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This past Saturday, I found myself staying up until 3:30am in the morning working on the Violetta Parra piece called “Gracias a la vida”. The challenge with this piece is that I don’t have any sheet music for it, so I'm having to learn it by watching the YouTube video at half speed then annotating it on paper by hand… It’s tedious, but it’s fun and I’m getting it. I’ve been doing stuff like this since high school, just never as complex. But back to this 3:30am thing, it was

I have 5 months left… That might seem like a lot of time to people in terms of preparing for a concert but based on the learning gap and expectations I have on myself, I’m really starting to freak out. My guitar will be ready in December, and I want nothing more than to be able to play something BEAUTIFUL on it and have my pieces ready by then. That will give me another month or so to refine, and really focus on making the show itself memorable and unique. I’m glad to have

Lately this has all been a pain in the neck…no seriously, I've been getting this shooting pain at the back of my neck. Initially, I really thought nothing of it. I’m a pretty active guy, playing tennis and working out regularly, but I usually don’t get this kind of pain. Could I have just slept funny? When was the last time I had a massage? What was the cause? Hilary was quick to possibly connect the pain to the craziness of the last few weeks. “Maybe it’s because of a

What a rush! Our voting week for Telus STORYHIVE’s Documentary Series is behind us, and what an amazing experience. I’ve never felt so close to the project and felt so much responsibility to give this project everything I can. The amount of support and love we’ve received from our friends, family and even new friends has been nothing short of life changing. In the week leading up to this past Monday and the 4 voting days, we’ve gone from being a passion project whose mean

Chalk up another week of 3 hours/day of practicing!!! Yay! In between my 9-5, taking care of kids, spending time with my wife, cleaning the house, hitting the gym, and of course… sleep, I’ve managed to stay consistent. It’s all about planning the day and prioritizing. Same old story, but in practice over time is the real test. And again, just like any other muscle you are working or developing, I’ve learned that I NEED to give myself time to recover and heal. I’m getting

This has been a great week getting back on track with practicing. I’ve found ways to get at least 3 hours of practicing a day all week WITHOUT staying up too late. Remember that old routine of finishing practicing at midnight or even 1am, well it simply wasn’t sustainable. This week, I’ve got it down to around 11pm every night. Every day, I’ll look at the schedule and find where I can fit the 3 hours in and plan day by day. It’s a much more flexible approach that adapts t

Last week was an absolute grind. Fresh off the successful AFA grant notification, I literally spent almost 2-3 hours a day practicing. My nightly routine would consist of: Around 7:30pm-9pm: Get the kids in bed, work our Instagram account while I wait for them to fall asleep Around 9pm-10:30pm: Tidy up the house, do the dishes 11pm-11:30pm: Guitar practice warm up 11:30pm: Practice pieces, drilling, learning notes Around 1am or so: Go to bed I know this schedule simply isn’

I was super excited about a new technique I learned while struggling through the Albeniz last week. There is this one section that requires extended bar chord positions in my left hand that I’ve ALWAYS struggled with. It involves pressing down all of the strings at one time with one finger while the other fingers play other notes (See pic below). Even when I gig with Hilary and play for hours at a time, I’ll even get cramps in my left hand sometimes debilitating for short

I miss playing full pieces from beginning to end. After weeks of learning notes, breaking up pieces into manageable parts, drilling then repeating over and over, I really miss the feeling of musicality when you aren’t learning notes any more, and I can just close my eyes and play. It’s been a while… All this work is pretty tough on confidence because sometimes progress moves at a turtle’s pace. So I decided to record a piece I learned years ago when I first started to expl

I’ve been using my phone to “selfie-record” myself playing. The aim is to give our followers a taste of some of the music I’m learning. I’m also hoping that months from now, I’ll be able to see the progress and show that all this work is paying off. It’s funny though, you don’t normally see “work in progress” videos of people performing on Instagram. It is usually really top-level people showcasing their skill. Rarely do you see people play the wrong notes, struggle wit