Even in Australia—where days come earlier than they do for most other countries—it is still August as I add the monthly guitar riff video challenge article to my website. I’m therefore eight months in to a still, somewhat, monthly video challenge that is being met. Just by the skin of my teeth.
I really should brush my teeth more often. Tooth skin is just disgusting.
To the August video content!
One of the reasons this entry is so incredibly late is that August seemed to be an absolutely mentally draining month for me. I had to withdraw from the other challenge I’d set myself this year—daily photos on my Instagram account—and every time I tried to create a new riff for this monthly riff challenge I failed. Terribly. I was hitting mental block after mental block. Those mental blocks can be amazingly tough to break through it seems.
As it turned out, this month’s entry somehow came about after one riff after another failed to hit my own mental marks. I don’t have amazingly high expectations for myself and my riff creating ability, but I don’t want to just throw out some random and overly lame riff in attempt to say “Nailed it!”
Lame is OK. But overly lame … that’s gone too far.
So after trying hard and failing, I ended up simply playing guitar while watching TV—something I rarely do. I don’t know if it was the boredom or the mental distraction, but the guitar parts you see (and hear) in the embedded video below are the result of not trying so hard.
What did I take from that?
Don’t play the guitar while stressed if you’re trying to be creative. Don’t get me wrong, I can play some pretty decent heavy metal guitar when pissed off or stressed. But creating something new that I’m seemingly proud of … That requires a different mental state. Perhaps one that would be better suited to attempting this monthly challenge a bit earlier in the month. The “Ah! I’m not going to make my own make-believe deadline!” pressure is not helpful in the creative process. Not for this spring chicken. That reminds me. I had some seriously good KFC for dinner. Maybe it’s a creative amplifier. Maybe I’m tired. Who knows?
Not me. Enjoy the riff.
\m/