Core values and issues

I think the most prominent core value to me is the sense of hearing. Music is one of my favorite things, so it becomes obvious that this is important to me. Another value is a sense of obscurity and questioning. I'm into obscure things, such as underground music (again going with sense of hearing) abstract ideas such as science fiction as well as astronomy. If I didn't want to be a musician I would probably want to be an astronomer. I'm having a hard time thinking of a third core value, but I'm thinking it would have to do with having a close set of friends.

An issue that comes up for me fairly frequently, even in my guitar playing, is also one of my core values, obscurity. I'm always looking for obscure chord voicings, scale fingerings, and arpeggios to try out and integrate into my own playing. For example, when I first started learning jazz guitar, I learned about basic substitutions such as playing E-7 instead of Cmaj7, or playing F#7 instead of C7, a common tritone substitution. Before I started getting into this kind of music, I had no idea that these chords were even used widely, and I'm sure most "shredders" who go into guitar center or wherever have no clue about them or how to use them either. I can remember one time I went there to buy strings and I ended up testing a few different guitars. It was pretty typical, a lot of loud rock and blues players. I was playing a simple rhythm changes in Bb and slowly started to add on ornaments such as walking bass, extensions, and altered extensions and most of the store went silent. I wasn't even playing loud. I guess that's the power of obscurity.