So, I've had something of a breakthrough.  A quick look at this blog will suggest to you that I have not recorded any music this year.  Last year, I really wanted to push myself to create, with mixed results.  I finished some stuff I'd been wanting to, but I also put out some stuff that wasn't terribly creative just to meet a "deadline."  This year, I'm applying no pressure at all to myself and the result is that I have recorded nothing.

One of my biggest problems in creating is the desire to not make anything bad.  This invariably holds me back.  I don't create because I can't yet make music that I really like.  I refuse to call something finished because it's not "good enough."

So here's the breakthrough: I've had an idea for an album for that I've been thinking about for more than a decade.  Some of the songs I recorded last year were for that album.  Well, I've decided to cancel it.  It's been a block to my creativity, but no longer.  Now, I want to make music just to make it, with no lofty concept-album goals.  I want to make music that's not good enough because I believe that's how I'll learn to make music that I like.

So, I'm starting to think that the man I want to be is not strictly possible.  I want to be a devoted husband, an attentive father, a flawless housekeeper, an excellent cook, a responsible pet owner, a self-sustaining organic vegetable gardener, a marathoner, a multi-linguist, a Biblical scholar and an accomplished musician.  Something's got to give.  Or, maybe I should be all that and more...

FAIL

If anyone has read previous posts, they will notice that the title and web address of this blog have changed.  Of course, no one will read this unless I tell them that the web address has changed.

The reason for the change is that I failed to meet my goal for 2011.  I don't know why I had to name the thing "50 recordings in 2011."  I guess I thought that the pressure would force me to perform, since I'm such a procrastinator.  It almost did.  Near the end of the year, I started calculating how many rushed, stripped down cover versions of hymns I could squeeze in before the new year.  Then, I realized that that would be missing the point.  I was trying to force myself to write and to learn about recording.  I already know that I can play and sing a hymn and that a mic can capture that sound.  Nothing about that process makes me a better musician (except some of the new chords and progressions I learned in learning the hymns).

The truly ironic thing is my completely ignoring the quote at the top of my blog.  It ended up being prophetic.

Anyway, I've decided to look at what I accomplished in 2011 in a positive light.  Sure, I didn't record 50 songs.  I did record 11, which is more than I've ever done.  I finally "finished" several songs that I had been working on for years and even wrote a couple of new things.  That's progress!

So, progress is the new title.  It's not only that I'm looking at what I did in 2011 as progress over what I've done in previous years (very little).  It's also that I'm going to continue to post things that aren't finished, so that the progression of a work can be seen.  The title also refers to the idea that my music and myself as a musician are things that are progressing.  I'm not putting myself out there as a completed project.  If you read this, though, you will see me get better.  The title also implies the new attitude I'm taking in looking for opportunities to play, write and record as I progress through my day.  Instead of stressing about big chunks of time, just do things as I can.  Lastly, "progressions" is a musical term, which fits nicely.