Photos courtesy of Roger Evans.

Orithani with Steve Vai
Damn! Could she be the guitar hero for the 21st century?

Impro-visor
A nice freeware alternative to Band in a Box

Not Playing Guitar
A great blog with lots of stuff to read when you’re not playing guitar.

James Taylor’s 2010 Carnegie Hall Series
I’m sure this will be a great series, I hope it will be broadcast.

Bear’s Battlestar Blog
Composer Bear McCreary blogs about the process of making music for film and television.

John Coltrane Interviews
I was just made aware of these gems. Very interesting to hear.

The Guitar Student Journal
A motivated adult student blogs about his progress studying the guitar.

Do less, but do it better.
Generally speaking, I don’t want to take on many new adventures this year. What I do want is to dig deeper and do a better job with all of my projects. I often feel like I’m bouncing from one thing to another and unable to really give my best to a single project. Whether it’s practicing, performing, teaching, or writing, I want to singletask more often and give it my all.

Record regularly.
I absolutely hate recording. I feel that there’s always something that could be better. Whether it’s my performance, the environment, or the limitations of the recording equipment, I can nit-pick a recording to death and I just need to do it and evaluate the results later.

Develop more solo repertoire.
Over the past few months I haven’t added as many new pieces to my solo repertoire as I’d like. I’d especially like to step outside of the jazz idiom and add some more pop and original pieces.

Look for new performance opportunities.
I do perform locally often, but a few things I’d like to do include: set up a regular weekly or monthly gig that I can depend on and advertise, look for opportunities to showcase myself alongside other local musicians and students, and maybe even seek out some more out-of-town gigs.

Maintain a better relationship with my current and past students.
Often, I only connect with students at their weekly lesson. Although I never harbor ill feelings toward students who decide to stop taking lessons, keeping up with my all of my students through an occasional encouraging email might mean a lot. There’s no reason for people to stop working on their own or to be disconnected from studio announcements.

Exercise regularly.
The main benefit of working out for me is that when I work out regularly, I feel better and more alert, and I have more energy to devote to the rest of my day. If I follow through, I’ll surely shed a few pounds too, but the endorphins and extra energy are what I’m really after.

Volunteer at Dogtown.
Just dreaming, but my wife and I really admire the work of Best Friends Animal Society and have never visited the anywhere near Utah. It would make for a great vacation, but the question is is it fair to kennel our dogs for a week so we can go halfway across the country to help other dogs?

Got any good suggestions or resolutions for 2010? Let me hear about ‘em.

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The disclosure statement will be permanently accessible via a link in the footer section.