Lessons From the Dojo

It may have been four years since I have been unable to practice Karate. However, I cannot deny the principles and discipline that I learned from my years of training in the dojo. If only now, I am starting to take those principles and disciplines seriously. While I wish that I would have learned these earlier on in my life, I guess that it is better to be late than not at all. If anything, there's a bunch of lessons that I have started to apply in various aspects in my life… starting with music. Why music? Because, in my mind, I could have been a more disciplined guitarist (and possibly a pianist). If anything, I've been somewhat disappointed with my current skills when I listen to the various aspects of my playing. I let them stagnate to the point where I feel that they slid backwards. Others may not hear it, but I certainly do, and it's undeniable to my own ears. Hence, the need for discipline passed on for centuries of martial arts' Senseis.

My first discipline that I am applying is by doing these licks slow and even. This is how I used to practice my katas. It helps me feel the technique and trains the muscles to move in the direction and rhythm needed. It also allows the rest of my senses to learn what I am doing. I am training myself to hear as well as feel what I am doing when practicing a lick. I've learned the practicing it slow is extremely important. Important to the point where I tried to speed it up and immediately noticed the mistakes. Slowing it down helps me iron out those mistakes and fix them at the root.

Another discipline I have learned was from a book, called "The Classical Man". It reads: One Kata - Three Years. Basically, this indicates how long it takes to ingrain a kata into the body. It's a lot more than simply memorizing it. It's building it so that it is instinct. It's anchoring into the body through repetition. The same goes with practicing guitar licks. Practicing it over and over, feeling and hearing it, works it into the body. Sure, one can try some shortcuts, but it wouldn't replace the satisfaction of hearing the lick progress as you feel it in your fingers. To me, that's part of the joy of playing guitar. Part of experiencing this joy comes from the discipline of learning it until it is a part of you.

And I know that the kind of music that I want to write, it's going to require discipline. And, the only discipline that I can see that will work for me, is what I learned from the dojo.

Awakening a dragon

Okay, I will be the first to admit after watching a bunch of Andy James' performances on the recently received DVD's, whether I would be able to ever play half as good as him. After all, his technique is exact and his playing is very melodic. He is a true shredder and a fantastic guitarist. So, for me it is almost understandable why I would feel a little down watching the videos of him playing some of these licks at blistering speed. His playing is how I always wanted to sound. Funny enough, we both drew on the same influences. Only real difference was that I built up some of the technique, but I wasn't sure where to take it, or how to apply it. Or, at the very least, I didn't have the discipline.

That all changed this morning.

I decided to stop watching and start learning. I was determined to become the willing and eager student that I once was 20 years ago. I popped in a Quick Licks DVD in the style of one of my first original guitar heroes: Paul Gilbert. I played along with a couple of the breakdowns of some of my favourite licks and that's when I discovered, after playing them a bunch of times, that I really can do it. I even made another discovery: I figured out how to incorporate these licks into my own playing. They really started working for me. I could hear new songs coming out from then. It was exciting.

I feel like I have awakened a sleeping dragon. Everything felt like it just came together and my guitar playing has gotten a fresh breath of life. I'm really excited and can't wait to see just how far I can take it. If anything, I did start seeing things come together when I was learning a few Steve Vai licks, again taught my Andy. However, it really starting to take shape.

Admittedly, this is really fueling my passion. It makes me wonder how far I can take it. Who knows what kind of songs that may come out. I guess all I can say is stay tuned.

-- Posted from my iPhone... because I can

Invited, but uninvited...

Have you ever been invited to a "friend's" house with a group of your other friends? It sounds okay at first until the host invites everyone to play your favourite game... that is, everyone but you. The worst part is all your invited friends know that it is your favourite game, and they really can't do anything about it because they don't really want to upset the host and lose them as a friend. So, of course, you go away from the party feeling empty and slightly rejected. What's worse at times is the fact that you accept an invitation to the host's next party in hopes you'll gain their acceptance, and sometimes you feel like this is your only friend, even though there are other friends out there waiting to accept you. Even worse is doing this repeatedly, only to get the same result and feelings over and over again.

Discouraging, isn't it...

That's how I feel about church right now... at least the church I'm going to.

The one thing that I love to do is be a part of a worship team. I feel that I am filling out my role and serving the church when do this. It makes me passionate about serving God, sharing His love through music. In fact, I get so wild with passion doing it that at times I will almost swear that it is not me. I can't help it... that's how I understand the love of God and the passion of Christ. There are some people that will go as far as to say that this is my ministry. All I know is that it is my passion to share God's love through music.

However, this church doesn't seem to want to me to share my passion. They would rather have me get lost in the crowd. They're rather closed to anyone joining or creating a worship team and the pastor doesn't want to say anything because he doesn't want to upset anyone. For me, this is rather discouraging not to let anyone else take part in a church that claims to be a community based church. There are people that want to share their passion and are being suppressed, while those who make it seem more like a religion go up and attempt to lead the congregation.

It's got to a point where I don't want to go anymore and be a part of a place that doesn't really want me to be a part of. It breaks my heart to feel like this to feel suppressed. I know that I don't really have to go back, but it also feels like at times that I don't have any other place to go that I know I can be a part of. At this point in time, I'm unsure of what to do and only God can guide me. I definitely feel as if I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Today it all came together... for now

For some reason, today has felt almost surreal. It's been almost too good to be true, and makes me want to hold onto it as much as possible, not letting it go! I knew that God wanted me to go to our old church for a reason. On Monday, I thought He was answering my prayers when Dave called me up and asked me to play on the worship team today. Of course, it was far greater than that. Today was all about healing... and healing is what my spirit was craving for. I needed a healing from God so bad because I was down to a point where I didn't even want to go to church. I felt so far out of worship that I was demotivated, depressed and full of despair. Today, I felt like I worshipped. In fact, I felt like I worshipped like I hadn't worshipped before. I felt that I was exactly where God wanted me to be.

Everything felt so right this morning that I couldn't help myself, but to lay it all down with the worship team this morning. It wasn't any self-indulgent moment when I was on stage playing guitar and singing with the worship team. It was a God indulgent moment. I actually felt for that brief moment in time, I had God all to myself and I was playing for Him and it was almost as if I could feel Him tell me, "It is good!" I couldn't help but let it all out! I needed to because my heart was crying out so badly. And, it all felt so right.

Then came the word on healing, and the pastor was talking about spiritual healing. That was something that I needed to hear so badly. Obviously God knew that because He picked the day that I would play on the worship team. There was just so much that I was going, "Yeah! YEAH!" inside. I knew I needed prayer so badly, and I was almost afraid to ask my other friend, also named Dave, to pray for me. But, I knew I had to do it because I needed it. After he was praying with some other people, I went up to him and asked him if he had "one more prayer for me?" I told him a bit of what was happening inside of me and we prayed as I burst into tears. I was so glad he was there.

My day feels so complete, but I guess I'm sometimes scared of it coming to an end. After all, tomorrow it won't be our wedding anniversary and next week, Margot and Cassidy fly back west and, of course, the stresses of life will be once again upon us trying to drown out today's important message. Not to mention that "the enemy" always seems to have a way of turning my butt into a dartboard. I know that I must keep my eyes on Mark 2 this week because that's where got our lesson about healing. I guess, if anything, I want to hold onto that feeling... the one where God says, "It is good!"

Small is Big

I know this is probably not news to many people I know that have been doing audio engineering for as long, if not longer, than I have. Heck, it's not really anything new to me. If anything, it's more of a revelation, really, on what I already knew but perhaps never wanted to believe. I sort of had my revelation while working on a soundtrack for a major client and was going through some amp models to find find the right sound for a lead guitar part. If anything, it big sounding models didn't cut it for the lead. I tried many of them, including Marshall, Diezel, Engl and Mesa Boogie stacks. They sounded big, but that bigness was falling short in the type of tone that I needed, thus feeling small.

Then it hit me: some of my favourite lead tones were from albums like Led Zeppelin II and IV, and the thing that hit from those albums was that Jimmy Page mainly used small amps like a Supro Thunder. Thus, I dug up an amp model of it on my POD and it was perfect. That little amp sounded so big in the recording that I wound up pushing a bunch of things out of its way so it could carve its way right up the centre. I couldn't believe just how good a small amp can sound. Even a small amp model, especially since I don't know where to even begin to look for a Supro Thunder. I find that leads cut better on a smaller amp model, than a bigger one.

Yeah, it's nothing new because even when I used to deal with my ol' reels almost 30 years ago, I would close-mic my little Traynor combo because it sounded so monster in sound on tape. My stack never cut it, and I new back then that my combo was my main amp for recording guitar. If anything, it hasn't changed with amp models. I used a small Vox, Matchless and Supro in this project and they all worked in it because they sounded big. Even the Vox model gave me a U2-type sound that all of a sudden gave me a larger than life feeling when I played. It's probably a sound that I will use more often.

Big stacks have their place, no doubt. Heck, I used a couple of models for another recording in the rhythm guitars. However, the leads needed that bigness that I could only get out of a smaller type of amp model. Hopefully, I'll pay more attention to this revelation, so that I won't have to go through it all over again. All I need to remember is: the smaller the amp, the bigger the sound.

Too Perfect to be Random

In everything I have seen in my life, I truly find it extremely difficult to believe in pure coincidence or random acts, or, worst of all, luck. I have been in way too many situations that many would just resign to say "what were the chances of that happening?" Even worse is hearing, "that was lucky!"

I just don't believe in random or coincidental acts. They happen just too perfectly to be random. They're at just the right time and place.

Let's take the songs on my iPhone for example. I can put it on shuffle and yet the right song comes up at just the right time, when I need it most. Whether I need to be encouraged, consoled, motivated, or just to be still, it's done at the most perfect time. I find it hard to believe in a random number generator that knows which song I need to hear. The song just didn't pop up by coincidence.

Or what about my recent gallstone examinations. Were it not for them, they wouldn't be finding other things that may require dealing with, that may have tried to slip by undetected.

I can name other examples in my life but there are way to many to name.

It's these kinds of thing in my life that point to the existence of God! There really is no other explanation. Everything that I have seen happen in my life is just way too perfect to be random.

-- Posted from my iPhone... because I can

What if...

What if some of the things in this world we think we want aren't what we really want? We walk into a store with our hearts racing and our thoughts clouded, determined to go buy the thing we think will ultimately make us happy, only to find once we finally hold it in our hands, that the chase was better than the catch. The feeling dies as if someone just poured water on your fire. Did I really want it, when I finally realized that the power to get it was right there?

It doesn't stop at things you could buy. What about jobs? I'd often think that what if what I believed the ideal job came up. I'd probably jump on it right away. Funny enough, the so-called ideal job popped up in my mailbox. That's when I realized just how much I really enjoy the job I have and I honestly don't believe I am going to find any better or more ideal. Aside from doing the things I enjoy, I'm learning new skills and growing. What I had thought in the past was better pales by comparison.

It's funny to me that I have had all of this power to "do", and yet I find great joy right where I am and with what I have? Is it possible that I have discovered the secret to contentment?

-- Posted from my iPhone... because I can