I've almost completed all my goals for 2011. I've been racing to finish one instrumental song, and I just wrapped up most of that today. I practiced nearly every day (other than when I was on vacation), I learned 11 jazz standards, worked on technique and rhythm, and continued working on sight reading. I did a lot this year with music and I'm exciteda about 2012!

Off to a good start with 2011 - still practicing almost daily. Continuing to work on sight reading. My other goals are to be able to solo over Giant Steps (which will be a giant step), to improve at chord tone soloing, and to complete one instrumental. So far so good...

I had two musical goals for 2010: learn to sight read, and practice every day (within reason, but try to get in at least 15 minutes). I achieved both! It's amazing that as busy as I've been with the baby, all those 15 minute blocks add up. And a lot of times I'd get a lot more than 15 minutes because I didn't initially want to practice, but once I sat down I got into it and kept going. I made a spreadsheet to track my time and here are the results:

Averaged 4.42 hours/week
Averaged 0.64 hours/day (38 minutes)
Most practiced in a week: 8.57 hours
Least practiced in a week: 0.83 hours
Only 38 days with no guitar at all (which includes an 8 day out of town vacation over Thanksgiving where I couldn't bring my guitar)
136 days with one or more hours of practice
32 weeks where I practice all 7 days.
232.91 total hours of practice.

I posted a template of my tracking spreadsheet for 2011 here. It's in Excel format - download and try it out. Feel free to modify to whatever suits your needs.

I'm still working on narrowing down goals for 2011. I've got a few things in mind:

1) Continue working on sight reading - specifically, be comfortable reading the higher registers

2) Be able to improvise a cool solo over "Giant Steps"

3) Work on chord tone soloing, and learn to keep the chord progression going in my head as I solo

4) Complete one instrumental song

5) Continue to practice every day

Iv'e been really busy between work and the baby, but I'm really trying to practice at least a little bit every day. This is the year I learn to read on guitar. So far so good...

Great news today - the radio talk show host Thom Hartmann sends a daily email with information about his show, current events, and some highlights from his website. Today he highlighted my song "Ain't No News On TV" in the Community Square section.

Go listen to the song and tell Thom how much you like it!
http://community.thomhartmann.com/_Aint-No-News-On-TV/audio/546773/93519.html

You may need to register, but it's worth it, I promise!