I miss coffee

Hello internet jazz/music junkies! It's been a while since I've written anything on the internet and decided it was time to remedy that. Lately, I've been trying to keep my ears to the ground, so to speak, trying to absorb all that I could musically. In the process, I have renewed my itunes account, mostly thanks to @redraspus (check out his web page and twitter. impressive). Through this I have acquired a lp that I am truly impressed and amazed by. Maurice Brown released a cd recently named "Cycle of Love". I'd call it jazz fusion but that wouldn't attempt to describe it accurately. I'd say it's r&b - jazz...maybe?. It's definitely worth a listen. I'm not gonna review the whole thing here though. It just proves that there is a lot out there and you just have to be looking for it. Fortunately, that particular recording just kind of fell into my lap.

Anyway, the reason I'm on my quest for any form of inspiration is because I've been trying to "evolve" my sound. In trying to become a better performer, I can't let myself get bored or comfortable so I push myself to listen to something different everyday. Itunes, youtube, facebook, twitter, last.fm, pandora; these are all means to an end. The end being me learning something and applying it in performance. I hear some musicians say,"I want to get better but I have no idea what to practice now. I have reached my limit here, or with this particular instructor. I'm the best I'm gonna be." That's just wrong. First, don't stop pushing to be better. Go out and find something that challenges you. Go out and find someone that sounds way better than you and ask them questions until they tell you to go away or until you've learned all you can. I learned something earlier this year. As soon as "you" say that "you can't", you won't. It's a defeatist state of mind. I get down on myself all the time. You wouldn't believe how many times a day I say that I suck or I need to be practicing right now. It's okay to kick yourself sometimes as long as you believe that you can always do better. I like to keep it modest too. I'm not the "I'm totally better than you" type. I'm more like the "I'm gonna be as awesome as I can be" type.

Also, I think I learn even more in the time where I'm not practicing physically. I practice in my head a lot. It's that thing that trumpet players do when they're fingering there notes on trumpet, without a trumpet. It's kind of sad...and awesome at the same time. It's the time where I don't have to think about holding my horn. It's when I want to hold my horn and do something about the notes pouring out of my head. It's when I hear something and I want to play it but I'll have to wait until I get home. Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with music. It's tragic because I haven't been able to practice as much as I want lately. I just started a job and things are starting to get busy. I'm just going to have to wait for things to settle down a little to get back into a groove.

Wow, this post went all over the place. Next time I'll try to keep it simple and to some kind of point.