James Lee Stanley

As this past fifteen days for me has been hospice for my father, his funeral and also the thanksgiving weekend, for which I am always the shopper and the cook, I didn’t practice my guitar very much.

Nothing like the daily routine that always recommend to everybody, but still, as a rule, I practice because I want to be able to do what ever I want on that guitar.  

And I sing everyday because I want my voice to be fluid and completely available to me.   Consequently, I try to maintain a practice routine.

But I never realized, on a number of levels, how valuable a routine could be to your very life.   Yes, your guitar could save your life… or at least your sanity.   Okay, your practice routine could save your life or your sanity.   Really.   And you don’t have to choose one.   It could save your life and your sanity.

By doing as much of my routine as I could, it really helped me to get through a very difficult and emotional time. 

There are times when you don’t feel like it; there are times when you feel like “what’s the use?”    There are times when nothing seems to matter.

And it’s during those times that a routine can be so invaluable because the habit of it brings you to it and through it, no matter what your emotional state.

It turns out that your routine can actually save your sanity; help you maintain control at a time when it feels like you have no emotional control.

It also will help you with your own self image by having a practice routine, because as you practice, you get better and the better you get, the better you feel about yourself.

And the more you have a practice routine in place the closer you are to becoming the artist that is inside of you.

I was watching an awards show that included many celebrated artists.   Some of whom inspired me in their youth.  They all sang songs that had made them famous and the songs were still as wonderful as they ever were.  

The disturbing thing to me was how badly many of them sang or played.

This is so mysterious to me.   If you play and sing all your life, shouldn’t you be better than you were, not worse?   At least until you become so old that you are physically incapable of doing what you once could?

But no matter what, doesn’t an artist keep working towards a goal that they’ll never achieve?   So what happened to all these icons?

No routine…obviously.