Dexterity

The transition from music to coding felt pretty natural in a lot of ways. I know I am one of several musicians who have made that transition. One thing I have tried to do with coding that, in hindsight, I wish I had done with music is embracing the idea of “learning in public.” I try to consolidate my thoughts and processes in blog posts about how I learned something, or how I did something, with the hope that I can revisit it later if I need to and save time searching the docs. (I also, not so subtly, want to show future employers that I love learning new things and don’t mind writing documentation.)

I was classically trained as a guitarist, and part of that was not presenting things to the public until they were ready. I don’t get to play as much guitar as I used to, but with the short amount of time I do play, I am trying to get around to doing all of the things I meant to do but didn’t. I am also going to use this as an opportunity to “learn in public.” The last 7 or so years of my career performing, I primarily accompanied people in small duos, so I had to cover all the parts and play fingerstyle to do so. Now, I am finally getting around to learning the bebop things that I always put on the backburner.

My personal challenge is to learn and memorize the melody, mostly by ear, as quickly as possible. I usually only have time to practice in 15-minute chunks, if I’m lucky, so some will end up being better than others. For a while, I’ll be doing Charlie Parker heads, but there may be a fiddle tune in there occasionally. I am also only giving myself a couple of days to do this; then I’ll record it (mistakes and all) and put it on my blog. These aren’t supposed to be perfect—I wouldn’t release them as a final anything—but I think it’s a fun challenge to myself.

So, here is Charlie Parker’s Dexterity. I wanted to revisit rhythm changes, since I probably never gave it the time it needs, and my picking speed is not what it was 10 years ago, but this should help. I think Anthropology will be next?