Hey all.

As expected, practice was spotty throughout July. I picked a bit for the first two weeks (beach weeks) and gave a lesson by the swimming pool while I was at the beach (if only I could teach by the beach all day ).

Back home from the beach, I crammed hard getting ready for Nashville and then while in Nashville, practiced about 2-3 hours a day (in addition to rehearsals and class time). We did a Steve Vai song, "For the Love of God", and that was a beast.

While in Nashville, I had the privilege to take a private lesson with Johnny Hiland. This guy is awesome beyond words, and a kind soul as well. He spent about 15 minutes talking about his picking style "chicken pickin", scalar runs using open strings and exercises. Great guy! Check out his website at http://www.johnnyhiland.com/ and pick up his CD. Awesome!

Now that I'm back home, I'm going to get back on the consistent bandwagon with a regular routine. Based on my work in Nashville, I'm going to tweak my goals a bit to work in some new techniques and lead ideas. More to come in the next entries.

See you later.