blizzard of Ozz. :D
Keep me posted on yours, and I'll let you know how mine go. Y'know, kind of a Guitarnoise support group for ambitious newbies. :twisted:
Thanks Rodya. You got nice goals too. Tor me, Mr Crowley is the best track on Blizzard of Oz. I listen to this song 5 - 7 times a day. It inspires me everytime I hear it. :D
Hum..
Finish off 4 unfinished songs from 2004.
George Harrison--Here Comes The Sun.
Led Zeppelin--Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Led Zeppelin--You're Time Is Gonna Come
Red Hot Chili Peppers--Road Trippin
and Leave nothing unfinished at this time next year.
Learn a few Christmas songs for 2005
Play more in front of other people. And finally "get over it" and sing in public.
More "correct" practice; less noodling around.
Looking forward to 2005...
Later,
~Ghost~
"Colour made the grass less green..." 3000 miles, Tracy Chapman
I've never been good at comitting goals to paper (or electrons) so maybe this exercise will help me progress faster and further in 2005. I've been at it for about three years now and like most, my main goal is:
1. Become a better player.
-develop a more focused practice routine (I tend to noodle around)
-learn entire songs, not just riffs
-really improve bending and vibrato technique
2. Find a guitar teacher to help me with #1.
3. Jam - find a few like-minded folks in my neighborhood and get together on a regular basis. Hopefully this would form the basis for band down the road.
4. Acquire a Les Paul - I've had a jonesin' for a LP for some time now. Hopefully the budget will alow for it this year. It'll complement my Strat nicely.
Bonus stretch equipment goal: High quality acoustic guitar (thinking Taylor).
5. Lower my handicap by 2 strokes. :wink:
The good news is that I'll get lot's of help and inspiration for #1 - 4 right here. GuitarNoise - best guitar site on (or off) the web.
Steve
