Skip to main content

A Little Bit of Resolve

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish!

A new year is here! That's right, it's 2019 and I know you're all feeling the weight of those resolutions on your shoulders. For the first time, my resolution is based on music and I kind of, accidentally, on purpose, turned one idea into three... And I thought if I wrote about them here on The Music Bowl, it would amp up my determination.

My 2019 resolution was inspired by a post from this very blog. Heard wrote about listening journals and I cannot believe that in all my years working on music, I've never kept a journal for listening. Well, this is the year! I'll even share my first album with you - here's the opening track:




100 albums is the goal, but I won't be disappointed if I don't quite reach it, and I'll even be a little surprised if I manage to keep track of all the music. Just having the resolve to attempt this kind of record keeping caused me to dig in with my own practicing as well. I just finished a four month break from regular practice sessions due to new work and new school schedules. My guitar was not completely neglected, but I was nowhere near where I wanted to be in terms of keeping my chops up. In addition to the listening journal, I am resolving to work on guitar theory and improvisation this year through goal-oriented practicing, as opposed to just blocking off 30 minutes a day to play my guitar. I haven't gone too crazy with this, because I don't want to get carried away with plans only to find myself unable to fit everything in. I'm taking it four weeks at a time, so I have four goal sets for the month of January. I'm working on the first set this week and once the end of the month arrives, I'll be able to see what I've accomplished and adjust accordingly for February.

Fellow music fans, what are you working on in 2019? We'd love to hear from you.

Cheers to the New Year! Shark's in the water! See you next time.

Post inspired by Foo Fighters song of the same name:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Music Bowl's First Summer

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. Summer is upon us! We here at The Music Bowl want to let you know what's bubbling to the surface in the next couple of months so you don't miss any of the music goodness. What's coming up? 1) NEW POSTS Next week, we'll introduce our "Half of the Year Hear" where you can check out some of the year's new albums with us. Fin Favorites start this month! The Wonderfish will introduce you to films about music that you won't want to miss, such as 20 Feet From Stardom , It Might Get Loud , Whiplash , and Sound City .   What is summer without summer concerts? We'll be discussing summer tours and festivals - the pros and the cons, yes, but also the sheer joy that is meant to take place. 2) NEW SHOWS Heard has some gigs!  I have some gigs!  Yes, there are even a few Heard and The Wonderfish gigs this summer! You can keep up with our show schedule on our website . 3) NEW SONGS &...

The Wonderfish Presents: 2017's Best Albums

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. In this final post of the year, we look at the albums that most captivated me, The Wonderfish, in 2017. Honorable Mentions: As Heard mentioned, we saw a year of excellent music. There is just no way I could listen to all of the album releases. However, I will say I listened to a fair share of 2017's new music. First up are my honorable mentions. These are the albums I both thoroughly enjoyed and listened to repeatedly this year. Fleet Foxes -  Crack Up Ryan Adams -  Prisoner Rhiannon Giddens -  Freedom Highway Foo Fighters -  Concrete and Gold The War on Drugs -  A Deeper Understanding U2 -   Songs of Experience Ani DiFranco -  Binary Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau-  Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau Runner Up: Kendrick Lamar -  DAMN. Words that come to mind when I think about this album:  poetic, compelling, magnetic, storytelling, innovative, rhetorical ...

The First Time I Saw Kendrick

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. In case you missed last week's post, we talked a little bit about how music can change someone's mood. I used Kendrick Lamar's performance on Saturday Night Live of the song I as an example of a performance that pushes me to work harder as a musician and songwriter. This was the first time I saw Kendrick perform live and I will never forget it. I was mesmerized. I had heard of Kendrick Lamar and listened to a few of his songs off of Good Kid, M. A. A. D. City prior to the show, but I hadn't listened to any of his albums in full. This song changed that. And, honestly, I haven't tried to learn the lyrics of a hip hop song word for word since my college days. This song changed that, too. This is the power of music. So, after seeing this, I promptly purchased his To Pimp A Butterfly album and gave it a couple of listens. I thought it was incredible. In 2016, he released u ntitled unmastered and Damn in 2...