Yes, we are starting out the week with a global shutdown, but not the kind of shutdown everyone has been anticipating.  Today users around the world are experiencing outages on Facebook and related social media networks including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.  You may have thought it was an internet connection problem like I first did until I searched online and found some answers.  Even Facebook internal communication platforms are down!

Not only are Facebook’s services and apps down for the public, its internal tools and communications platforms, including Workplace, are out as well. No one can do any work. Several people I’ve talked to said this is the equivalent of a “snow day” at the company.

— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) October 4, 2021

WHAT CAUSED IT?  From what I read, the outage was caused by a DNS (domain name server) fail.  I guess this is the naming structure that forms the web’s infrastructure!  Not the greatest for facebook as their stock has dropped 5.5% since open!  I’m sure they will get it all figured out soon…

So, @facebook‘s DNS is broken this morning…

TL;DR: Google anycast DNS returns SERVFAIL for Facebook queries; querying https://t.co/0BDgaIHmlr directly times out. pic.twitter.com/3GHJ3mW0P0

— Jim Salter (@jrssnet) October 4, 2021

THOUGHTS… At first this may feel like an inconvenience but let’s change that posture and think of this as a gift!  Fight the urge to run to another social media outlet to like Twitter, Tiktok, or Snapchat to get your daily dose of social media.  Instead take this time to unplug and work on a fun skill!  I’d like to recommend taking this blessed time to learn music or take this time to practice your instrument of choice!  If you have already started your musical journey maybe you could learn a new piece, work on a new solo/scale, write a song!  If you are completely new to music and/or just need some guidance set up a music lesson today with a teacher in your area like me!  I personally have openings and availability throughout the week including today!  So if you reach out to me, you can start playing music before the day is over.

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Recommended San Diego Guitar Tech

It’s great to officially have a guitar tech that I can recommend to all my San Diego students and local guitarists.  He is more than just a guitar tech as he is a professional touring guitarist and knows what we as musicians are wanting and needing.  As I am endorsing him please let me know how your experience is at SD Guitar Repair and if, in the unlikely case, there are any negative experiences I will personally help in remedying your situation.

About SD Guitar Repair

Offering Free Consultations!

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donvedda@donvedda.com

(760) 822-7443

Website

Guitar Basic Info

Types of Guitars:

The most common types of guitars are classical guitars, steel-string acoustic guitars, and electric guitars.

Buying Guide

What Guitar to buy for a beginner?

If you are new to playing guitar I would recommend purchasing an acoustic guitar and specifically a classical guitar instead of the steel string guitar because the strings are much easier on the fingers due to the fact that the strings are made of nylon instead of metal.

Online Resources

Guitar Tuners

First thing you need to learn before learning to play guitar is how to tune your guitar to the correct notes.  Here are a few Guitar tuners I have used.

Learning to Play

Practice Duration & Frequency

Many of my new students (and parents) ask me how long and

how often they should practice.  After being asked this so many times I’ve learned to stop giving out a time frame or even a number of days per week that they should practice music because, honestly, everyone has different schedules and goals.  I’m not going to quote a number that they will never be able to achieve because of lifestyle.

“it is better to practice 5-10 minutes everyday during the week than 2 hours one day of the week”

With that said, there is one rule I think is important when setting up your music practice routine.  It is much better to practice consistently during the week in smaller time frames than only once a week for a long time.  For example, it is better to practice 5-10 minutes everyday during the week than 2 hours one day of the week.  Why? because getting to your instrument regularly for a few minutes everyday creates a habit for the long term where as playing your instrument for hours just one day will burn you out and will not nurture steady growth in your skill level or long term habits in practicing.

How To Practice

When starting your practice routine it’s not imperative that you divide your practice time into a specific ratio.   Practice what you want or have time for and create a habit out of it.  Again, the most important part is to get to your instrument regularly.

“start out the practice with instrument exercises… then lesson material

… and lastly songs“

With my students I usually have 3 different material archetypes going on each week: Exercises, Lesson material, and Song/Piece. If you are using more than one of these as well I recommend to start out the practice with instrument exercises (scales, vocal warmup, etc), then Lesson material (theory, technique, etc), and lastly songs/pieces (rock/pop, classical, etc).  

Where To Practice

The best place to practice your instrument is somewhere you can focus on your music and not easily get distracted.  Also, as a curtesy, try to make sure you aren’t distracting others when possible.  If you are in an environment that is stimulating and distracting but want to practice I would recommend playing warmup type exercises (i.e. scales, licks, etc.).  For example, many of my guitar students will practice their scales while they watch tv.  This not only makes the practicing of scales less ‘boring’ but also can help pull the players eyes and mind off the their hands to solidify the scales into muscle memory.  After you play enough you will come to a point where you won’t really think about notes and chords being played because your hand muscles know how to play them.  When I’m playing guitar I can be playing and singing while at the same time thinking about something completely different, like what I am going to eat after, haha!