Don't Let Your Illusions Use You

I came from a school band background-you'd have THE most IMPOSSIBLE piece placed on your stand, and were expected to learn it by time the concert rolled around. When I got to college, it was often not only for the next weekend's football game, but I had to learn my formations, and was squad leader, so had to make sure the rest of my group got there, too. You usually didn't think about who wrote the piece, and as geeky as I was, I often had never heard it because I was too busy studying, working so I could afford to stay in school, or getting ready to play at the next gig or party to bother with things like listening to the radio, or afford the time or money to go to a concert. Most school kids play Mozart, and don't think anything of it, so why be afraid to play a Steve Vai piece? If you take the bit one note at a time, you WILL learn the piece eventually, one note or lick at a time. As in all tough things, if you find it is hard, just find the inbetween steps you need to take to get to that goal. If your fingers can't move fast, do scales and drill them until they do, and trust me, you will be able to do that riff. There are just too many older folks who didn't start playing music until they retired, and are good at it, now-it is just a matter of practice, just like everything else. I was shocked when researching for a historical novel I'm writing about just how tough it was to be a Celtic poet-you were expected to have huge numbers of poems memorized, be able to recite them on request, as well as be able to recognize and write in hundreds of poetic styles. Trust me, we have it much easier now as songwriters, so we should be thankful and be happy to just write that next line and slowly put together the next epic song, and be relieved that some king isn't holding speartips at us while we do so, expect us to write something stunning on the spot, and have to include lots of clever embellishments like fancy internal rhymes or alliteration. There are too many gas station attendants who have written hits, so you can, too-believe it!

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