So here are my musical goals for this year. Most of them are in the form of musical projects:
- Doing February Album Writing Month and 50/90 again. I've done them every year since 2010, and I can't imagine not doing them. Currently, I don't have any specific plans for either, but that may change as they get closer. I've been playing around with the idea of not using guitar for FAWM like I did last year, but I haven't been able to fully convince myself to do it yet.
- Continue Hymnal Habitation. I started this project at the end of 2012 in an effort to re-familiarize myself with musical notation. Every week, I record a hymn. I chose hymns because I'm fairly familiar with most of the melodies (which makes reading the notation easier), and I have a few hymnals (which makes acquiring notation easy). I've gotten better at reading notation, but I'm still not as good as I'd like to be, so I'm going to continue the project. And even aside from the goal of familiarizing myself with musical notation, the project gives me a reason to actually employ that skill and a reason to consistently use my mandolin.
- I'll also be continuing the Verulam Cover Project - my foolhardy attempt to learn all of the songs by the Zombies and the other groups that the members formed after their break-up (so far, I've expanded this to include only Argent and Colin Blunstone's solo albums).
- Because this year is an even year, I'll be listening to all of the music in my collection again. I've done this every other year since 2008. This year, however, I finally have a name for it: Collection Audit. I'll probably write a few posts about this throughout the year. In many cases, I end up discovering new things about music I haven't heard for a long time or about music that I'm not very familiar with yet. Currently, I have 1240 albums, so - in order to get through them all - I have to listen to about four albums everyday. Last time, I think it was only three albums a day, and I finished in August, so I shouldn't have any problem with this.
- My big project for 2014 is limiting myself to only acoustic instruments for half of the year. I'll do this until 1 July, when I'll add only my electric twelve-string guitar. Fifty years ago, it was 1964, and when the Beatles came to America, they started a trend in electrifying folk music. I'd like to temporarily remove that influence and stick to acoustic instruments for a year. I've made a concession for my electric twelve-string though. Partially because I haven't used it very much and would like to rectify that and partially because of the influence of Roger McGuinn (and to some degree Paul Atkinson - my twelve-string matches the one he had). I'm interested to see how the Collection Audit affects this project. I've been imagining my hearing something done with electrified instruments and then trying to copy it only with acoustic ones, but I'm not sure if that will actually happen. I should also note that the acoustic limitation does not apply to the Verulam Cover Project or any covers that I do (usually when I do covers, I try to stay faithful to the original instrumentation); it applies only to what I write.
I'd like to release some more music too. Currently, I have ideas for two albums that I'd like to release before the year is over, but I'm not going to make any promises.
In any case, I'll keep working on music and continually endeavor to get better at it. I get more excited about music and all its various facets than I do anything else.
