Every morning as my wife is getting ready for work I am in the kitchen making breakfast. As I'm finishing up both my wife and son come into the kitchen and we sit down to eat together. Afterwards my wife leaves for work and I begin to clean up while my son either watches one of his shows or plays. I grab my coffee and sit down to do my daily reading. I read for about 30mins and then pick up my guitar.
"Dad, can you get me some milk?"
"Sure bud."
I put the guitar down, get the milk, and then I pick up my guitar again.
"Dad, I'm hungry! Can I have a snack?"
"Not yet. You just ate breakfast."
I turn on the metronome and begin running through some scale patterns.
"Dad! Is it snack time yet?"
"Not yet. Just wait a bit longer"
I start back into running through some scales and arpeggios. 10 minutes have passed and I'm a roll.
"Dad, come here!"
"What's up bud?"
"Put the guitar down and come here dad!"
"Coming!"
I put down my guitar and walk into the living room. My son is pointing at a toy commercial.
"I want that! Let's put it on my Christmas list"
"You sure do want a lot of things."
"Yeah, I know"
I return to my guitar and begin to do some spontaneous improvisation in order to get back into a musical mindset. After a bit of improv I realized that there are some weaknesses I need to address. I begin to work on making flowing musical statements over dominant chords that move by half steps. Everything coming out sounds horrible to me. Then I begin to develop some interesting lines. Maybe if I try...
"Dad! Come Here!"
I put down the guitar and realize that in the last hour I've been able to get in about 15-20mins of practice. I begin to think that maybe i will be able to practice uninterrupted later. I quickly realize the humor in that statement.
