Ideas...

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I revisited my musical goals yesterday and it was a good thing. The basic areas are still the same:

1. Repertoire - learn as many jazz standards as possible (melody and harmony). The Real Book has been VERY helpful with this. So has the internet. NOTE: I need to post a blog on the tunes I would like to learn and the ones that I have learned.
2. Sight Reading - this one is fuzzy. How much time do I spend here? How good do I want to get? Spending too much time here means less time for other goals. I don't think I will ever need to read A Vista, but I would certainly like to be better. I am currently working out of Arnie Berle's 'New Guitar Techniques for Sight Reading'. Too bad this one is out of print now. It's very helpful.
3. Composition - I would like to take some of my original compositions and record them for posterity. I also have some etudes and small pieces that I have written (think Leo Brower's Simple Studies here). I would like to collect these together and finish the unfinished ones.
4. Technique - at one point, I wanted to do sixteenths at 144 bpm. I think that is still a good goal and I would like to do it. However, I have been reading some Tom Hess articles and I think that he is absolutely correct. To play sixteenths at 144, the sixteenths will have to be absolutely perfect at 50 bpm. Slow it way down, economy of movement, waste nothing. I have also been a long time fan of Troy Stetina's 'Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar'. I don't think style matters so much here. Technique is technique.
5. Play what I hear - be a better improviser.
6. Play over changes - this is best accomplished with goal 1. I think that learning tunes - both melody and harmony(chords) will be incredibly helpful with this. This also ties in w/ goal 6.
7. Play with other musicians - this is a tall order with my time constraints and responsibilities, but not impossible. It will also get easier (I think) as time goes on. There is a Columbus Jazz Society (Columbus, GA) and the music department at the local university (Columbus State University) has a jazz studies department. These could eventually be two good starting places.