The Martian

Much like Cliff, this represents my very first blog post and content contribution for our GuitarBorn Project. I’m pretty optimistic about our commitment to doing this on a weekly basis. To me it kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

1) We journal the process to help create content for the website and other media.

2) It keeps both of us accountable; we better get crap done in between posts so we have something to write about, ha ha.

For inspiration, I’ve been re-listening to one of my favourite audiobooks (The Martian). Most know it as that Matt Damon movie, but the book is actually pretty awesome as well, if not better! Both are great examples of first person storytelling. Told from the perspective of the main character (Mark Watney), what I love about this narrative, is that it is so real and authentic with little to no filtering. I want to take the same approach with my blog posts. I think it will not only make for more interesting content, but will probably be a lot easier to execute. This will give me a moment to be a bit retrospective, which I can imagine is good for me psychologically. I have no doubt that this project is going to be just as much a mental challenge as it will be daunting physically.

We have a short shoot tomorrow at Cliff’s shop. It will essentially be our very first shoot as well; another important milestone to keep the project going forward. I’m very excited to get the major foundational aspects of the project set up so that Cliff and I can simply focus on building and practicing. The rest of the week will be dedicated to picking rep, finding artists to listen to and...PRACTICING!

There are a few pieces I really have my heart set on:

Asturias – Isaac Albeniz
Nightclub 1960 – Astor Piazzola (From Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar)
This Christmas – Donny Hathaway (arrangement by TJ Taotua)
While My Guitar Weeps – The Beatles (arrangement by Jake Shimabukuro)

As I write this, I realize that, really, I don't know a thing about any of these composers or artists. I plan to include this as part of my research as I create my program.

Curious about some of the pieces I'm looking at? Have a listen...