What was I going to write about? Oh yeah.......I'm kinda scatter-brained. My focus needs more focus. It's not that I am simply distracted by shiny, new things, I'm distracted by lots of things. And when it comes to music I want to do it all.....and I want to do it well.
When I was in my early 20's I played folk/acoustic music and was a singer. I wasn't great as it, but I was okay. If music was in technicolor my voice would be beige. Even worse though, was that my voice wouldn't hold up through 4 sets of singing. By the 3rd set my throat would hurt so much I could hardly finish a cigarette. Clearly some changes were in order.
So I quit singing and focused on playing guitar. But as much as I loved a variety of music I decided to concentrate on classical guitar. With classical guitar I could simply follow the notes on the page without trying to write or arrange. Also, classical music honestly moved me more than any other music.
I've spent my adulthood nurturing that notion. I'm casually interested in many things and. altogether too often, allow myself to stop doing what I'm doing to follow a new path. Like a dog that finds something new to sniff. Not for a moment or two, or an hour or two, but a day or two......or even a week or two. Google is a form of crack to me. There are so many things to know.
I know people who suffer from some form of ADD or ADHD. I used to wonder if I have it. I don't think I do. I'm creative and disciplined in my art (other things not so much). These distractions are a form of therapy and offer a respite. The studio can be very confining and most of my practicing is done in quiet solitude. My practice schedule is defined by the requirements of my clients, students, and (most recently) my church. Sometimes the job forces me to look for stuff in my music library or through the drawers of loose papers in my file cabinet. Like a dog digging a hole, I don't notice the mess I leave in my wake. Sometimes my office/studio looks more like a crime scene. (Hmmm.....maybe a chalk outline on the floor?)
All of this used to make me feel inferior to the rest of humanity. Now I realize that it's a gift. As a child I didn't take care of my toys very well, and I'm afraid my treatment of this gift has been a little shabby too. But it has allowed me to become an effective teacher and to occasionally council a kid on the privilege of being different.
So I return to practicing, right after I look something up, and read an article online, and watch a YouTube video of someone else playing the song I'm learning which, of course, will lead to a 30 minute video watching frenzy. I may be thought of as peculiar by some, but I hope I am not a bore. I believe that to be interesting you must first be interested.