I’m not going to play classical guitar anymore. #music #guitar

As with a lot of things lately, I’ve been lazy about guitar practice. In my effort to try to get back into something of a routine I practiced a few classical pieces that I know. Most of them I learned in high school. All of them I learned from books that I got during high school or perhaps a little bit later, when I was about to become a music major in college. I switched majors after one semester with the idea that musically I would work with “rock” music (whatever that means anymore). Nevertheless I tried to maintain the discipline that I had retained from that period. I figured that not only did I enjoy what I did but keeping up the discipline may help keep my mental skills sharp.

As I played the pieces earlier waves of memory swept through my mind. I kept thinking of guitar classes in high school mixed with images from my experience in college. I remember wowing my classmates at how good I was getting. I remember my college instructor getting upset with his students after none of us had attended his recital a few nights before. I remembered all of my hopes and expectations, most of which I haven’t met yet I always held the belief that I still have time. Perhaps I do. Tonight, however, I focused on the past.

Lest you think that I’m pining for the “good ol’ days,” I grew concerned as I packed up my guitar for the evening. Have I been only practicing classical guitar for the sake of nostalgia? Have I been wasting my time?

The sad truth is that yes, I think I have. For years whenever I “practiced music” I focused on classical pieces. (By the way, I know that I’m using the term “classical” in the more popular sense even though I also refer to music from other time periods. It’s just easier than spelling it out every time.) Sure, I learned some new pieces and tried hard to master difficult passages, all for the sake of having learned them. But I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I could have. It wasn’t the type of music that I wanted to do. I always thought of myself as a rock musician first, yet I played very little. I announced a year and a half ago that I consider myself a bassist first yet I haven’t seriously picked up my bass since I recorded the last Shadows of Immurement album.

When I start creating music in my head, ninety-nine percent of the time it takes the form of something I would do with Shadows of Immurement. What was intended as a one-off project became my primary musical outlet of expression. Why am I shying away from it? I don’t think that I have been. I’ve been obsessing over something else so much that I haven’t devoted enough time to what I really should be doing. (This isn’t to put Popkin-Salvador by the wayside, but as that involves another person and his schedule, I have a hard time regarding that as my “main” band anymore.)

I decided that I’m going to give up playing classical music for a year. Afterwards, if I have the drive to try it again I will do so. But I won’t give in until at least August 19th, 2016. This way I can find out if I’m wrong about this. I don’t think I am. But I would hate to give up playing a type of music that I know how to play when it turns out that I do enjoy it without pretense. Over the next year I still plan on keeping a musical discipline, but based on the music that I want to produce publicly. I don’t mean playing live, at least not yet. That’s another hurdle that I have to get myself to jump over.

Guitar strings.

One of the presents I got for my birthday was a set of strings for my classical guitar. When I was feeling a bit better yesterday I swapped out the old ones for the new. It’s a different brand that I’ve been using but so far they don’t sound any different. However, I noticed that they don’t buzz as often as the other ones did. Is that actually affected by how the strings are made? I’m obviously not an expert if I have to ask that question. I know how to play the instrument but I’m happy enough without knowing exactly how everything on it works. I probably should be more of a gear-head but I’m not. For all I know it could be the fact that I just played them or maybe even psychological. They didn’t buzz at first simply because I hit the notes perfectly so I loosened up about how well I was going to play.

It got me thinking about the equipment I use, though. How much of my playing has been negatively affected by the fact that my equipment hasn’t been quite right? I don’t mean tone nor am I excusing bad playing. But there have been buzzing noises and badly played bar chords which make me wonder about how I might sound better had I spent more on the guitar in question. My three-hundred dollar Gibson plays better than my hundred-dollar Ibanez. I couldn’t help buying the Ibanez, though. It just looked too cool in the store. When I bought the classical I didn’t know or even care that much about the quality of the instrument. I was in high school and was focusing on what I could afford. My bass is cheap, too. I didn’t get that to be a bassist, I got it for home recordings. I discovered that through its defects and an effects pedal I can get some really cool sounds out of it, anyway.

I shouldn’t dismiss the possible psychological component to the playing on these new strings, either. Whatever gets me to play better is fine by me. I’ll see where I’m at as I practice with them more. I am worried how the first string is going to keep in tune as I didn’t quite string it properly. I think it will be fine but I would hate to have to go out and buy another set of strings to replace just the one. I know you can usually do that with steel strings but I don’t think I’ve ever seen nylon strings sold individually. (That reminds me, I still owe a friend of mine a string. Apparently they don’t like being hit with screwdrivers….)

It could also just be that my playing is getting better. I’ve been bad with practicing over the last few weeks but otherwise I don’t think I lost my skill too much. I want to be better but at least I’m not getting worse. If this is true that the strings can help improve my playing than I have to think about what other changes I can make to my equipment. I’ve always been partial to fretless necks. I don’t want to change any of my current guitars for that, though. Would it really be worth it in today’s economy to save for yet another guitar?