TAYLOR ROSS™|MUSIC

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I'm getting into the swing of things.

I've been trying to accustom my body to 7 hours of sleep instead of 8 - it's one more hour I could be working or improving, or anything other than sleeping - but my body is fighting back because of the run that I went for the other morning (which I haven't done since before I was an EMT). It forced me I made the conscious choice to sleep for ten hours last night, so I woke up well after 4:30 and began the day already behind schedule. 

I read in Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland, that artists sometimes find themselves wondering why what they are doing just isn't working, and they suggested resorting back to the time and place, and HABITS, of the last time they can remember being productive. This applies just as well to my physical experience, and since apparently there's a sleep gene, I'll accept and adapt instead of trying to force getting less sleep. Red lights on and screens off at 6:30, here we come.

I was however able to accomplish my fundamentals; writing, meditation, yoga, bike ride, and spent some time making art. I played my steel string guitar (the one I started playing on at age 9 or 10; my father's guitar. It's a Taylor too) trying to come up with some chords that sounded half like Bon Iver, or Radiohead. Mostly though I just worked away practicing the conducting of my TTT/BBB work, Psalm 23. The more I practice and edit the piece, the more I find myself becoming lost in it; this is good, for an artist.

I've been having my doubts about the direction I want to take my music. This, combined with the always-crippling fear of maybe never making music like the artists that I admire the most (SPOILER ALERT: I never will, and thats just fine - and even the point) it's been giving me some stress. I think I'll figure it out though as long as I show up and keep doing the work. (Experimental pop-classical album to the scope of Bernstein's Mass?)

There's never enough time in one day. It takes consistency and grit to get anywhere, with anything. I'm convinced that this is where most average people falter - not in skill or in talent - they get bored. But I'm in love with tenacity and boredom, and with whatever time I have - I'll be there.

See you tomorrow.