Refresh Your Guitar Skills

Acorn Street in Boston!

*Normally I use all guitar-y type pictures, but since I am writing all about refreshing yourself as a guitarist in this blog, I wanted to use pictures from my recent trip to Boston. This trip left me feeling totally inspired and excited to come back to playing guitar! 

You know what is a feeling I weirdly love?

When I’ve had a bad day, my husband always suggests something fun to take my mind off it. This usually leads to us playing with kittens at the animal shelter, eating nachos, and then sitting on our apartment balcony with wine (kinda like the two old people in the notebook). And ya know what? This almost always works for me! It helps me put things back into perspective so I can keep doing what I love with joy and excitement. I think the thing about this process or these types of days that really refreshes me is remembering I am not alone in this, that what I am feeling is normal for everyone, and it reminds me to lighten up a bit! 

I think guitar playing should be this way too. I’m not saying that any time you aren't getting a lick or song down go eat some nachos (in that case I would eat like my weight in nachos every day), but instead you can be kind to yourself in your thoughts and have patience when you aren't getting something immediately. 

The biggest thing I have needed a refresher on lately hasn't been playing guitar so much as doing my blog/ Instagram. Since it's grown a lot in this past year, I have made so many new friends from Instagram, learned a ton about video editing and blogging, gotten better at teaching, had some amazing opportunities, and learned way more on guitar. I have been so thankful and it's truly been the most exciting time of my life!

However, I have also had to learn how to shake off negative comments. When my Instagram was smaller, I was able to have a really good read on who my followers were and it was a tight community. Since it's grown, I've gotten a lot of new IG friends, but it's also opened to doors to some rather mean comments from random accounts. I never really pictured this happening, since I originally started my blog as a way to encourage guitarists to feel comfortable in their own skin and stay in love with playing guitar. Most all of my interactions with people are really positive, but we all know sometimes that every now and then mean or gross ones can put a damper on things. Even though I know this happens on Instagram, it hadn't happened to me before and I found the negative comments really did hurt.

Knowing that God has a purpose for me though, and having all the encouragement from my friends, fam, and hubby has made me think that what I am pushing toward is really worth it. This has given me a newfound ability to shake things off. I'm obviously still learning, but it's been an amazing lesson that I'm really thankful for, because it gives me an ability to be confident in myself and not worry about pleasing everyone. Also using the ole "block" button on Insta is handy too :).

My recent trip to Boston also helped refresh me and I'm really excited to be back to everything (and that it's almost Fall!). You may not have this exact kind of discouraging moment, but I think we all face things sometimes that make us worried we aren't cut out for something. 

This blog is going to be about celebrating you and pampering yo self so you keep loving guitar and keep staying excited about learning new things! Here are my tips for staying inspired:

1) Remind yourself It’s ok to be where you are now

It can be really easy to start getting annoyed with yourself when you aren’t getting a lick or song down. I almost never think about all the licks and experience and time it took for that guitarist to work up to writing that part. Remembering where you are and having no expectations of what you will get down that day makes it easier to not give up because you are focusing on learning, and not on feeling like a failure if you don't get the whole part down the first time you try. 

2) Do a physical activity

If my fingers won't move as fast as I want them to, I get this feeling of being trapped in my own body. Weird, I know! But going for a run or walking my dog just to reset and clear my mind almost always helps! 

3) Remember who needs you

Last month I auditioned for this country band and when I got there, I immediately realized I was not going to get this gig. My look was not even remotely similar to the vibe of the other players, and from what they guy was saying, I could tell I wasn't going to really thrive in that type of band. I didn't get the gig and moved on with my life! This month, I got to play with one of my friends who's creating a new EP. I had played on her last record and she's just an amazing human. We totally get each other's visions and she is so complimentary of my playing style. If something doesn't work out for you playing a gig, playing in a band at church, or playing on a record you want, remember there is absolutely another opportunity coming. I love the quote by Hillary Scott "One door closing, is not all of them closing."

I hope that these 3 simple tips are helpful and I would love to know your thoughts on this below! 

Write here… 

Play Something For Me!

Me in my new fav Led Zeppelin tee I just got at Forever 21!

Unless you JUST started playing guitar, you've probably had that moment of panic when someone randomly asks you to play something on guitar. Not for a show or with a singer, but just some on the spot noodling. It's can be scary because like are they just asking me this so they can judge me? Cause I don't want that one tiny bit!

I remember being in a music store when I was in 7th grade with my dad (who's like really really good at guitar) and the store owner handed me a guitar to see if I liked it. Rather than it being this fun experience of seeing if I actually even liked this guitar or not, it became an experience of " How do I even guitar right now. I don't remember Smoke on the Water after playing it 8749834 billion times!" Not too fun. So I'm pretty sure I just noodled around real fast, sounded not great, and then everyone moved on and probably never thought about this once because they weren't actually even focused on me or this playing test I had created in my mind. 

Because I so don't want this feeling of panic to come over you everytime you are asked to "play something on guitar" I wanted to give you some tips I have learned over the years to make this experience fun rather than pressuring! 

1) No one is thinking about how good you are

Whenever you start getting in your head about playing, thinking about why you started playing in the first place is always helpful. In my case, it was because other people's guitar playing and music really spoke to me and made me come alive. I wanted to be a part of that and give that gift to someone else. Keeping that in mind, it's not really about me or my performance, so if I do play really bad, it's not going to ruin my mission to communicate something meaningful to someone else at some point. It may be embarrassing, but I can get over that (I do lots of embarrassing things everyday so nbd! Like I literally have a glow in the dark retainer (eighth grade me never really thought I would get married) that I have to wear like every week! So probs couldn't get worse than that! ). Also in the case of trying testing a guitar at a music store, those workers hear like a million terrible players everyday and probs are immune to that by now so they are the last of your worries! 

2) Keep it tasteful

Practice a few melodic licks that are tasteful and work around chords that keep a nice melody going. Keep in mind you don't even have to be Steve Vai to be a good guitar player, so don't worry about shredding the fastest licks you can! Think more about making a little song with your licks and playing.

3) Be prepared!

(I was thinking about Lion King too!). If this is something that makes you nervous, practice licks/ songs that work in these situations. That way, you'll always have some nice little melodic guitar licks in your back pocket for when people put ya on the spot!

I hope these are helpful little tips for you and I would LOVE to know your thought and if this happens to you below. Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to learn about and thank you so much for reading! :)

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Tiny bb Steps Toward Your Guitar Goal

I recently moved to a new apartment and was going through a ton of my stuff I needed to organize. A lot of it was old papers that I scrambled down random to dos/ goals and such, but what was interesting is that all my ideas were little fragments of me inching towards what I am doing now in drastically different ways.

For example, at one point I decided to start this Etsy shop where I made jewelry (it wasn't ) and no one (who wasn't a friend) bought anything except for one random person in Australia who bought literally the one thing that wasn't jewelry in my shop (it was the pouch the jewelry came in). I learned from this that maybe I wasn't going to be jeweling it up as my destiny (I also didn't like working alone very much), but I did love the process of setting up the shop and marketing. Something as small as that gave me a bit better idea of where I wanted to be. 

Choosing a career path has always been something I've thought about a lot and it's always really intimidated me because I literally just didn't know what I wanted to do. But now somehow I've ended up piecing together the things that make me happy and, though I have no idea how this year will look, it's one of the first times I've felt like I'm on exactly the path I want to be. 

I wanted to share with you my top tips for accomplishing what you are really wanting to do with your time. As everyone has probably heard, S.M.A.R.T goals are a big thing and I think they are totally awesome in tracking and making a plan for doing something. But I think what will actually make you follow through on your goals, is making your goal something you completely believe in, care about, have always loved, and is true to yourself. 

For me that's always been guitar and I got to the point of creating a business around my passion by lots and lots of tiny goals I kept trying (and sometimes failing) to do. 

So here are my tips for you if you are in the stage of wanting something big for your year and just needing a little help working backward with how to get there!

1) Say no a lot

I hate saying no to things! I am a classic ENFP who has a million ideas and can potentially have no follow through if I don't create structure for myself. I've gotten a bit better at this though and realized the only way for me to do what I want is to prioritize my time and say no to other things. You also might need to say no to making other goals as well and just focus on one or two things you really want.

2) Make your work fun

I've had certain goals in the past that I didn't ever do because I think in my heart, they were never THAT important to me. Choose something big that's your real dream and matters to YOU.

3) Don't compare yourself

Other people are in completely different places than you in their guitar playing, songwriting, music career, or knowing what they want to do at all. So put on your blinders and work toward your own goal! No matter how much faster or "cooler" someone else accomplished the exact same goal that you have, you have something unique to contribute with the specific way you will accomplish your goal. Also as great as Instagram is, don't use it to measure your success. Social media is not a good place to go looking for self worth and it is not an accurate mirror of how you are doing as a guitar player. Before I started my guitar Instagram, my husband and I had a woodworking/ interior design business that was a total blast, we got a lot of clients, and we only got to 300 followers. 

I hope these little tips were helpful! To really help you get to where you want to be next year with your guitar playing, I made you this 2018 Goal Planning Sheet! I've included spots for you to fill your your own playing goals and a ton of fun ideas you can use to figure out what might be a good challenge for each month! 

Navigating the Music Industry with NSAI

For those of you who don't know, NSAI stands for Nashville Songwriters Association International. It's an amazing organization whose mission is to "committed to protecting the rights and future of the profession of songwriting and to educate, elevate and celebrate the songwriter and to act as a unifying force within the music community and the community at large."

 I met Morgan through a group through my church that was focused on the workplace. We all bonded through it and Morgan was just getting her new job then! I got to catch up with her recently to talk about her advice for all you who may be interested in working in the music industry or becoming professional songwriters!

Something I love about Morgan is her ability to put one foot in front of the other and try something new! There have been so many times that all my thoughts will well up and create a barrier that keeps me from trying something new - the things I want to do seem impossible! If this is true for you too, keep reading!

Recently I heard the phrase “Just because one door closes doesn’t mean they all are closed.” This is so true, but sometimes discouragement can stop us from trying to go through other doors. I wanted to do this interview with Morgan 1) because NSAI is such an awesome non-profit company I wanted you all to be able to learn and benefit from it, and 2) I wanted to share the encouragement from Morgan who is winning in both her career right out of college and her positivity toward life!

1) How did you land such an awesome job in the music industry right out of college?

Internships! Morgan believes getting internships is entirely possible without getting a degree in something music related, or being in school at all. Turns out, offering to work for free isn’t as hard as we all thought! Nashville is filled with buzz-phrases like “it’s all about who you know,” which can make getting your foot in the door more intimidating if you don’t know a lot of people yet. Morgan, a college student at the time, wasn’t surrounded by a huge network of people working in the industry (yet) and started simply, by going to the websites of companies she admired and emailing them. The majority didn’t even require her to be a student! Slowly companies began saying yes to her requests for internships which eventually lead to the job she has today! 

2) What made NSAI stand out to you?

NSAI is unique in that it’s the only business on Music Row that has an open door policy to songwriters (most have some kind of security set up to keep people from dropping by to pitch their music unannounced). The company only has about 12 employees (the majority female) and they help everyone form the just- moved-to- Nashville-a- week-ago writers to the long time pros looking for new co-writes. It’s only a small price for the mentoring and connections its members receive, and it helps them with one-on- one career coaching, setting up co-writes, pitch-to- publish practice, and meeting other people in the exact same spot they are.

3) How much of a role does confidence play in becoming a songwriter/singer songwriter?

Believing in your music will go a long way in getting you to try new opportunities like walking into NSAI or setting up a co-write. It takes a lot of time and dedication to become a professional songwriter. Since there are fewer jobs in general in songwriting and music publishing, publishing companies have to be a lot more selective and almost all music industry professionals“date” songwriters before officially agreeing to have them sign a deal. My personal advice to sticking out your music industry dreams? Really figure out your why and the people who need your songs- it will help sustain you through the tough times, especially knowing that you have a bigger purpose than just getting a publishing deal. Morgan also says you have to feel out when it’s appropriate to have your confidence shine though, as some Nashville musicians can toot their own horn a little too much and turn people off from wanting to write with them!

4) What is your personal advice for someone wanting to pursue a career in songwriting?

Write with EVERYONE and ANYONE! It takes practice to be a good songwriter and to get a publishing deal; you have to have a strong relationship with the publisher because the industry is so much more about writing great co-writes and consistently coming out with great new material than it is writing one good song that will get famous. Also write with people on the same professional level as you. Morgan says

" In high tide, all boats float," 

meaning you will all help each other be successful! Often, people think if only they could write with a hit songwriter, then they too would be seen as a hit writer. In reality, a lot of publisher and labels will instead assign the credit for why the song is great to the hit writer, rather than you as well. So try to get out there, write with everyone you can, have A LOT of endurance (the kind that lasts for like 10 years), and enjoy the process and writing rather than just trying to write hits!

I hope this was helpful for you! If there's anything you want to know more about, contact NSAI here! Taking you as always for taking the time to stop by and read!