John Wicker.com

I was doing pretty well on last weeks list, and I was already making some mental notes about what to move on to for this week.

John Lennon said that “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”, and truer words have not been spoken. On Friday morning, a personal issue came up that was problematic. On Saturday, that personal issue became one that was potentially life-changing. I will be posting about this here but I’m holding off so that I can get a handle on everything, and so that I’m not making continuous updates that go back and forth in a frantic attempt to keep things up to date. Full details later, I promise.

So for right now, dealing with the Problematic Personal Issue will be my thing to do for the week of June 15th.

I’m posting my list of things to do here for a couple of reasons— first, I want to share what I’m working on so that you can get an idea of what I’m doing, what my priorities are, and so that you don’t get the idea that I’m just writing a blog about being a musician and not doing things to go out and be a musician. Secondly, if I make my Things to Do list public, I am creating a deadline for myself… I find that if things I want to accomplish don’t get a specific deadline, they can tend to be pushed back on the list of things to do until they find themselves off the list entirely.

Another thing about posting things here is that it will give me a focus for the week. I can get sidetracked when I’m working on my music projects by working on different parts of the project than what I should be working on. I justify this to myself by saying that I’m still working on my music, but it limits my actual output. For example, I was working on a new design for this site this weekend. I looked up an image that I want to include and when I had trouble finding it, I realized that I need to re-structure the orginization of some of the files that I’ve saved. I wound up spending more than an hour juggling files back and forth. I’ve made things easier for myself moving forward, but I still don’t have a new design ready.

So here’s what’s on my list:

• Complete a first draft for the new design for this site.
• Acquire the rest of the source music I want to use for creating demos.
• Watch The Zen of Screaming and begin practicing some of the techniques there.
• Write at least one major post for the site.

Why this stuff?

I want to create a new design for this site for two reasons:

1. With a design in place here, I can begin working on my other marketing materials (business cards, press kits, etc.). I want to create a consistent feel for all of the stuff that I’m using with my musical career, and that look and feel has to start somewhere.
2. The design I’m currently using is a readily available WordPress theme called Elegant Grunge. It’s nice, and I like it, but I want my site to be something unique that truly reflects my personality as closely as possible.

The importance of creating a demo is fairly obvious, but that single thing constitues a lot of little steps. I’m obtaining source music for the demos because that’s a smaller step that moves me closer to a larger goal. If my plans as a musician are a big project, this list represents smaller steps that will get me there. Breaking a large project into smaller chunks allows me to focus on the particulars and move the project along.

I can play guitar when I’m up in Indianapolis, but any kind of vocal work is pretty much out, and I don’t know anyone up here to jam with. I feel like I don’t pay enough attention to actual rehearsal and practice time as a result of this, so watching The Zen of Screaming and working on some of that material might make a big difference here. I came across it
in a music store and remembered reading about it a few years ago. I scanned the back of the DVD and decided to take a chance on it. The important bit that caught my attention was that it stressed using healthy vocal techniques. I’ve watched the first twenty or thirty minutes and I like most of what I’ve seen thus far. I’ll post an in-depth review later on.

And finaly, updating the site is pretty much a no-brainer, isn’t it? 🙂