Neural Pathways

In the last week I've realised my head is even more weird than I thought it was. The further we push into this journey the more I'm understanding about myself - or in some cases not understanding about myself. Two things happened to further highlight this.  The first was the power chord we used in our rock lesson the second was a quick overview of how to use staffpad.

So weird how? Well it seems although I'm perfectly capable of doing most things independently I can't seem to make the initial connection between theory and experience. Let me explain, I know what a power chord is, have for nearly two years. I know how to play one, I know how they are used but I haven't really played them in anything I've learnt. So when it comes to using them I can't, can't even try, it's the oddest thing - it's like knowing how to do something simple but not being able to physically do it. Then, suddenly after a quick lesson, I'm not only comfortable replicating the lesson I'm now starting to experiment and take it forward.

Similar with Staffpad, it sat on my tablet for a couple of months. I've self taught far harder things before but I can't begin to even dabble with it until my teacher shows me the basics then I'm straight in there doing far more.

Even more confusing is I CAN take the first step, I learnt to use Adobe for my YouTube video. I'm not lazy so maybe I need a specific purpose, maybe I need a big push, maybe it's doubt or fear holding me back. Who knows but it's the oddest thing because it makes no sense.  As soon as the initial connection is made I'm away learning, pushing and coming up with new ideas, I do hit new walls but I'm far more likely to be able to work through them on my own even if they're 20 times harder than the initial concept.

No precise point to today's post just a curious small insight I needed to pour out of my head. One thing for sure is knowing that a little help getting that first push has made me realise I need to ask for help with far more things to open them into options even if it seems really dumb.

And I just get more and more nuts..!

Just as an aside to this post -  As you know I'm learning 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' as a kind of weird tribute to my teacher, I want to learn and play it for him as a gift (that probably makes me kind of odd already).  I'm about half way through learning the notes and I've started trying to focus on timing now so that I can add dynamics to make it sound nice.  This song has so much going on and much of it is 'hidden' under the lyrics or other instruments so played as a single instrument sounds very different.  I've imported the track into Studio One as per my recording tips post but that's not enough to really get the timing down, I'm using a metronome and figuring out the timing from the book but again it helps if I can really hear it.  So what I'm doing is actually sitting here and writing it up in staffpad so I have an audio of just the piano so work to.  Then because those sections sound so different I want to try to make the whole song my own interpretation rather than just copying the actual song but we'll see how that goes!  All to make someone happy.  It's worth it!