Care to make it interesting...?

I love the concept of New Year resolutions: the idea of taking stock of one's progress (or lack thereof) over the previous year, and vowing to make concrete, positive changes for the year ahead. Trouble is, such resolutions tend to be made in the state of advanced enebriation that usually accompanies New Year's festivities and are thus so wildly unrealistic that, even if they are remembered upon waking up on Jan 1, they are likely to have been forgotten (and probably violated) by Jan 2.

So for 2012, I've decided to get a jump on proceedings and at the same carry out an experiment on basic economic incentivization as it applies to my own psyche.

Viz: I propose a series of objectives to be met within the first six months of 2012 (more precisely, since the first full day of this self-wager will be tomorrow, 21/12/11, let's make the deadline 21/6/12). Should I succeed in meeting ALL of these, I will have earned the right to buy myself the super-strat dream guitar of my choice (currently, I'm favouring the Ibanez Jem, but I reserve the right to modify my preference).

1. Get body weight <= 75kg. I'm currently weighing in at a cool 80.5kg, so this represents a substantial but not outrageous reduction. Last year I managed to get down to around 78kg within about a month of abstaining from alcohol and exercising concertedly. 

2. Specific fitness metrics. It's no use simply atrophying my way to weight loss, so I'm imposing the following (body-weight-based) measures of strength and fitness:

100 press-ups

20 chin ups (easy grip)

30 tricep dips

40 lengths freestyle (no specific speed requirement, but not allowed rests longer than 10 seconds between lengths)

3. Guitar: picking technique. This is an important area that I have neglected over the past year-and-a-half of my guitar renaissance. But no more: it's time to build up a decent level of picking speed and endurance. To wit: I must be able to play 16th note scalar runs (groups of 3 and 4 ascending/descending, all positions) at 120bpm 16th notes, for 2 minutes. Currently I can probably only manage around 90bpm, so this will require considerable woodshedding.

4. Related to picking technique is metal repertoire: I want to lay claim to a reasonable set of classic metal songs. So here is a 10-song set list for which I vow to be able to play all rhythm parts (and solos where indicated) at full tempo:

four horsemen

seek & destroy

fade to black (incl. solos)

creeping death

master of puppets

welcome home (sanitarium) (incl. slow leads)

...and justice for all

one (incl. slow leads)

aces high

rime of the ancient mariner (incl. solos)

If I'm meeting the above picking technique requirement, these should be pretty comfortable.

5. Jazz repertoire: just to make sure I don't throw myself into practising picking technique to the exclusion of all the jazz material I've been learning, I'm also setting a minimum repertoire of jazz standards. No fancy technical requirements, or specific recordings: I just have to know the chords, melody, basslines, guide tones (all that Aebersold stuff) and be capable of some rudimentary improvisation at a comfortable tempo (we're not aiming to keep up with Charlie Parker here).

autumn leaves

YATAG

ornithology

minor blues

regular blues (with standard II-V-I substitutions)

something using "rhythm" changes (there are a few bebop standards to choose from here, e.g. Anthropology, Moose the Mooche, Oleo)

So that's my challenge, should I choose to accept it (and I do).

Inevitably, there's a slight bias here towards things that are most readily measurable (e.g. I've excluded things like ear-training, or flexibility). But I trust myself not to completely neglect these areas, and I think the above criteria are balanced enough to avoid any really perverse outcomes.

So here goes. With a little perseverance I may just be posting a photo of my new guitar in six months from now! I will provide monthly updates on my progress, so stay tuned... 

Opeth @ The Enmore (Dec 16)

Excellent show from the Swedish death metal maestros. A particular highlight was singer/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt's charismatic stage presence. Between tracks he engaged the audience with entertaining banter, delivered in a minimalist, dead-pan style. e.g. "On this guitar, the low E string is tuned down to D. People do that to make it sound heavier. When you tune down to D, even a shit riff sounds great... Okay, so we're gonna play some shit riffs for you now...". Also worth mention was a fantastic drum solo from drummer Martin "Axe" Axenrot.

One disappointment was the response of some rowdy crowd members who repeatedly shouted through some of the quieter, atmospheric acoustic tracks: "Play some f**king metal!". In part, the frustration of these "fans" was probably based on the fact that Opeth's latest album is a departure from their usual death metal sound into more of prog-folk-metal sound (in other words, a sound that doesn't really fit neatly into a recognized genre). Fair enough, it's no fun to see your favourite band come to band and belt out a bunch of wacky tunes from a duff new album. But that was hardly the case here: anyone who knows Opeth music knows that they've never been just about heavy music, and many of the acoustic songs were, indeed, from older albums.