Music:

Last year was a banner year for me musically. At the beginning of the year, I set a personal goal for myself of being able to get up and play on stage with some of my friends at the various bars in Boston. This goal was set to try and get me playing my guitar more and really getting better at it.

I accomplished that goal many times over. I played at The Bell, Hennessey's (multiple times) and DJ's. I played with various bands and even solo once. This was great for me.

The other big thing that happened musically was that some friends and I started a band. It was rough going at first, but these days, we are really starting to get somewhere. We played at 2 parties at a friend's house, which were fun, but a bit of a mess at times (I've seen the video, so I know :). The big accomplishment was we actually played a real gig in a bar a few weeks ago. Huge deal for all of us, now we just gotta keep it going.

This year, I have a lot more plans for music. I really want to spend some time and perfect my sound, which means picking up a bunch of pedals, a pedal board, etc etc. I've got a bunch of ideas on what to get, now I just need to save up some cash and get it all set. I've already got one pedal coming this week and then it's going to be a game of ordering the rest of them.

In the same vain of the music geeking out, I also want to try and get some level of a home studio together. Nothing too major, mostly my mac and some other stuff. A keyboard/midi controller and some mics (instrument and vocal) are pretty much all I need here. Oh, and an external HD to save all the work I hope to do.

Once I get some of that stuff set, the big goal for this year is to "record an album". Now, I don't necessarily mean some great production, professional album, I just mean something for me. The goal is to write and record a song each month. The other part of that is that I want to work with a different friend each month, so it will end up being something fun and hopefully experimenting in a bunch of different types of music.

As for the band, I'd really like us to get good enough this year to be playing out regularly. This is a big goal in a lot of ways, but I think if we can really work hard, we will be able to do it. It would be great for a lot of reasons (not to mention a couple of extra bucks here and there), so I really hope we can accomplish it. I have the contacts, so I think if we can get up to speed, its something that's doable.

There are a couple of other things in the back of my mind musically as well. I'd like to take vocal lessons, but not sure if there will be the time or money for that. I'd also like to really learn a ton more songs and maybe get out and do a few solo gigs. Again, not sure if that will be possible, but you never know. Never bad to have some pie in the sky type goals.

Ok, this is already getting really long, so I guess I will continue this in some more parts over the next few days....