Sunday Evening Practice

So we got together tonight for our weekly practice session. Holy Crap! What an amazing experience! Definitely the strongest yet. We started off kinda shakey, but about 1/3'rd of the way through we tightened up. Two of the songs that we worked on previously have gotten MUCH stronger! There's still aways to go in terms of something finished to be considered 'recordable' quality (in my opinion). Not that songs of 'recordable quality' should be the benchmark of 'good' music, but you get my drift. After working on the two, Dave taught Sean and I guitar parts to a song that he's had 'burning' in his head for a bit. When we put it together, it was great! I always have a bit of trouble when learning new stuff on the spot. Especially when two parts are fitted together like puzzle pieces. My brain trys to listen exclusively to what the other part is doing, and I have to make a very conscious [sp?] effort to hear both parts together. When we were done exploring Dave's tune I was left noodling around with a progression that forced itself into my hands. I sometimes have moments where my hands move on their own and produce sounds from the guitar that I don't hear in my head first. I just have to go with it and see what happens. It's an amazing thing when I reflect on it. It's meditative to a point. I'm completely connected to the music that's happening at the moment. Once I realized that everyone was intently listening to what I was doing, I stiffened up and had to remind myself to breath again and relax. For whatever reason, I sometimes get caught off guard and lose the relaxed feel that I have when I play. Being in this relaxed state really allows me to keep my creative channel open. When I get stressed, I tend to lock into whatever feels safe because I get so afraid of making a mistake. Lately, I've been focusing of staying relaxed, not worrying about hitting wrong notes, making sure that I'm confident in what I'm playing. Every note I play is the correct one. A wise musician once told me that as long as you play every note like it's the 'right' one, there is no wrong note. Everything is coming together very quickly.