Getting the Band Together

After bar chords and the pentatonic scales, the next ingredient that supercharged my learning curve was playing with other musicians. About 6 months into reading do-it-yourself guitar books, online tab searches and repetitive scale exercises, my next breakthrough came from work (of all places). I had just started a new job, and was orienting with Andy, another new hire. We went through all of our training together, and eventually had to go out of state for a week of training. We both had extensive military backgrounds, so we hit it off right away. One day I was telling him about my new guitar hobby, and he told me he had been playing drums for over 20 years. He invited me to come play with him, a bass player and another guitar player.

I was a little intimidated at first, but Andy and the guys were very encouraging, and the focus was always (and remains to be today) on having fun and growing musically. One of the many benefits was helping me focus. When playing on my own, I spent more time browsing through different tabs, trying to decide what song to play and learn than I spent actually playing. When I arrived, they already had a list of songs they played on a regular basis. I had never played any of the songs before, but by the end of the night, with the help of more experienced musicians, I was able to play six or seven different songs from beginning to end. This pace of learnin was light-years faster than anything I would have accomplished sitting on my couch with a guitar tab book.

I had more fun that first night than I'd had in a long time. I left that night with a whole new level of confidence and a desire to attack my playing and keep moving forward. That excitement and enthusiasm carried over into my practice routine. With new found focus and renewed spirit, I emmersed myself in that set list. I downloaded the songs off of iTunes and listened to them when driving back and forth to work, working around the house, in the shower and when laying down for bed at night.

After a couple more jam sessions, we all felt pretty comfortable with the songs, and quite frankly, we were starting to get a little bored. So, the following get together some of us brought new material, and the learning process started all over again, this time with an expanded library of musical references built on our past experiences.

I was lucky enough to have a great bunch of musicians fall right into my lap at just the right time. However, you don't have to wait for someone to invite you to jam with them. Visit your local guitar shop, and you are likely go find a bulletin board where individuals or groups will post looking for musicians of all types and skill levels. You can post there too!! Either way, find yourself a group of fellow musicians, and it will fast-track your development to that next level and beyond.... Not to mention, it's CRAZY fun!

Keep rockin', and have a blast.
Remember, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.....

B