I have a hard time keeping up with all of my class notes and that definitely hasn’t changed since I started college classes a few weeks ago. I take a lot of notes on my laptop during class but then some classes don’t allow students to bring laptops because they’re such a distraction to everyone around students using them.

I’ll admit that it is all too tempting to IM my friends during class because it just looks like I’m typing to my TAs and professor at the front of the lecture hall. But that’s making keeping up with all my notes a little hard. So I’ve been backing up all my notes on Google documents with hughes internet satellite just in case something happens to my computer or the files on it. I’m also using satellite internet michigan to compare notes with my friends and make sure that we’re studying the right things starting now just in case we don’t figure out that we’ve been overlooking something this whole time when we have a study group the night before midterms.

Knowledge of music copyrighting pros and cons should come easily to me for several reasons.  The first reason is because I went to school to learn all about music production and the music business. Secondly, my husband is a professional musician and has been for as long as I have known him. Though he does not make a lot of money from his playing, there are certainly times when the extra money adds up quickly. He has been in a variety of bands, and I have learned a lot about what is right in what is wrong.

One of the first things I learned a bout music copyright was something that I already knew. Just like any other creative endeavor, a song, or even a melody, is under copyright the moment it is created. There are legal steps you should take however, to ensure that your music copyright is upheld. Even though you may have a copyright on your material, there are still many ways people can steal your music from you. Those who freely share music online without the artist benefiting from it are in breach of almost every music copyright law there is.

Perhaps the problem began with how people think about music. They can hear the songs on the radio for free, so they just assume that the music is free. If you worked in a factory and created machines, cars, or any other type of gadget, you are creating something in the same way a musician creates music. The company you work for would not go out on the street and give away everything you have made for free, and a musician would not want to do the same thing either. When you go to a concert you pay an admission price, and when you buy an album you are buying the songs on the album.

Music copyrighting means that the artist is protected. No one can reproduce and give away or sell their music without their permission. Fans don’t realize that when a copy a CD, or share music files online, they are breaking the law. Music copyright protects them and says that if there is a profit to be made they are the only ones that should be making it. It also means that if you make an illegal copy of any song or album you are depriving that musician of a sale. The next time you copy a CD, think about music copyright and remember that even know you may not get caught, you are not doing your favor artist any favors.

Think back to the time when your interest in playing guitar was born. Remember the time when you got your first guitar and actually started playing it. For most of us, even when we were totally beginners, clueless about how to play anything, it somehow didn’t matter because we were just so excited about beginning our musical/guitar journey. I can remember the exact day I bought my first guitar (January 31, 1986). I was extremely excited about owning a guitar and banging around on it making all kinds of terrible noises at first.

That feeling most of us felt at the beginning of our guitar days is what I call “Fire” or “Inner Fire”. It is something like the first weeks and months of a new romantic relationship – very new and exciting and the desire to maintain that passion feeling is strong. But over time (weeks, months or years), that passion to play music weakens. Of course you still have at least some interest in playing and becoming a better musician, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.

What I hope to do here is help you to get back your fire (or if you still have it, I want to help you to never lose it). The most important thing you must do is recognize what the factors were that caused you to feel less motivated and excited about playing music. Over time, some players begin to feel inadequate in their ability to reach their goals. A more common factor for some is not really having clearly defined goals or a good strategy to reach them. Its important to remember long term goals are LONG term. As long as you work to move forward, you are progressing. If progress is slow, understand this is normal. Of course there are things you can do to dramatically speed this process up such as practice more, practice more efficiently and work with a really good teacher that can show you how to do improve faster.) Other people become too focused on getting better and lose sight of why they started playing (to play and/or create music they love!). Keep reminding yourself of why you wanted to be a musician in the first place. Besides simply thinking about your early playing experiences, go back to your roots and listen to the same CDs (or cassettes or LPs (if you are old enough to have any of those). Listening to my earliest influences always reminds me of my early music days and I just can’t help to feel that eager beginner feeling again.

I’ve mentioned some of these next few points before in a previous article, but it’s worth mentioning again here.

Find out what truly inspires you to want to play music, write music, jam with your friends, etc. Whatever it is for you, go there and marinate in that inspiration. Get your mind in that place and focus on it. Many classical composers (and other serious artists) go to artist colonies for weeks or months at a time. For them being in a beautiful environment with serious artists of all kinds is extremely inspiring and a great place to write music, practice, reflect among other things. Personally, I like to travel to Europe in the summer and do most of my serious composing there. There is a house I stay in overlooking a valley with large trees and beautiful sunsets. It is very inspiring and I always do my best creating there. Your inspiration may be musical (listening to some great players, bands or songs. It may be going to concerts. It may be a set of things that are totally nonmusical (like a special location or being around special people, etc.). You must find whatever it is and go there, you might be surprised at how fast you feel that burning desire to really play more, write more, to be more.

NEVER EVER compare yourself to other musicians! If you sit around and think about how much better of a player you are compared to your friends, this will probably only lead you to contentment and will steal away your drive and fire to improve. If you think about how much your friend (or any other musician) is better musically compared to you, this often leads to feelings of dissolution about your progress and your goals, which also can lead to a lack of motivation and fire.

When you began playing guitar, how good would you have to be in order to be happy with your playing? And where are you now? When I was starting out, I thought if I could play Iron Maiden or Metallica songs, I would be happy for rest of my musical life! Of course the time came when I could play all those songs, but I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would when I first made my goal. That is because, before I even reached that goal, I had already set new goals. These new goals were good for my progress, but I made the mistake of never really appreciating and enjoying the success of reaching my earlier goals. I robbed myself of the pleasure of feeling happy about my hard work paying off. Of course by now I have learned that lesson and do thoroughly enjoy each new goal that is reached. It is my hope you will learn that lesson now and not after several more years of playing guitar.