I can’t pay my rent this month, and I’m not sure I will be able to pay it next month. I’m not currently working, though I had a good interview with Berklee a couple of weeks ago. Damn it, I’m really stuck. I wish I wasn’t as depressed as I am since this is what is jamming me up.

I don’t really want to think too much about it. Let me write some more about music to take my mind off my troubles. I practiced my guitar scales this morning, and I haver been practicing the piano a bit over the past couple of days. Let me riff a bit on the piano and guitar.

Piano: Continue working on Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, learning tunes until I have them memorized. Continue also with Wittlich’s & Martin’s Tonal Harmony for the Keyboard, since this fits nicely with Bartok’s books (at least the introductory chapters do). Practice Haerle’s shell voicings and II/V phrases, but don’t spend too much time on them. With Haerle’s book I should take a long-term approach to learning the chords. With Bartok, though, there is some great benefit in both practicing and analyzing the exercises since each piece is also a little compositional gem; it’s interesting to see how a master approaches his subject from a pedagogical perspective, particularly since he wrote these pieces for his son to learn how to play piano.

The Tonal Harmony for the Keyboard book is very interesting in that it helps the student to imagine musical harmony not as a separate discipline, but as one tied directly to the keyboard. This is one of the things that was missing from my study of harmony, ear training, and counterpoint while I was at Berklee - these subjects were taught separately, and without reference to musical practice. I wish I had had the wherewithal to combine these subjects myself. Ultimately, in my opinion, these subjects should be taught as one course, combined with the rudimentary study of the piano. That would have created a more holistic sense of music rather than the atomized approach I took.

One thing I could do is go back through my Berklee harmony and ear training materials and play the exercises on the piano and/or guitar. Combine this with the Bartok and Wittlich & Martin materials to write my own book on learning tonal harmony.

Guitar: Continue working on the bottleneck stuff, learning to play chords and scales in open-G & open-E. Notice that the D, G, and B strings of open-G are tuned the same as standard tuning, making it possible to play triads and chord fragments in the upper-middle register of the instrument.

Continue also with practicing scales and arpeggios in standard tuning, getting back some of my technical fluency. I should be able to play scales in all keys with a creamy smooth technique. Try practicing scales in 2- and 3-string groups so I’m not stuck with having to visualize the entire 2+ octave forms that I learned at Berklee.

Learn phrases from guitarists like B.B. King, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, etc., and play them in different keys. Once I have learned these phrases, see how I can begin to add some jazz tones to them and see how the phrases fit with jazz changes. Also, check out Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, etc. and see how I can fit their phrases into a standard blues context.

Play the fuck out of the instrument. Quit being such a dilettante. If I want to gig at all I need to be able to solo and hold down the rhythm. Ultimately, I would love to play in a blues band like the ones I used to see when I was in college. That has long been my ambition in terms of playing out.