I’ll be writing quite a bit about perfectionism and procrastination, because they are intimately related and play such a huge role in many aspects of life, not just guitar playing.

Here’s what I do. I’m a bad guitarist. To me that means I just don’t pick it up enough, even though I love it more than is healthy for a wooden object to be loved. So while I’m doing the loathsome things on the list I mentioned, I’m often daydreaming of - you guessed it - playing guitar. So riffs pop into my head, but sometimes I’ll be singing them in my mind for days, weeks, months, or even years. If they’re good enough they’ll stick. If I worry about forgetting them I sing them into a mic, or even use the record function on my mobile phone. The riffs have so much time to ferment and grow, from fiendish spectres to evil leviathans, that when I get around to playing them, they are mostly done.

Another thing I pick up from interviews is that my heroes’ best songs are the ones that just flowed when it came to writing them. If I love a riff I’ll spend time on it. If it’s too hard, or I’ve really gotta think about how it’ll work, it just hasn’t fully fermented yet.

Also, when I play, I’ll be honest, I’m imagining myself doing my very own thing in front of people who are on my musical wavelength. All musicians borrow from eachother, so I don’t care if I sound like the stuff I like, isn’t that partly the point? The most important thing to me is that when I’m playing I get a buzz from what I’m churning out, and that I’m tailoring every note to my number one fan - myself.

Bill..

I have tried to add an “edit comment” function for readers here, but the current plugins are not compatible with Brian’s threaded comments. I tried hacking it but it was too complicated for me to figure out in 30 minutes. I’ll try again one day when I have plenty of time and have learned more php.

You know an hour from now my reply might be quite different.. OR.. an hour before..

Anyway, after you push the “send reply/comment” button it’s all too late.. It goes on forever.. You can’t take it back.. I’m not so sure if it even got published.. Is a reply to those blogs supposed to be instant?

The more I think about it… the more I think it’s what’s got me to this “Tracker’s Block”.. ?

Bill..

[EDIT]
That’s what I said on another message board before I posted it here, and after i decided to post the same comment here..

I started doing a bunch of experiments to learn the programs.
Prior to that,i would watch tv and widdle at the same time,but almost never came up with ideas.

Since i’m single,don’t have much to take care and not a gamer,those programs became kind of my “Playstation” and the tv got gradually neglected and is now,most of the time,turned off.

Speaking of being envious,i’m quite overwhelmed by your computer/internet knowledge,and anybody who keeps his place in order is giving an example that i have yet to follow…