New Year's Resolutions 2011

New Year's Resolutions are always a bit silly. If one was really resolved to do something, one would be doing it already, no? So the best resolutions are just solidifying goals one is already pursuing. In that vein:

1) I'm working on my musical playing. I've played guitar and mandolin for a few years and have just picked up the fiddle as part of a project (White Mountain Murder Circus) with some friends and members of Free Toaster Media. We've written about 8 songs as part of a song cycle, and are planning to record at the end of the month. Moreover, I want to push my musical skill to the next level. I've just read Drive and Talent Is Overrated and so I'm focused on developing specific skills through deliberate practice. Hot Licks For Bluegrass Fiddle will help me with improvisation, licks, reading music, and general tone, rhythm, and technique, but I'm also pushing myself to transcribe music and looking into taking classes.

2) I want to read more. I just got a Kindle and I love it. Last year I set a life goal of reading all of Time Magazine's top 100 novels; I read seven last year and I'm now at 29/100. The Kindle will help me make even more progress.

3) Continue the blogging. I really focused on bluegrass music in 2010 so I'd like to continue that specialty. I averaged blogging more than once a week; I think I can average 1.5 / week in 2011.

Good luck to all of you and any resolutions you may have.