My relationship with A has been growing deeper; as we spend more time together and have more conversations, our trust in each other increases. It feels really good. I appreciate how we’re both clearly putting effort into our relationship.

Today, in my performance class, we played a punk rock song. For the solo part, I played single notes, and the teacher didn’t like my solo. The heavy rhythm that anchored the song suddenly “disappeared.” The teacher said I should’ve used a “Chuck Berry-like” approach, and the drummer instructor recommended checking out the band Rancid. Wow, my approach was completely off this time, which left me feeling a bit frustrated.

This morning, I practiced diligently for three hours to prepare for class, and after returning in the afternoon, I practiced for over an hour more. It’s been a long time since I’ve pushed myself this hard (I need to reflect on that). Since November 3rd, I’ve been keeping a “routine test” sheet on my desk. Writing down my work progress like this seems to make my thinking clearer and provides a more visual representation of what I’m doing.

It’s pretty helpful. It reminds me of an important concept from the Zettelkasten note-taking system: writing is thinking. Thinking only happens when you write it down; if you don’t write, there’s no thinking.

In the afternoon, I attended the “Birds of a Feather” LPW (Live Performance Workshop). I haven’t gone to LPW for three weeks and felt a bit guilty, but I think I needed this downtime to adjust myself.

Professor Ziff played “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish. He’s 71 years old!

Spent some time hanging out with the girls in the LPW. In the evening, I went home, practiced my guitar, and did some reflecting. Later, I met up with A for a little chat 🙂 Then headed to bed. Another normal day in musicians institute 🙂