I don't know if any of you have ever run a marathon (I certainly haven't), but as 2024 comes to a close, it feels like I've completed a year-long marathon, topped off with a 60-day sprint.
It has been a challenging year, personally and professionally, but despite the challenges, I feel optimistic and excited for the year to come.
2024 started with a trip to the NAMM show in Anaheim, where I caught up with some of my online guitar friends, including Jeff McErlain, Brett Papa, Buddy Blues, Marty Schwartz, and others.
That trip was immediately followed by a bout of COVID-19, my first. No sooner had I recovered than my father-in-law started having serious health problems and passed away a few weeks later. We had his memorial service in early March, and then... unsettling calm.
With a trip, COVID-19, hospital visits, and a funeral behind us, I got to work developing the TXBA Jukebox. This tool makes it very easy to preview the licks, rhythms, and solos taught in all the free lessons and courses at TXBA.
Sometime in early June, I decided to do a "quick" course on the song Little Wing. That "quick" course "quickly" turned into a much, much larger project that consumed the last half of the year.
In August, my brother-in-law passed away suddenly, and my wife had to plan her second memorial service in six months. Despite the sadness of the occasion, we were able to hold the service in the amphitheater outside the TXBA Barn. It was another reminder of how blessed we are to live here and how lucky I am to have this barn for my studio.
In September, work on Little Wing Deep Dive intensified. That work continued through October, and I set a deadline of Thanksgiving Day to complete the entire course.
That's when the sprint began. My memories of October and November are a blur of recording, editing, and publishing. Section 5 (soloing) and Section 6 (Hendrix embellishments) were both produced within the 45 days before Thanksgiving. Those two sections account for six of the ten hours in this course.
After a short break over Thanksgiving, it was right back to the sprint. For the past year, I've been publishing weekly lesson challenges for our TXBA Locals members, and it was time to package those lessons into courses that people could buy.
I spent a week tracking down poorly organized videos, tabs, and backing tracks. In the end, three courses emerged: Lick Of The Week Challenges, Rhythm Of The Week Challenges, and Exercise Of The Week Challenges.
With two weeks left in the year, I tackled one final project: migrating my entire streaming video library (1500+ videos, 1.2TB of data) to a new video hosting service. My video hosting contract was coming up for renewal in January, and I anticipated a price hike (that seems to be the trend lately).
About two months ago, one of my online teaching buddies was in a similar situation, so I recommended a new video hosting service he should check out. He made the switch and cut his streaming costs in the process. That was all the motivation I needed, so I began tracking down and organizing 16 years of course videos and uploading them to the new service.
This whole process took less than a week, and integrating the new video hosting service into the TXBA Pro Player took less than a day. It was so much easier than I anticipated, and it was a wonderful way to end the year.
That brings us to today, December 31st. In some respects, this was an extremely challenging year. But in the middle of those challenges, I was able to produce a course that pushed my creativity and teaching ability to the limits and forced me to improve my craft in every way.
So that's my 2024 year in review: all the highs and the lows, and everything in between.
Thank you for your support this year. Whether you bought courses, joined the Locals, commented, or even just watched, I appreciate it. This strange career isn't possible without each kind of support, and I don't take you or your time for granted.
Anthony