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Living the dream/ Phase 1 - The first crossroads

Format for the next 9 Days

AM:
Morning sun, coffee, food

Practice:
Legato, warmup, scales, arpeggios.
Acoustic songs
Barre chord progressions
Performance pieces: ultra slow - slow - moderate if clean.

Gym/cardio, food, nap/chill

PM:

Practice: Use nicotine gum if focus isn't there
Speed
Performance pieces: slow then ramp speed

Will aim to sleep about 9hrs a night, consume DHA and creatine.

Objective for the week:
See how fast I can progress with full immersion.
Record songs if ready.
 
Another day done, already helping knowing I don't have work tomorrow. I feel so much sharper mentally with fewer distractions.
 
Ran into a funny problem today. There's a couple techniques that I think I need different length nails to do. My preference is to have no nails but two of the songs I'm doing are from very different genres. Gonna try to find a workaround
 
Done again, I've added another song to help target a technique sticking point.
I'm finding I'm still running out of focus but it improves if I learn new stuff - I can practice all the work in progress songs till they feel stale and then add something new when my focus deteriorates and push it a bit further.
Not working is fucking nice though just because of the extra energy.

Had a signing lesson today. My range is already solid and got more exercises.
 
Sorry to hear that dude - hope they pull through!

Happy to give some thoughts, very experienced with mental health, can text me if you like
 
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Lots to update:

This week has been very chaotic and pretty fucking heavy.
I've managed to practice every day but nothing like the immersion I hoped for.

I have got some good data from my practicing though.
On days where I've been able to get multiple practices in there is a definite improvement between each session.
I will be able to do another immersion style week or so over Christmas.
I also feel like I've took a big leap in skills from trying to learn Rylynn, it's a good bit more difficult than the other songs.

I also have enough material now to start building a page with some cool recordings even if it's not really advanced stuff.
This and a website + joining a teaching registry will be a good start and there's no reason I can't get a few students from this and slowly cross into teaching full time.
I'll focus on beginners and intermediate players and it will be about over delivering on service. I can outcompete more established teachers by just being good at answering emails lol, I'll answer questions outside of lessons, create resources and just go the extra mile.

Seems like the best thing to do here is to play the long game and keep putting in the hours while also progressing my life outside of practicing.

Finally seem to have found a good singing teacher and can start progressing much quicker with this as well.

Other stuff:
I've let the gym and diet go to shit the last couple weeks. But now said family member is getting professional treatment and I've accepted that they really are unwell and its more than just a passing phase a lot of tension has been released and I feel focussed again.
I was letting things slide and experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance the last couple of weeks as I realised the situation was getting more and more serious.
Now it's back to clean eating, good sleeping patterns and consistency at the gym, plus socialising.
I'm gonna be visiting the hospital a lot so this will take precedence but I have a good idea of my immediate to do list as well.

To do/Regrouping:
-Workout ×4, cardio ×2
-Practice guitar everyday,
-Go to a social event every week
-Record and post a weekly video
-Eat healthy -greens, healthy fats, high protein, DHA
-Tidy my room - make a recording space
-Cancel subscriptions I don't need
-Clean my car out
-Maintain skincare and haircare
-Get protein, creatine, vit d and K2, collagen and L-arginine supps
- Restock some fuckboy clothes and get my grooming back on point

Stuff that's in the air right now:
- I'm not moving away until solid progress and rebuilding is underway for said family member. If the recovery is gonna take a while the van will be super useful so I can enjoy better locations than this small town but also visit a lot.
- I really don't know if it's best to work part time or just get a job I enjoy more as I'll still be working to phase it out. After Christmas and more practice I'll have a better idea still, and want to keep saving up so I don't have to make an instant decision here at least.

Onwards
 
Practice notes:
Yesterday got only an hour in covering the main three songs. Played poorly.

Today I went over loads of stuff over 2.5 hrs, spending a lot of time on speed exercises and barre chord progressions. This helped a lot and my hands moved with more strength and precision when playing the more difficult pieces, which I kept to just 10mins each.
I'm going to keep this setup for my longer practices.

Found I play better with zero finger nails too and can pull off some classical/niche techniques without needing them which is good news.

Singing is progressing steadily, when I stick to my range it's sounding decent. I think in another 6 months I'll be fairly good.
Finally got a teacher now which is good.
 
Work:
I wanted to try using the nicotine gum and it worked very well.
Don't feel the urge to look at my phone and I'm more focussed. Usually I'm bored and easily distracted.
My working memory improved as well when recording test data.

I also find I don't feel ready to practice at regimented times. Usually 10:30-13:00 before I leave for work and morning coffee plus gum and getting outside for 10 mins helps kind of cheat my way into the session, especially if I front load my practice with speed exercises to really get in the groove.

Gym:
There's something wrong with my left shoulder, I'm gonna use the KOT shoulder pain exercises. Hopefully it's not a tear in the rotator cuff. I've had this for a year and a half now, never bothered me too much but doing some awkward lifting (a 25kg sack to my shoulder) I really felt it. I want to add some bjj back into my routine but I'm not rolling with a goofy shoulder.

Mindset:

Watched this and realised I've been lacking people with a growth mindset who are willing to invest in themselves.
My folks are great but they would rather save money than spend it to develop themselves and aren't the best to bounce these kind of ideas off.

Belatedly realised Andy's discord has all the sections concerning mindset, like a gratitude thread and wins thread so it really is a good follow up to the coaching group which I will make better use of.
 
Had another singing lesson today.
Time to start looking for better jobs to start after Christmas.
 
The more time I spend working on speed and strength exercises as well as barre chord progression the easier the advanced songs become and the more intuitive and ergonomic my guitar feels.
I'm very pleased about this development as these fundamentals are also the building blocks of a lot of guitar exams that students may want to prepare for.
The speed exercises really help me focus as well as they take my full attention.
I've got a good avenue of attack now.

On another note, when helping with family stuff my sister is a fucking legend. Got her shit together in a totally different level to me
 
Another good practice thanks to focussing more on exercises first.
The guitar physically feels different.
Brain fog and focus issues have improved and what's really cool is that now when I do check out mentally say on the third or forth playthrough of a song, the muscle memory kicks in and keeps me in track.
Another step closer to where I want to be on these advanced pieces: to where I can't get them wrong.
It will be really interesting to see how improving my speed and getting into shredding territory carries over carries over into everything else.

Going to try a completely legal microdosing experiment seeing as I've had a solid improvement in focus from the nicotine gum and see how that helps my playing.

Things with the family member in hospital haven't improved. Growing up with someone with paranoia and autism can be quite unpleasant and I took all the toxic behaviour personally and got extremely wound up. Where I thought he was just a cunt it turns out there was a lot more serious issues colouring his behaviour.
Since the doctor's diagnosis all the remaining animosity I felt has disappeared which has been very cathartic.
In fact I don't think anyone has been unpleasant to me in the last decade or so that I couldn't point to a reason why they were unhappy themselves, some people also just feel threatened by a giant chad looking dude as well lol.
Really helpful to realise that once the physical aspect of self defence is covered there just isn't much to worry about. Realise they're in pain on some level and move on.
Anyway the door really is open for people to move out of pain and psychosis but they have to be the one to walk through it.

Mood and energy are great and feels good to get my guitar and gym progress back on track, I've even been proactive at work which is the first time since I started my journey here.
 
Solid practice. Speed improved on the exercises and the chord exercises have also improved. Felt uncalibrated when it came to the advanced songs, slowed them down and got some reps in.

Pleased to get one of my friend groups to do something that doesn't involve binge drinking tomorrow so that's awesome.
 
Spent all day hanging out with friends.
One is back from Australia and got me into watching the big Les show years ago. I re-watched some episodes and it really brought me back to what I enjoy doing the most, just fucking hanging out and living easy, lifting some big weights, doing cool stuff, playing music, being nice to people.
The unhappy virgin crisis has been solved, soon I'll be able to have an enjoyable way of making money, then I'll have time to create music, make deeper connections, explore psychedelic spaces, try and help people and flow more with life. I'm really not out here looking to drive Bugattis and fuck supermodels every weekend.
Saw some photos of me as a baby the other day and thought, 'we're almost there buddy,' things are nearly fucking idyllic. Everything I do is already something I get to do and everything that happened to me happened for me.
I've been scratching and militating at existence rather than flowing with it and it's entirely learned behaviour.

 
Goals for the week:
Get as much quality practice in as possible
100% clean diet w/ 2 veggie servings every day
Workout like a mofo
 
Powered through yesterday and got everything done.
Focus was difficult as the first day of the early shift I'm running on fumes but got to sleep earlier than I usually manage. I'll take a power nap after work before my guitar practice today as that helps massively and hopefully it won't disrupt my sleep later.
Finding logging in the evening also wakes me up and gets me thinking so I'll do it in the morning instead.

Singing has stalled as the new set of exercises I've got require a keyboard which I can't play during my commute very easily. I'm already maxed out for time during week days anyway so I'll do what I can but guitar is the focus right now.
 
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