Well, another New Year is upon us and as many of us do, I have spent some time reflecting on the past year as well as pondering what the new year may hold for me. While thinking about the past year I have come to realize that I have been easily distracted. So much so that I have had a hard time sticking to a constant practice schedule.Â
It seems almost everyday I find a new and interesting, usually bass or music related, blog or site to check out. Some days I get lost in the Talkbass or Thunder Row forums for hours. I’ve recently started to work on improving my abysmal guitar skills, additionally my Electric Upright Bass calls to me every so often and I take her out for a few days or weeks.  Then there’s my fretless, oh and effects, I can get lost for days fiddling around with my Zoom B1x. Recording is always on the back of my mind, whether it be on my iPad or my computer, recording song ideas or video recording myself playing. On top of all this there is always more theory to learn and more and more books to read, such as Janek Gwizdala’s new book and Joseph Patrick Moore’s, and did I hear Damian Erskine has one as well?
Playing in a cover band I am always learning new songs, plus I am a bit of a gear freak and love to tweak on my amp, or mess around with the 9 different basses I have (10 including the aforementioned EUB). My search for the ultimate gigging combo consumed much of my time in recent weeks as well, and am happy to have finally made a choice and put that behind me. (Look for a post on that very soon).
So far I’ve just been talking about my “Bass/Music” life here. As is to be expected, my kids are a constant distraction and then there’s my job. I am in the Audio Visual business so there is always a new gadget to checkout, new software to try and the constant drive to stay current in fast paced, ever changing environment. Oh, and did I mention that I love to read!
Let’s face it, we are all aware that life is full of distractions, but at some point we need to hunker down and decide what is really import and try, and I emphasis try, to focus on what is really meaningful to you. I believe in living life to the fullest and experiencing as much as I can, but it is easy to get lost in it all and to burn yourself out. I am just now becoming conscious of the fact that for a large part of 2012 I was just burnt and needed to slow everything down. I let too many distractions in and was not able to accomplish any of the goals I had set for myself earlier in the year.
Fortunately I am feeling great now and am ready to take on some new challenges but will try not to lose focus of what’s important. For 2013 I hope to get back into a more regular practice routine, to start writing more often, with a goal of 1 post a week, to continue contributing my share to my band as well as reviews and such to Bass Players United, Thunder Row and the TalkBass communities. Family will always come first, but music is very important to me, even more so than my job at this point, though I obviously need to keep pace there in order to pay the bills 😉
So here’s to a great 2013, may your goals be distraction free!
