About

These are my field notes from the edge of something I don't fully understand yet. Every week, I sit with the instrument and wrestle with it. Occasionally, it sounds pleasant. I write down what I learned and share anything of value. Something that sparked a connection to my instrument, the breakthroughs and the failures, the techniques that unlocked something and the ones that didn't, the songs I woke up to and the songs I listened to at midnight that made me want to be better, and most importantly: the art of skill acquisition later in life.

This newsletter is for the outsiders and the late starters. Those who are wired differently, but think clearly. When the world turns bland, we turn towards beauty and the noble and deeply human act of making music—a small, stubborn act of being human in the age of the machine.

Every Sunday, I send you seven of these ideas or insights, which I call sparks.

Just honest notes from someone learning in public, refusing to pretend otherwise, because real things have edges that cut through noise to send the signal.

Not a tutorial. Not a masterclass. Not content.

I am not ahead of you. I am not a guru surveying the terrain from some distant peak. I am in the trenches, figuring it out chord by chord, Sunday by Sunday, and sharing it with you.

I hope you'll share what you know, too. Write me a letter. This is meant to be a conversation between people who still believe those are worth having.

Potius sero quam nunquam. Better late than never. — Publilius Syrus, Roman writer, born a slave, who knew something about arriving late and leaving a mark.

James ☯︎

P.S. Keep practising...