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Random stuff today

2/28/2011

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The rain is falling here on Olde Cape of Cod today, which is pretty much what we can expect for a lot of the next 6 weeks or so. That's fine with me though because it means that that ice on the road in front of the house is melting, reluctantly. Forty degrees and raining can get pretty old but snow is worse at this time of year, for sure. It got me to thinking about what inspires songwriters. I do not possess that ability, as far as I can tell. Maybe it will happen at some point in my life but I doubt it. I do know one thing though - days like today make most folks a bit introspective and the songwriters I know have told me that it's much easier to write a down song than an up song. Forty degrees and raining certainly can be inspiring if you're inclined to write a down song!

Gordon Lightfoot is one who seems to crank out those types of tunes inspired by the depressing weather. "Rainy Day People" is one; although not about rain, his song "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" (as played by J.D. Crowe and the New South with Tony Rice) is one of my favorites, maybe because of the line about "trading off his Martin..." James Taylor's "Rainy Day Man" is a good one, although James seemed to enjoy being the title character just a little too much.... There are also some awful ones like "Rainy Days and Mondays" (which describes today....arrgghhh!!). But wait. Rain doesn't have to be depressing! "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" has a somewhat hopeful message, as does "Laughter in the Rain." Maybe it's because Gordon Lightfoot is from Canada where freezing rain is an every day certainty for part of the year that his songs about rain are always degressing!

Anyway, I'm going to look past the weather and hope that like last year we get an honest-to-God spring around here.

Random guitar stuff. I really can't believe I'm writing this but I'm just amazed at how great the Taylor 810 that I recently bought sounds and plays. It has all the bass end of almost any Martin I've ever owned, but the mids and treble end, plus incredible sustain are areas where this guitar blows away any dreadnaught size Martin I've ever owned or played. So much so that I'm going to hold onto it for a while, in spite of having a student who would really like to purchase it. Crazy, right? I am in the business of selling guitars (along with teaching of course) so I shouldn't become so taken with a guitar that I really can't afford to hang onto. Oh well!

And this coming from a hardcore Martin fan! Oh, the humanity!!


Picture
Taylor Guitars 810
Here it is. One of the most wonderful things about this Taylor 810 it is the condition. Built in 2002, there is not even the slightest mark on it. The guy I bought it from was quite sad to see it go and now I know why! Beyond that, the quality of the wood, fit and finish and especially the action are all superb. Yes, a jaded Martin fan might say: yeah, well, it has that cheesy bolted on neck and it's a blatant rip off of the Martin D-28!

You know what? I DON'T CARE! This is one spectacular guitar.

Sounds great amplified too, thanks to the K&K Pure Western pick up that Fran Ledoux installed for me. Yes, I'm pretty happy!

OK, enough gloating.

Happened to catch the Avett Brothers in concert on TV the other night. Ummm....I guess I just don't get it. They were OK but for the life of me I can't understand why they are the darlings of the retro-hippie-country-Americana types right now. I watched for about a half hour and as far as I know I heard a few of their popular tunes. Nice to see younger music fans embracing acoustic music though. I would put them in the same class as most any acoustic duo playing in any bar anywhere. Maybe that's the point? That they are accessable? To me they seemed pretty derivative and I didn't hear anything that made me go "wow" but again, I could be missing the entire point. I would welcome some enlightenment on this subject.

On a much more positive note, check this out:
Redemption Song, part of the Playing for Change project. Read up on Playing for Change. Even a rainy Cape Cod late winter day can't keep a smile from my face when I listen to this!

Peace & good music,
Gene



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Reasonable practice expectations

2/24/2011

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Right now I have a couple guitar students in what I would call the advanced beginner stage who are struggling through a phase that all guitarists face. It is rhythm related - as most issues are - and I've done my best to offer alternative practice options and most of all encouragement to help them move on. But as the old cliche goes, I feel their pain!

I make the point with all my students that the beginning stages of playing the guitar have to include a healthy dose of faith. Faith that following my directions and regular practice will help them conquer those first hurdles. In most cases they can intellectualize this but the immediate reality is difficult to ignore. They know what a piece of music is supposed to sound like, and they hear me do it at their lesson and on the CD that I always send home with them but what comes out when they practice is sometimes very hard to take.

I firmly believe that one of the biggest deceptions about playing the guitar is that from a non player's perspective it just looks too darn easy! You see someone strumming away, intent on singing and the guitar playing almost looks like an afterthought. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the playing has to become somewhat automatic but I guarantee that someone who is obviously not concentrating on their playing (in the very least, in a visual sense) is playing something quite basic and repetitive. The more difficult a piece is, the more a good player looks at his or her hands, anticipating the next set of moves and checking that what they're playing is correct. In the 1970s I was fortunate to hear the great Andres Segovia in concert and I was struck by the fact that he watched his left (fretting) hand the entire time!

Getting back to the deception of ease in the beginning stages I often put it to students this way. You can sit a 3-year old down in front of a piano and while it's unlikely he will play anything truly musical, the plunking he does still sounds like a piano. Not so with a guitar. Until a beginner applies some basic technique regarding finger placement and gains the strength required to push down the strings it is impossible to even make the guitar sound much like a guitar! This is often a hard reality to deal with and can be very, very frustrating. But that's where the faith comes in. Playing the guitar involves correct technique but in the beginning it is mostly about strength. There is nothing you do in everyday life that resembles playing the guitar so there is no reason the muscles in your hand and fingers are prepared for the strength required to press down the strings. Plus - it hurts. The beginner is quickly divested of the idea that playing the guitar is easy.

So what about practice? How much is enough? How much is too much? I am reluctant to tell my students they have to practice a certain amount of time each time they pick up the guitar. This can often lead to frustration because in our adult lives there are many other things that are more pressing than playing the guitar. If I tell a student they have to practice an hour a day and they just can't devote that much time they naturally assume that playing less is why they can't accomplish their goal for that week's lesson. This is just not the case, almost always.

What I do tell them is to remember two things. Playing the guitar is exercise, plain and simple. Doing a moderate amount on a regular basis is far more productive than doing a lot on an infrequent basis. And focusing on just exactly WHY that chord change or strum just won't seem to happen is essential. Many adults practice diligently but at some point in time they're doing nothing more than practicing their mistakes. You must ask yourself why that change is difficult: is one finger always late in pressing down? Then that finger must be your focus. It's sometimes valuable to practice getting just that one finger down, then fill in the others. The sound won't be great but between focusing on that one problem finger and keeping a steady beat no matter how it sounds will lead to getting the entire chord in place sooner than stopping to set up the entire chord, then resuming the beat. You can't solve a problem by pure repetition alone.

My own practice regimen is variable. I don't really count what I do while I'm teaching as practice although it certainly does help to keep me limber. What I usually do is set a goal of learning a new tune and then approximate out how much time I can reasonably expect to devote to it to play the thing in a performance worthy way. If that is a few hours, so be it. I've been playing long enough to know that something that seems almost impossible will come together at some point.

There's that faith again. It is a corner stone of the musical process. A beginner needs to hang onto small successes and with more time spent playing it will be easier to keep their own playing in perspective. I know that's difficult when all you hear are buzzes and muffled notes but if you focus on why those buzzes are happening and try to correct those small things the bigger accomplishments will follow.

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Playing with others - The value of getting it together

2/18/2011

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Many years ago I decided I wanted to learn to play tennis. Quite a few of my friends play and I figured it would be fun and good exercise too. How wrong I was!

To put it bluntly, I basically sucked. My friends who were much better tried patiently to instruct me in how to "attack" the ball, how to hold my arm and elbow, all that stuff. But most of the time was spent retrieving balls that flew out over the fences or into the net. It was no fun for anyone and I soon abandoned any thoughts of having fun at that game.

Later on I realized it might have made more sense to play with someone at my level. We may have spent the same amount of time searching for tennis balls in the underbrush outside the court but I'll bet the tension level would have been lower.

Fortunately, playing the guitar with others doesn't need to be stressful, no matter the level of experience of either player. This assumes a certain amount of patience on the part of the better player of course, but ultimately both parties benefit. Here's what I mean.

We can spend hours and days and weeks practicing on our own and while we may see some improvement, true musical accomplishment must be measured in terms of how our playing matches and responds to what others are playing. It's called making music. Not just playing music.

What has to be avoided at all costs is allowing that devil called ego to enter the room. I confess that in my (much!) younger days I fell into that trap. I think most young male guitar players are guilty of this. Am I "better" than that other guitarist? I think I am! Listen to this! (fanciest lick in repertoire follows)

That attitude serves no purpose whatsoever. All it does is make one party feel bad about his playing, and proves nothing about the supposedly better player because it's an ironclad guarantee that there will be someone much "better" to deflate Mr. Guitar Hero at some point in time.

Some of the most pleasurable playing experiences I've ever had involved playing with less experienced musicians. One of my dearest friends is a totally self-taught mandolin player and I treasure the infrequent sessions we have. To watch and hear him discover some nuance or musical idea because he can depend on my holding things together melodically and rhythmically is almost more gratifying than making those kinds of discoveries myself.

On the other end of the spectrum, if I'm fortunate enough to play with a guitarist who is much more knowledgeable than I am about a certain style I know the experience will have long term benefits and inspire me to tackle musical ideas that seemed out of reach.

Playing with someone of more or less the same level of experience and ability has great benefits too. Both players can stretch out and when one has an exciting idea it can easily be conveyed to the other.

I think the reason playing tennis and playing guitar with others are so different is that the essence of one is competitive and the other is cooperative. Maybe I should have been more competitive, I don't know.... But I do know that being cooperative helps BOTH participants, no matter what their level of experience.

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Thoughts about soloing

2/15/2011

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Caught a very cool movie last night on TV. It is a Hollywood bio-pic of a guitarist about whom I am woefully ignorant, named Hank Garland. The movie is called "Crazy" (not to be confused with the recent "Crazy Heart" with Jeff Bridges - also an excellent movie). Hank Garland, known in Nashville as Sugarfoot, was a highly respected studio and live performer who played with the likes of Patsy Cline, Ed Arnold, Elvis and many others. He also had a great interest and talent in playing bebop jazz and recorded a seminal album with the young Gary Burton called Jazz Winds. I won't go into the story of his life but it was quite amazing if only a portion of the Hollywood version is to be believed. Highly recommended, in any case.

His solos were things of beauty not just for the technical facility but the way they were built. I try to convey to my students who are interested in learning to improvise how important it is to construct a solo, rather than just dive in and hope something good comes out. All the great ones do that, in every form of improvisational music. This is to say, a well-constructed solo should have a beginning, a middle that gradually leads to a climax and an end.

But for most of us, myself included, this is much easier said than done. As I mentioned in my last entry, dealing with a finite amount of time is the first step. A solo that is open-ended is extremely difficult to keep from deflating at some point.

There are extremes to the amount of structure a solo can have and you have to decide whether the music you're playing requires them. For example, guitarists who play bluegrass often stay very, very close to the melody, which is sometimes based on old Irish tunes. Hardcore 'grassers can be quite intolerant of anyone who strays too far from convention. I remember when Tony Rice burst on the scene back in the 1970s that there was a very vocal segment of the community who absolutely despised what Tony did to the supposedly sacrosanct bluegrass standards. Tony was bold enough to throw in jazz, blues and swing influences, quite the opposite of what gods of the guitar like Doc Watson would do. The whole thing seems pretty silly now, with groups playing what has become known as Americana turning a lot of those tunes into bold improvisations. But back then it was borderline blasphemy!

Constructing a solo must begin somewhere and the best place is with the melody. Jazzers know this - it's called the "head." The advantage is two fold. It gives the player a basic palette of music to begin the exploration. From the audiences' perspective it makes what follows sound more musical and logical because a good soloist makes them "hear" the melody, at least for a while, even if they are not playing it all - the phrasing and sound of the melody sticks better than diving into something random.

What follows is the real fun - or terror, depending on how your chops are on any given night. A good soloist employs small peaks and valleys, ever climbing higher in intensity. Don't confuse fast or loud playing with intensity though. On a ballad or slower tune that intensity has to take the form of depth of emotion.

Finally, a peak is reached. If it's done right the peak of a solo should be some combination of surprise and logic, the culmination of everything that went before. When it works that moment can be transcendent.

Then comes the ending. It should be relatively short, to the point, and most of all, definitive. "Sound like you mean it." That's what a guitar teacher told me many years ago, and I've always remembered that sage advice. I don't always succeed but when I do, it sure feels good!

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Performance techniques: Seven Commandments

2/11/2011

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"You are there but for the grace of the audience."

I'm not sure who I should attribute that quote to, but (in my opinion, anyway) those are words to live by. We all want our performances to be memorable but all too often performers seem to think that the playing alone will make that happen. Sure, the playing has to be as good as you can make it but there are other very important details that separate the real pros from the pretenders. Here are a few.

  1. Clean beginnings and endings. Nothing says you're a well-rehearsed band or single performer more than starting a song in a definite manner and finishing it on purpose. One of the bands I played in used to have what we called "beginnings and endings practices." We would work hard on cleaning up those points in the songs we played and the result was a more attentive audience. Mindlessly noodling around and having various band members enter at undefined points doesn't do it; neither will looking at each other and hoping some other band member will stop so everyone can stop.
  2. Planned solos, time-wise. Remember the good old 60s and 70s when some records had entire sides of improvised soloing? Well, those days are gone and I'm sure more than a few music fans don't miss them at all. Sure, soloing should be a showcase of someone's improvisational skills but knowing just how long a player has to construct their solo will inevitably lead to better solos! In most cases, three or four choruses are plenty, and if you're in a band that has a few people who are capable of improvising, shorter solos are the rule. The fact is, 99% of listeners don't give a rat's @ss how many hot licks you know - they are there for the vocals. Don't believe me? Why hasn't an instrumentalist ever won American Idol? (insert gagging sounds here! ;~)  )
  3. Don't be afraid of the microphone! Lean into it. Most PA systems and the mics that are used are not studio quality so being close to the mic is essential. Remember what I just said about what the audience is there to hear?
  4. Tune up! Not while you're performing though, and not just before you begin your show. Have everyone do their tuning BEFORE it's time to perform, then put the instruments down. Few things are as annoying to an audience as a player tweaking strings during a performance. If your guitar goes out of tune during the set, tune as quickly as possible, or heaven forbid, if you break a string, it is time for a break. Even if the string breaks a few measures into your first song.
  5. Don't waste time between songs! This is a biggie. This begins with planned sets. You can go off your set list occasionally (for a request, for example) but mindless noodling and long stretches between songs are signs of a rookie. The audience is there to hear songs, not pieces of songs. And the longer you go between songs, the more likely the audience will lose interest. Drummers may be the worst offenders here - and the most annoying. The best drummers I've played with actually put their sticks down or rested them between songs.
  6. Be prompt about the start time of your performance. If you say you're starting at 9:00 p.m., make sure you do. This gets into something else, start times in general, and the current trend seems to be to start playing at 10 p.m - or later - in bars. I readily admit to being an older person who is thinking in terms of bed when some of the younger players are just getting set up, but starting earlier will sometimes encourage customers to stay longer, which translates to more drinks sold - the best way I know to endear yourself to the bar owner.
    And most important of all...
  7. Acknowledge your audience!!! Now more than ever, with DJs and karaoke taking away jobs that once belonged to musicians, you MUST let your audience know that you're glad they made the effort to come out and hear you play. Some musicians are better than others at banter on stage - and there is a point where that too can become annoying - but doing something as simple as making eye contact, and most of all SMILING ONCE IN A WHILE lets the audience know they matter.
Musicians have the opportunity to connect with audiences like few other artists ever can. There is wonderful back-and-forth that is hallmark of a great performance. If it all goes right there is an exchange of energy that makes the player take their performance to the next level - which is then felt by the audience. And that, my friends, is the formula for memorable music.

Peace & good music
Gene
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Random stuff today

2/10/2011

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A few thoughts rattling around in the ol' noggin'.

Playing fatigue. This one is for true guitar geeks only (of which I proudly count myself as one). Re: nut width. Time was when virtually all American high quality guitars, ones by Martin, Gibson and Guild anyway, came with a nut that measured 1 11/16s inch. I've made no secret in this space of my love for Martins and almost every one I've owned has had this nut size. I am cursed with fairly short but thankfully, narrow fingers and the 1 11/16ths seemed just about perfect.

Then about 20 years ago quite a few of the boutique makers began offering guitars with 1 3/4" nuts. The logic was that the extra 1/16" made finger style playing easier because there was more separation between the strings. The big makers noticed, especially Taylor, and began offering many or in the case of Taylor, most of their guitars with the wider nut.

Jeez, I thought. Maybe I'm missing something here. So I began buying and playing guitars with 1 3/4" nuts. Now, you wouldn't think such a tiny increment would make a difference but it does. For me anyway, those wider nuts lead to a marked increase in left hand fatigue, especially if I'm playing songs with a lot of bar chords. Thankfully, Taylors also feature amazingly low action and relatively thin necks so playing that brand isn't quite as tough for me as others but the fatigue factor is definitely there. I've been battling it with the gorgeous and incredible sounding Taylor 810 that I recently acquired and you can see in the for-sale section of this site. I absolutely LOVE that guitar - it sounds better than any I've ever heard with the K&K pick-up I had Bay Fretted install - and I'm determined to use it next weekend at my Daily Brew gig.

Now add another relatively recent (albeit, old) design feature that is popular: the V-shaped neck. I once owned a custom Boyce guitar with a V-neck and although I kept if for quite a few years that V made bar chords just miserable. The fact that the guitar I am totally lusting after - the Martin Jorma Kaukonen model - has both a 1 3/4" nut and a soft V neck shape has kept me from going further in debt!

Now here's what's interesting. I'm beginning to see a lot of backlash in the discussions on the guitar forums to the 1 3/4" nuts, even by guys who claim to be primarily finger style players. Hmmm.... could it be that Martin, Gibson and Guild had it right in the first place?!?

Another observation. Regarding the playing of bar chords. I have a couple students right now who are struggling with playing them. I totally sympathize and offer as many tips and all the encouragement I can but their frustration is obvious. Unfortunately, you cannot "teach" someone to play bar chords. All you can do is make sure their hand is positioned correctly. Then it's just a matter of time. I've known some pretty damn good players over the years who avoid them all together but this is a mistake. Bar chords open up the whole neck to the guitarist. But the reality is - ALL GUITARISTS HATE BAR CHORDS!!! I don't care how long someone's been playing. One of my tasks as a teacher is to convince budding players of their worth, and lemme tell ya, it ain't easy! If you count yourself among the many who avoid bar chords, dive in, try to conquer at least a few of them and your playing will improve. Just accept the fact that they will always be miserable!

More random stuff tomorrow.

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Just one more story.....

2/8/2011

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I was telling my friend Andy Groag about my recent blog entries cataloging gigs. He said, "I hope you told them about the New Year's Eve gig!"

Well, that one had slipped my mind but it is worth putting down here I think. Then no more war stories, for a while anyway. Promise!

Back before the strict drunk driving laws of today, which I think have changed peoples' New Year's Eve activities radically in the last few years it was common for many folks to go out on that night and party pretty hard. From the musician's perspective, New Year's was very much looked forward to because it was standard practice to make at least double your usual rate for playing that night. I believe that has not changed.

When I was a kid, my brother and I always looked forward to the noise makers and silly hats that my dad would always bring home for us after playing New Year's gigs, which he did consecutively for something like 40 years. So I knew it was a pretty big deal for musicians.

I played them for something like 15 or 20 years in a row with various groups, sometimes as a pick-up musician with groups who needed a guitarist for that night, sometimes with my own groups.

The one that Andy referred too took place while we were playing with Tim Ling and the others in Bit's n' Pieces. I think it was something like 1982. We were booked to play at the local Holiday Inn, a spot where I'd played in a duo a few years before with pianist Rachel Lefebvre but B&P had never played there. They contacted me and the money was good so we of course said yes.

Now, my first mistake was not asking about what the crowd would be like. I naturally assumed it would be a mix of age groups who would enjoy dancing to our mix of Oldies and classic rock stuff. How wrong I was....

The first clue was there when we went to set up in the afternoon, but I was still oblivious: two big charter buses with New Jersey license plates. We were instructed to set up in a the large function room, which we did, ran a sound check and went home for supper. No problems, so far.

But when we returned and walked into the room I knew we had a problem. A big problem. A big OLD problem. The youngest person in the room was maybe 65. The rest? Well, suffice to say, "Born to be Wild" was NOT going to be on the set list!

We got on stage, tuned up and looked at each other with wide-eyed trepidation. Meanwhile, the crowd eyed us with obvious distrust bordering on disgust. It turned out they were a large Senior Citizen group from somewhere in New Jersey who had booked some kind of New Year's weekend at the Holiday Inn, complete with "music for dancing" on New Years Eve. Uh oh.

We immediately turned the PA down to "barely audible" level and started to play our mellowest stuff. No one got up. No one danced. No one blew the tin horns or shook the sound makers. They just stared. Almost in silence. Double uh-oh.

We finished the first set and Andy and I went out to the hall. Almost immediately an elderly lady approached us.

"Young man! This is the worst music I have ever heard! We are having the worst time we have EVER HAD ON NEW YEARS EVE!!!" And with that she stomped off. Well, stomped may be a bit generous but you get my drift.

We looked at each other in horror. Then Tim broke the silence.

"OK - here's what we do. I know lots of jazz standards on the piano. Let's make a set a list and go for it. What the hell else can we do?!?"

Tim to the rescue. We had no idea he knew jazz standards on the piano. But more importantly, Andy and I had only the vaguest idea of how to play them.

"Don't worry," said Tim. "Just follow me."

We got back on stage and Tim announced into the microphone, "Sorry about that first set! Here are some tunes we hope you'll like better!"

And with that, he turned away from the mic and said to us: "In the Mood! In C! Here we go! One, two, three, four..." and away we went.

Well, let me tell you. We could never be accused of being a jazz band but almost instantly (allowing for the mobility of the audience!) the dance floor was filled, ladies in their funny New Years hats, men blowing those squeaky horns, and the evening had turned around.

"Sheik of Araby in B-flat! One, two, three, four!" shouted Tim. "I am the Sheik of Ar - a - by! (huh! huh!) Your love belongs to me!" sang Tim. Andy and I by this point were doing everything we could to keep playing and not totally crack up. The whole thing had turned into a blast.

My chord changes, were, um... creative, to say the least, as were Andy's bass lines. Some of the tunes we barely knew at all but we forged ahead with Tim occasionally shouting out the changes to me over his shoulder, still singing and doing a damn good Sinatra, Perry Como and Nat King Cole impression. To say he saved the night would be an understatement.

At the next break the same old lady came up to us. "Now that's more like it young man! Just keep playing those songs! We're having a wonderful time now!"

Believe it or not, the oldsters wouldn't let us stop when last call came around. But even Tim was tapped out of tunes by that point. So we shook a lot of hands, said our Happy New Years! to all concerned and packed up as fast as we could.

It turned out that Tim had never told us about the piano bar gig he had done during his college days. It was a revelation and put him up another notch on my scale of admiration. But this was (and is) just one part of what being a musician is all about.

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Gigs I have played. The good, the bad, the bizarre. Part 12

2/6/2011

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One afternoon about two years ago my friend Dave Peros and I were sitting in a local coffee shop and cafe called The Daily Brew. Dave was asking about how my guitar playing and teaching was going and I told him I was pretty excited about my new instrumental arrangements, especially the bossa nova stuff I had been exploring for a year or so. The previous summer I was fortunate to attend the Newport Jazz Festival and hear an absolute master of this type of music, Romero Lubambo, and watch him play from a few feet away. It was truly inspirational and helped confirm that I was on the right track.

Dave said - well, when are you going to play it somewhere? I mumbled something about being out of the loop, not knowing where I could go to play it, and so on.... Without hesitation, Dave got up and brought over the Daily Brew's owner, Kathy Hickey. You need Gene to play here! Dave said.

Kathy looked me over with a frown and asked, are you any good? Well, I said, I think so. But I promise not to blow people out of here and of course if you don't like it, no hard feelings. OK, said Kathy. Come in next weekend.

That was the beginning of what has been the most pleasurable gig I've ever had. Two years later, I still play at the Brew just about every weekend. I've become friends with many of the regulars and the staff, although I still haven't succeeded in getting Kathy to sing with me - she is a very, very find singer and even self-produced a CD a few years ago.

A few months after I started she said to me one day - you know, I didn't know if this was going to work. What if you sucked?! But you don't of course. The customers all tell me how much they enjoy what you do and look forward to hearing you.

I've played in front of thousands of people at festivals and concerts but I can say with all candor that my Daily Brew thing is the most pure enjoyment I've ever had in all my years of playing. The best part is that with having something regular every weekend, plus ramping up my teaching business again, my playing is as good as it's ever been - probably better.

Time marches on, that's for sure. I'll be looking for more playing jobs in the near future. It would be great to get a semi regular job at one of the nice restaurants we now have in Falmouth. We'll see. I also intend to do more recording and learning more about that process in my home studio. Videos of lesson samples, product reviews and sound samples of the guitars I sell are also on the to-do list.

Well, it's time to head down to the Brew to play. If you've stuck with my story through all the parts, I thank you and hope it wasn't too boring. I know it was fun to finally put it down. There were many, many other musical adventures that I didn't catalog. Maybe I'll catalog those in the future. In the meantime...

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Gigs I have played. The good, the bad, the bizarre, Part 11

2/5/2011

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As the 1990s came to a close and into the early 2000s Andy, Steph and I continued to play the occasional job here and there but things were changing. Vinny had left us to play with a group that had lots of work, something he needed. He is a fine percussionist (and a fun guy!) and it was not surprising that he was in demand. The Geotones were long gone, a victim of changing personnel, some of whom had unreal expectations for a group that was essentially just a fun thing for the original members. It was difficult for us to replace Vinny with a drummer as we were playing music that tended to get overwhelmed by someone banging away although we did a couple gigs with drummers who did "get it" about listening to the music and knowing that pounding was not the way to go.

In the meantime I had become more and more interested in jazz, which was not something that Andy cared to do and Steph's "real job" as head of the public information office at Woods Hole Oceanographic was taking more and more of her time. For my part, playing four-chord songs was just not doing it for me anymore.

I was still teaching now and then, mostly giving lessons on a casual basis to friends but my real job as editor of On The Water magazine was also taking a lot of my time and mental effort. I had officially stopped teaching a few years before and every time I thought about getting back into it I talked myself out of the idea. I was, to put it frankly, out of the loop, both in terms of the local music scene and also in what was popular even in the acoustic music world, for the most part. I did make a point to keep going to concerts though and heard people like Lyle Lovett, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feet, and even Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill (one hell of a great guitarist!). I also heard and spoke with quite a few very good jazz guitarists on cruise ships, of all places, something my wife and I had discovered we loved doing.

But playing was definitely diminishing in my daily routine. The problem with that is you tend to find the playing experience less enjoyable as you play less often because your skills begin to slip. And that leads to playing even less. Not a good thing.

Sometimes weeks and weeks went by when I didn't even pick up the guitar, feeling like I wasn't progressing in my jazz studies and having no interest in playing the stuff we played in my group a few years before.

Then one day about five years ago something remarkable happened. I received a phone call from an old friend from my college days, urging me to come visit him and another old friend at his son's place up in the Poconos. We would spend the weekend trout fishing, drinking some beers and talking about the good old days - and by the way, be sure to bring your guitar.

My friend Frank and I had played together for hours and hours back at Wilkes, Frank on harmonica and me on guitar, playing old blues tunes, plus of course Neil Young, CSN and other stuff we were listening to at the time. In the interim Frank had taught himself to play the mandolin. So I went, bringing along a guitar.

I won't bore you with too many details but suffice to say we played for two days and nights, when we weren't fishing. It was nothing less that an epiphany. In short, I remembered why I had started playing in the first place. I'll always be grateful to my wonderful friends Frank Kardisco and Lew Brill for reminding me.

When I got home I dove into practicing again, learning quite a bit of Brazilian jazz and also working on my own arrangements of pop and blues tunes that incorporated playing a bass line, chords and melody at the same time. I began taking on new students again, mostly by word of mouth. It felt good to play again.

Tomorrow, part 12. Up to the present.

Peace & good music,
Gene
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Gigs I have played. The good, the bad, the bizarre, part 10

2/4/2011

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Andy, Steph, Vinny and I had a good run for a few years. We developed a nice, modest little following and played a nice variety of places around Southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape. Our repertoire included 60 or so songs, ranging from blues to country to rock, some jazz and a couple of Steph's originals.

One of my favorite gigs that Andy and I played with that group and other groups before and after was a summer concert at Mashpee Commons. It was always a crap shoot as far as the weather was concerned but it was decent money and after doing a lot of bars where the majority of the crowd didn't pay much attention it was great to have an attentive audience.

One of the funniest things to see were the elderly folks who would always arrive well in advance of the show, in order to get a "good seat" in the front. They would always look askance at our PA system as we set it up, sure that those big speakers (which were really not all that big at all!) would be just too loud. I would always make a point of reassuring them as we set up but they were having none of it. The concerts were a weekly event and they were FREE, darn it! So the oldsters weren't going to miss them, even if the type of music being played was not exactly their favorite.

Playing outside is always a challenge because sound disperses quickly and because of this at least a bit of volume is needed. One of the things I believe in from a performance perspective is always beginning a show with an up-tempo song. I will never forget the three old ladies who were always front and center, year after year, and would without fail place their hands over their ears ("Hear no Evil" I called them) when we hit our first chord, glaring at us in total disapproval. But there was NO WAY they were going to leave, because it was FREE, darn it, and they had made sure they had the BEST seats!

With them in mind, I made sure our concerts always included my finger-picked version of "Ain't Misbehavin' " and "Nodody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and for the ladies, those became the highlights of the show year after year. It even got to the point where one of them would ask (although her frown at the speakers as we set up never left her face): "Young man! I HOPE you are going to play Ain't Misbehavin'!" And I always did, which got them to smile once in a while.

One of the biggest highlights for me at those concerts was the year my son Matt sat in with us on drums. He had been playing since elementary school - and in fact, my dad the drummer had brought drum sticks to the hospital the day after Matt was born! I'm sorry to say that although we did play together on a casual basis, my dad an I never did play a gig together. This is a huge regret for me. And I was determined to not let this opportunity pass by.

Matt was (and is) a very good drummer and it was his senior year in high school. He was the drummer with the high school jazz band and he rehearsed with us before the concert. I didn't announce him until well into the show - and the crowd gave him a big round of applause. His friends were there too and I hoped they didn't think our music was totally lame but they were very supportive of Matt too. As well they should have been because Matt did a damn good job. I was very proud and loved every second of it.

More tomorrow.

Peace & good music,
Gene




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