Tuesday, January 20, 2009

sometimes, progress marked and expressed in beautiful metaphors

my guitar teacher complimented my playing at our lesson the other day, observing that i'm no longer soloing "like [i'm] trying to get out of prison."

i feel like i tend to have on and off days when it comes to improvising expressively and effectively, and i think that i happened to be on an up day in this regard, though i will allow that the on days seem to be coming along a little bit more frequently. i was really struck by how easily that off-the-cuff analogy came to him, and how increasingly apt it seems as i think more and more about how i've sounded whenever i am deliberately trying to impress (the act of simply identifying those times represents a different but equally valuable path of learning).

i love that music is evocative to the degree that such symbolism can ring true on such a deeply innate level.

2 comments:

l.roser said...

Does that mean soon you won't be able to play "Jailbreak" with us anymore?

jomilkman said...

nah, though it bears mention that i'll be replacing my usual "jailbreak" solo with a note-for-note rendition of the one from "freebird".