A couple of years ago, I mentioned how I had been “woodshedding”. That's guitar-slang for “practicing a lot”. I've been doing that again lately. 

Once in a great while, for some reason, I get the urge to push really hard to learn new guitar riffs, techniques, songs and other things, for hours and hours on end! And in stretches that last for days, weeks, even months. I have learned over the years to always try to take advantage of that urge to be a “musical sponge”. I may not be playing any better but it sure feels like it.

That's why these postings have been few and far between lately. I hope my three followers don't mind the interruptions.

This woodshedding thing has happened maybe a dozen times since I started playing guitar at age 13. In one stretch, during the summer of 1974, I played my guitar over 12 hours a day, nearly every day (at least that's the way I remember it). I wrote about it in March of 2021 in a posting which I called The Lost Summer of 1974. I didn't know it at the time, but that summer was one of the best periods of my life; it's when my brother Jerry and I became best friends, and not just brothers.

It happened again during 2020 (see Getting Loopy in the Woodshed and It's Gettin' Deep, Folks), while we were all in Covid Hell. Very few gigs, lots of free time, and a desire to learn not only helped me to get some new skills; I was even able to record and release an album. And, it kept me me out of a straitjacket from boredom.

Does woodshedding really make a difference? I dont know; it seems like it. Besides, it's fun, so I hope the madness continues for a while longer!