christ, 2009 already?

Yeah, yeah, New Year, resolutions, whatever.

There are a few I could make. Stuff about eating healthier,¹ exercising more,² taking better care of myself, getting out of the house more, attempting to socialize more...

You know what? Fuck it.

I don't really care about any of that. What I really ought to do is sit here and practice trombone until I either become a successful musician or burn out in the attempt. To hell with everything else.

Everything I do should be preceded with the question, "How will this make me a better musician?" And if I can't come up with a concrete, cause-and-effect answer, then maybe it needs to go... or at least be put off until after 10:00 PM, when I can't practice any more for the day.³

There's a New Year's resolution for you.

"But," you may ask, "what would you be changing then?"

Isn't it obvious?

I need to practice more. Clearly I have been slacking off.

Seriously, though... can anyone definitively prove that mental health is necessary to being a good musician?

I want to see charts. And graphs.

1. which probably involves more than one meal a day[↩]


2. actually doing okay on this, but only because I need the extra lung capacity[↩]


3. And I should be listening to recordings as I do it, which means I need headphones.[↩]