NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS - 2024! 
Happy New Year, tonebuddies!
As we step into a new year, it's time to reflect on our journey with the guitar. We all know how challenging it can be to set and stick to our musical goals throughout the year. Often, attempting this journey alone can lead to unfulfilled aspirations.
This is precisely why I've initiated this thread – a dedicated space for every member of our tonebase community. Here, you can share your guitar-centered New Year’s resolutions and find support and encouragement from fellow enthusiasts.
How to Participate:
- Share Your Goals: Post your guitar resolutions for the upcoming year.
- Update Your Journey: Use your post's sub-thread to keep us updated on your progress. Feel free to share videos – we'd love to see them!
- Engage with Others: Read through others' resolutions and contribute by offering advice, encouragement, or simply a word of motivation.
Thread Guidelines:
- Stay Organized: Please keep discussions within respective sub-threads. Create only one post for your resolutions to maintain the thread's clarity and ease of navigation.
- Respect for All: Remember, our community is diverse, with members of varying ages and skill levels. Let's support each other without boasting or feeling intimidated.
- Non-Participants: Even if you choose not to share your goals, your insights on others' posts are highly valued.
Now, I pass the baton to you! Share your aspirations and let's embark on this musical journey together. Here’s to a year of growth, discovery, and shared success in our guitar endeavors! 
-
Let me start by sharing my goals for this year:
- Prioritize Practice Time: I aim to make time for practice, especially in the mornings, to ensure a consistent and focused approach.
- Build Concert Repertoire: I plan to continue expanding my concert repertoire, delving deeper into both familiar and new pieces.
- Release Singles: A significant goal for me this year is to release a few singles on streaming services, sharing my music more broadly.
-
martin Thanks for sharing these Martin. I'll be working on my goals over the next weeks or so - great session with Ashley (Ash) Lucero yesterday on goals was very helpful too.
-
I am retiring on December 31st in order to pursue my music journey. In 1 1/2 year (at age 60), I will qualify for free tuition at my local university. The dream is to obtain a bachelor’s degree in music with guitar being my main instrument. Until then, I will be working hard/smart every day to ready myself for the entrance audition. (Schedule attached)
-
Charline Gaston You’ve put a lot of thought into this! I look forward to hearing about your successes throughout the year.
-
-
One of my guitar goals is to share in some tonebase discussion groups and participate in one of the enticing challenges. A mini goal will be to create some time-efficient, effective and musically satisfying warm/ups.
-
My Goals:
1. Schedule my practice time instead of random guitar sessions
2. interact more with Tonebase in general and my Practice Log in general
3. Complete the 10 Sketches lesson and utilize the practice log.
Thanks
-
For 2024, I have set the following goals:
- Strengthen technical skills: In particular, I plan to focus on Abel Carlevaro's School of Guitar and accompanying four Cuadernos to work on improving my left-hand technique in order to reduce and/or eliminate left-hand string noise and to develop a wider range of timbre and color of my right-hand strokes.
- Carlevaro Repertoire: I plan to continue my journey through Abel Carlevaro's body of solo guitar works. Over the last two years, I have worked on more than 50% of his solo guitar compositions and hope to go through his entire solo repertoire over the next couple of years. For 2024, I plan to finish his major guitar sonata, Cronomias and to work on three of his major Estudios (No. 1, 2, & 4) that he wrote in homage to Villa-Lobos.
- Other Repertoire: I also plan to work on Agustin Carlevaro's arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's "Serie de Angel."
-
I already covered this subject in my practice diary. In summary my goal is to the level 2 and 3 of Tonebase with some additional work as described in this document. In order to be successful, I will have to choose from these pieces when I will participate in Tonebase challenges
-
I also have covered my goals in my practice diary. Here is a summary of my goals:
1. Improve my playing technique in playing classical guitar by continuing with the instructions I am learning on another site as well learning new repretoire.
2. Improve my musicality by completing some Tonebase courses. Topics may include dynamics, legato, muting, articulation, etc.
3. Do more video recordings of self playing guitar and posting them as appropriate.
-
Jim King Here you go Jim. Good plan. Happy new year and I wish you to be successful in your guitar Journey
-
-
As I am more partial to playing music transcriptions that were originally meant for other instruments, I learn the importance of music theory when we are going through the music. My teacher will immediately know what note is important or what note can be sacrifice. It made a huge difference in terms of how the music would sound, whenever I compare the my initial fingering with my teacher. Holding a note of cutting a note fraction longer, shorter can make a world of difference.
So this year,
1. Music theory - I'll probably pick up piano course using the ABRSM curriculum as a way to learn that with some aural training.
2. Bach cello suite no 1 - It is toughest music I ever learn, constant movement. I've started that with the Prelude and Allemande and this year, i want to finish the rest.
3. Smarter practices with less tension - I injured myself and was out for a period of time (still recovering). I would create short sessions of measures that I have difficulty and practice them on repeat for 5-10 mins then next one. This was not ideal for me as the repeat of a difficult passage for 5 mins even can cause huge tension.
Not to mention, it can have a demotivating effect. So this year, when I can play again, I will try max 2 bars of music for each section, and no more than 2 mins. and play them as softly so to not introduce tension.
-
don I wish you a fast recovery and success with your plan for 2004
-
Andre Bernier Thanks Andre, I've recovered but now taking it slowly. Hopefully back into full swing of things soon.
-
-
again, my goal is to play relaxed, I practice in front of a mirrow because I often do violence to my left wrist. Thanks to Dale I study some of Carlevaros fingerings at pieces I love and try to move without tension. I try to change my lifelong playing with tension into easy moving and calm hands. I hope it is not too late, I keep working on that. Now I start some new pieces, Roman wants me to play Weiss, and my plan is, to keep my left hand relaxed....mirror...Carlevarotechnics....looking forward to that
-
Happy new year everyone. My resolutions.
1. Improve technique, especially scales, which I'm not very good at.
2. Improve my understanding of music theory, about which I know very little.
3. Improve my reading skills, which I've been neglecting too much.
4. Learn a few pieces on my wishlist like Cavatina, La Cathedral.
-
Greetings, friends
I am new to Tonebase, and I am very happy to have found it. These videos are opening my eyes to so many aspects of playing that I have never considered.
My goal for this year is to find one or two kindred spirits who would like to visit with me online to play pieces for one another and to talk about how we incorporate the details of fine playing that we are being introduced to. My plan is to agree on one or two pieces—maybe very simple ones!—and then meet to play them for one another and share challenges and insights as we engage with them.
I have been playing for over forty years. I started in college with a few years of lessons, and since then have been mostly exploring the repertoire on my own. I am hoping to find another pilgrim such as myself who wants to carefully explore and absorb some of the exquisite ideas that are being presented in these Tonebase videos.
Please contact me here if you feel that you may be interested in such a project.
