It seems as though the rest of the educational world has started their winter break. NPUSC has two staff in service days this week. I must admit difficulty with concentration upon things that are school based when holiday preparations are nagging at my time. I started this day with a general lack of rest. I have been sleeping well lately but last night true sleep was non-existent. As a result I struggled to stay awake during this morning's presentation which was pretty dry and not at all related to my content area. If I share more it could be construed to be a negative attitude.
I'm getting ready now to participate in a little workshop about Google Apps. This should be useful and maybe I'll stay awake because I have to be actively engaged.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Close of the Semester 1 Is Within Reach
This school year has been very busy indeed. Everyday brings challenges in and outside the classroom. I have adapted to having less time to maintain a sustained guitar practice schedule. I now find myself using spare moments in between my daily duties at work and at home to grab a guitar and polish my tunes, attempt to learn some new ones and develop better technique. Lunch time at work is usually a matter of quickly eating some yogurt or a sandwich and then playing guitar. At home I have guitars within arm's length whenever I am working at the computer or winding down in front of the television. I admit to having a bit of an obsession with crime dramas.... the CSI type. I often have a guitar in hand as I "sort of" watch these shows. Sometimes I drop the volume level so low that the show keeps me company rather than engaged. I have been working on a few new tunes, three to be exact, Walbert's arrangement of Across the Universe, Richard's Daughter of Pete's Feet, and the newest being Al Petteway's arrangement of She Moved Through the Faire. Each piece has its own challenges. I started working with Across the Universe last week and it is farther along than the other two pieces. I'm progressing fairly well at getting the puzzle pieces memorized and lined up. Being the Christmas season I have been working at a few holiday tunes but somehow I find it more difficult to devote lots of time to them. Although "tis the season" I set my priorities to focus upon tunes that aren't so tied to the holidays. I may have mentioned that my practice time is limited these days.
A rarity has occurred this evening, Sunday Dec. 12th.(actually now Monday the 13th). We are in the midst of a nasty winter storm which is accompanied by really icy roads. In fact, this afternoon I barely avoided being hit by a driver who was unable to stop at an intersection. ABS, quick reactions and sheer luck saved the day. With conditions expected to worsen over night, school has been canceled for tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some additional "real" practice time during the day. Perhaps I will make time to go over how I have been applying my grant experiences to the classroom and NP UNplugged club this autumn.
A rarity has occurred this evening, Sunday Dec. 12th.(actually now Monday the 13th). We are in the midst of a nasty winter storm which is accompanied by really icy roads. In fact, this afternoon I barely avoided being hit by a driver who was unable to stop at an intersection. ABS, quick reactions and sheer luck saved the day. With conditions expected to worsen over night, school has been canceled for tomorrow. I am looking forward to having some additional "real" practice time during the day. Perhaps I will make time to go over how I have been applying my grant experiences to the classroom and NP UNplugged club this autumn.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Just Sitting Here Reflecting on my Irish adventure
This will be a random narrative of observations about living in Ireland for nearly two weeks.
Medieval roadways have determined the "modern" map of Ireland. Stone walls are a dominant feature everywhere except within larger towns. When flying over Ireland or when you are afforded a panoramic view the landscape looks like a patch-work quilt. Heavy stitching is replaced by the stone fences that divide the properties of farmers and shepherds. There are lots of sheep in Ireland but there are also lots of cows. Dairy products have a rich fresh flavor and the yogurt produced in Clonakilty was definitely the best. It was much better than any of the mass produced products we find on our shelves in the U.S. Pubs are the best places to eat.
We stopped in a random pub on our way to Killarney. The meals we were served were delicious and presented attractively. They reviled the presentation of "expensive" stateside restaurants. The pub owners take great pride in providing a welcoming atmosphere and good food. John says the Guinness in Ireland tastes better than the Guinness we get in the U.S. Locals in the pubs are eager to engage you in conversation, don't miss out on this opportunity. They will even sing for you if the subject of traditional music comes up. One fellow who was our age said that when he was in school they sang traditional Irish tunes for one hour each day. There's an idea for keeping one's culture intact and at least a partial explanation for why music is such a driving force in Irish society.
Pubs that serve food seem to be more family oriented, children are allowed. The drinking age is 18. Underage kids may not be allowed in the pubs without their parents present. The Irish love horse racing and the pubs have the races on TV. Off track betting parlors are common.
Irish kids do the same dumb irritating things that American kids do, but they are less likely to be destructive. We were parked next to the Emmet Square, our hotel room at the Emmet Hotel overlooked the square. Our first night in Clonakilty coincided with the day 15 year old Irish students received results from their National tests. These determine the direction of the rest of their education, whether they will be channeled into vocational studies or college prep. Students who passed the test celebrated in Emmet Square. They converged on the park space in great droves, laughed, yelled, courted and harassed each other well into the early morning hours. We didn't sleep much. The "Garda", local police cruised by, walked through but didn't disperse the crowd. Eggs were thrown at a particularly obnoxious group of boys who were yelling and laughing loudly as they walked past the park. Some of the eggs hit our car, due to pathetically bad marksmanship. We observed the culprit actually trying to clean the egg off of our car. The hotel staff cleaned off the rest before we even had breakfast. Irish parents are just as lax American parents about knowing where their kids are and what they are doing. Irish adults complain about this lack of responsibility just like American adults. Along with all this rowdiness there was some serious "snogging" going on. It seems some Irish kids are as sexually active as our kids. I wonder what the teenage pregnancy rates are.
Irish pharmacies are consistent in their signage and organization. They are marked with a green version of the Red Cross symbol. When you enter a pharmacy, the first things you see are perfumes and makeup products. The dispensary is in the back. The choice of over-the-counter the medicines is very limited, therefore it does not take 30 minutes to try and figure out which cold medicine to purchase because you might have three choices to ponder instead of a whole 10'x5' display filled with alternatives. You can buy ibuprofen with codeine over the counter but you must talk to the pharmacist. They are beginning to restrict access because of increasing addiction issues. Irish women are more likely to allow their hair to go grey, rather than dye it to maintain an illusion of youth. My decision to allow my hair to be naturally grey is the standard instead of the exception as it is here in the states.
Do not expect elevators in public places, especially hotels. Americans stand out at the airport because we have tons of luggage. The typical Irish or European traveler seems to manage with one carry on bag. They look down on Americans because we haul too much stuff with us. I have vowed to reduce my luggage significantly next time I head to Europe. Never rent anything larger than a VW Golf to travel on Irish roadways. You will regret it!!!!
The Irish, at least those we engaged with, were not "consumer-crazy". They did not seem motivated by having the best, latest or greatest of whatever. They were more interested in quality of life.
There is great appreciation for older structures in Ireland. This helps to maintain the old world atmosphere in rural and town areas. There are sub-divisions. We turned around in one when we missed a turn. This subdivision was incredibly sterile in appearance, impeccably neat yet unlike US subdivisions, it was absolutely crammed with children who took over the street. It was truly their playground, there were probably 20 homes in this cul-d-sac and at least 30 kids out playing in the street, roller blading, skateboarding, soccer, basketball, tag, jump rope etc. Our kids tend to be crammed into their homes, glued to televisions or computers. There were very few clearly obese children out and about. This does not necessarily carry through into adulthood. Still the percentage of obese adults is much lower than in the US or at least than in Indiana.
It was disturbing to see an incredible amount of trashy flotsam and jetsam in Bantry harbor. One corner of the dock seemed to collect vast amounts of mainly plastic crap from small beverage containers to oil drum sized vats. It was a definite eye-sore amongst all the beauty. I wonder how far this garbage has traveled. I wonder if any of it is from the US since recently a Florida boy's message in a bottle was found in Ireland.
I enjoyed the Irish climate. It was mild both day and night, temps in the 60's. Fresh breezes blew almost daily. Often the morning started with light rain. By noon it had all cleared away leaving blue skies with billowy clouds in its wake.
Medieval roadways have determined the "modern" map of Ireland. Stone walls are a dominant feature everywhere except within larger towns. When flying over Ireland or when you are afforded a panoramic view the landscape looks like a patch-work quilt. Heavy stitching is replaced by the stone fences that divide the properties of farmers and shepherds. There are lots of sheep in Ireland but there are also lots of cows. Dairy products have a rich fresh flavor and the yogurt produced in Clonakilty was definitely the best. It was much better than any of the mass produced products we find on our shelves in the U.S. Pubs are the best places to eat.
We stopped in a random pub on our way to Killarney. The meals we were served were delicious and presented attractively. They reviled the presentation of "expensive" stateside restaurants. The pub owners take great pride in providing a welcoming atmosphere and good food. John says the Guinness in Ireland tastes better than the Guinness we get in the U.S. Locals in the pubs are eager to engage you in conversation, don't miss out on this opportunity. They will even sing for you if the subject of traditional music comes up. One fellow who was our age said that when he was in school they sang traditional Irish tunes for one hour each day. There's an idea for keeping one's culture intact and at least a partial explanation for why music is such a driving force in Irish society.
Pubs that serve food seem to be more family oriented, children are allowed. The drinking age is 18. Underage kids may not be allowed in the pubs without their parents present. The Irish love horse racing and the pubs have the races on TV. Off track betting parlors are common.
Irish kids do the same dumb irritating things that American kids do, but they are less likely to be destructive. We were parked next to the Emmet Square, our hotel room at the Emmet Hotel overlooked the square. Our first night in Clonakilty coincided with the day 15 year old Irish students received results from their National tests. These determine the direction of the rest of their education, whether they will be channeled into vocational studies or college prep. Students who passed the test celebrated in Emmet Square. They converged on the park space in great droves, laughed, yelled, courted and harassed each other well into the early morning hours. We didn't sleep much. The "Garda", local police cruised by, walked through but didn't disperse the crowd. Eggs were thrown at a particularly obnoxious group of boys who were yelling and laughing loudly as they walked past the park. Some of the eggs hit our car, due to pathetically bad marksmanship. We observed the culprit actually trying to clean the egg off of our car. The hotel staff cleaned off the rest before we even had breakfast. Irish parents are just as lax American parents about knowing where their kids are and what they are doing. Irish adults complain about this lack of responsibility just like American adults. Along with all this rowdiness there was some serious "snogging" going on. It seems some Irish kids are as sexually active as our kids. I wonder what the teenage pregnancy rates are.
Irish pharmacies are consistent in their signage and organization. They are marked with a green version of the Red Cross symbol. When you enter a pharmacy, the first things you see are perfumes and makeup products. The dispensary is in the back. The choice of over-the-counter the medicines is very limited, therefore it does not take 30 minutes to try and figure out which cold medicine to purchase because you might have three choices to ponder instead of a whole 10'x5' display filled with alternatives. You can buy ibuprofen with codeine over the counter but you must talk to the pharmacist. They are beginning to restrict access because of increasing addiction issues. Irish women are more likely to allow their hair to go grey, rather than dye it to maintain an illusion of youth. My decision to allow my hair to be naturally grey is the standard instead of the exception as it is here in the states.
Do not expect elevators in public places, especially hotels. Americans stand out at the airport because we have tons of luggage. The typical Irish or European traveler seems to manage with one carry on bag. They look down on Americans because we haul too much stuff with us. I have vowed to reduce my luggage significantly next time I head to Europe. Never rent anything larger than a VW Golf to travel on Irish roadways. You will regret it!!!!
The Irish, at least those we engaged with, were not "consumer-crazy". They did not seem motivated by having the best, latest or greatest of whatever. They were more interested in quality of life.
There is great appreciation for older structures in Ireland. This helps to maintain the old world atmosphere in rural and town areas. There are sub-divisions. We turned around in one when we missed a turn. This subdivision was incredibly sterile in appearance, impeccably neat yet unlike US subdivisions, it was absolutely crammed with children who took over the street. It was truly their playground, there were probably 20 homes in this cul-d-sac and at least 30 kids out playing in the street, roller blading, skateboarding, soccer, basketball, tag, jump rope etc. Our kids tend to be crammed into their homes, glued to televisions or computers. There were very few clearly obese children out and about. This does not necessarily carry through into adulthood. Still the percentage of obese adults is much lower than in the US or at least than in Indiana.
It was disturbing to see an incredible amount of trashy flotsam and jetsam in Bantry harbor. One corner of the dock seemed to collect vast amounts of mainly plastic crap from small beverage containers to oil drum sized vats. It was a definite eye-sore amongst all the beauty. I wonder how far this garbage has traveled. I wonder if any of it is from the US since recently a Florida boy's message in a bottle was found in Ireland.
I enjoyed the Irish climate. It was mild both day and night, temps in the 60's. Fresh breezes blew almost daily. Often the morning started with light rain. By noon it had all cleared away leaving blue skies with billowy clouds in its wake.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Time to Leave
We both agreed that we'd love to live in Clonakilty and this is why it took us several hours to gather the where with all to actually leave. We made excuses to stroll through town one last time before getting in our Volkswagen Golf rental car and heading out towards Killarney.
Before we left, I steered us into DeBarra's Pub one last time and fortunately the proprietor, Ray Blackwood was there. We got into a pleasant discuss about the history of the pub which has been in Ray's family for a couple of centuries. In fact he was raised in the apartment above. More about that later.
Before we left, I steered us into DeBarra's Pub one last time and fortunately the proprietor, Ray Blackwood was there. We got into a pleasant discuss about the history of the pub which has been in Ray's family for a couple of centuries. In fact he was raised in the apartment above. More about that later.
Sunday, The Final Day
It is so difficult to truly describe what it is like to be here in Ireland but I must say if my attitude holds it is going to be difficult to want to return to the States. I am writing this using our bed as desk while seated on one of the wooden chairs in our room. We have the window wide open allowing sunshine and a pleasant Irish breeze to fill the spaces around us. John is gently practicing some mandolin. So I have musical accompaniment for my literary efforts.
Our first commitment today was actually one that focused upon guitar. I attended Richard's second workshop, where I proved how little time I had spent playing Falling Slowly in the past few weeks. I had run through it a few times recently but I knew I had lost my comfort with the piece. Richard has a different take on the left hand fingerings in some areas and they make more sense then what I had worked out. I plan on incorporating those into my playing of the piece. It is the usual process of breaking one habit to replace it with another. We took advantage of shopping at the Centra shop(a little grocery chain in Ireland) and picked up some survival munchies. I enjoyed eating the Irish Eating Apple that I chose to include in my treats.
Later in the evening we attended a concert by John Spillane, John and I tremendously enjoyed this powerful performer who plays guitar and sings in both English and Irish. It was an education and when the concert wrapped up I made a point of complimenting John and thanking him for teaching this American a little about Irish music and attitudes.
Our first commitment today was actually one that focused upon guitar. I attended Richard's second workshop, where I proved how little time I had spent playing Falling Slowly in the past few weeks. I had run through it a few times recently but I knew I had lost my comfort with the piece. Richard has a different take on the left hand fingerings in some areas and they make more sense then what I had worked out. I plan on incorporating those into my playing of the piece. It is the usual process of breaking one habit to replace it with another. We took advantage of shopping at the Centra shop(a little grocery chain in Ireland) and picked up some survival munchies. I enjoyed eating the Irish Eating Apple that I chose to include in my treats.
Later in the evening we attended a concert by John Spillane, John and I tremendously enjoyed this powerful performer who plays guitar and sings in both English and Irish. It was an education and when the concert wrapped up I made a point of complimenting John and thanking him for teaching this American a little about Irish music and attitudes.
A bit of a respite
In the late afternoon, Richard and Beverly invited us to join them at the their apartment lodging on the beach for a bit of down time. We watched people stroll along the beach with their dogs, the tidal waves build, and horses run through the grassy pastures along the tops the cliffs Beverly put together an excellent meal on the fly and it was simply nice to put our feet up and regroup before heading back down into the fray of the evening's events. John and I spent the rest of the evening checking out some performances until we made it back to our room at the Emmet and collapsed in utter exhaustion.
Saturday at the Clonakilty International Guitar Fest
Today began with the gathering of guitar playing souls attempting to break the Guinness World Record. This event took place in Emmet Square located directly in front of the entrance way of our hotel and overlooked wonderfully the windows of our second floor room. In fact, I set up my video camera to overlook a portion of the area to get moving record of this unique event.
We worked our way down to the square at around 11:30 am and meandered through the progressively growing crowd that consisted of folks of all ages and guitar persuasion. One observation John and I have made is that the Irish are so genuinely friendly. They are easy to engage in conversation even if the varied accents are at times difficult to decipher. If you engage with someone they treat you as a friend. In fact during the world record attempt we again met Richey, he was the accordionist we listened to during our first evening in Clonakilty. Richey was photographing the event and he did take some shots of John and I together. Currently John has grown out his mustache and is styling it as a handle bar. He also was wearing his favorite hat a brown derby. John’s appearance did attract some attention and I caught a few other cameras swinging his direction.
Eventually, Richard and Beverly showed and we split our attention between monitoring the progress in the square and getting Richard setup for his gig in the Emmet Hotel. On the stage across the street from Emmet Square, John Spillane began to get everyone geared up for the world record attempt. I enjoyed his unique way of getting all of these guitarists in tune and on the same page. He went through sounding the tuning each string individual and then played a tune in the key of the string. Richard wrapped up his sound check just as the record attempt began. We had just enough time to shift ourselves across the street and join in on the opening bars of Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile, an Irish rebel song with which everyone seemed very familiar.
Eventually, Richard and Beverly showed and we split our attention between monitoring the progress in the square and getting Richard setup for his gig in the Emmet Hotel. On the stage across the street from Emmet Square, John Spillane began to get everyone geared up for the world record attempt. I enjoyed his unique way of getting all of these guitarists in tune and on the same page. He went through sounding the tuning each string individual and then played a tune in the key of the string. Richard wrapped up his sound check just as the record attempt began. We had just enough time to shift ourselves across the street and join in on the opening bars of Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile, an Irish rebel song with which everyone seemed very familiar.
. Sadly the record was not broken but everyone had a tremendously good time during the process. With this event completed we turned our attention back to the bar and made sure all was well for Richard’s gig. Then Steve Housand, guitarist from The Little River Band, arrived. He and Richard had agreed to play two tunes together so they went off to another room and rehearsed for a bit. 2:00 pm arrived and Richard took the stage and played a fantastic one hour set that was enthusiastically received by a crowd that jammed itself into the tiny bar.
Once Richard’s concert finished, I helped him break down the staging area and pack his gear and we went off to the Parrish Hall where he taught a one hour workshop. I participated in this workshop even though it focused on material I have done previously done. Even so I found my weaknesses on the concepts and came away feeling I need to focus more on timing, one of my stumbling blocks. At least the other participants actually needed even more
help.
help.
After an early evening break we returned to Clonakilty and started another tour of the town with the goal of seeing more of the scheduled performances. Some of the acts we wanted to see drew huge crowds and we could not work our way in to the venues. We did manage to see Jim Murray,Richard Lucey, and Neil Ni Chronin perform at one of the more famous pubs, Shanley's, This was an excellent concert of traditional Irish music. When they took a break Richard picked up the slack and played a few well-received tunes for the audience. In an absolute switch of gears we then went to DeBarr's where an extremely heavy metal and very loud rock band from Japan was producing penetrating rhythms. Electric Eel Shock were raw,rehearsed and provided an auditory jolt to listeners. They were so incredibly loud that my husband and I drifted away after about 30. I truly was worried that my hearing would be damaged. By this time we were exhausted and headed back to the Emmet with the expectation of grabbing a good night's rest. It was the sound of Gypsy Jazz that drew us away from the plan. As we walked past the Clonakilty Hotel we were attracted to dramatically different sound of Van Django, a Gypsy Jazz band from Canada. The atmosphere was far more relaxed within the Clon hotel. Still it was difficult to find seating and we found wall space to lean against and spent better than hour absorbing this intriguing mix of jazz and gypsy style guitar work. We became instant fans.
It has been so incredibly rewarding to have both Richard and Beverly here to steer us in the right directions and to help us make heads and tales of the events. Richard has made a point of introducing me to several people, performers, CIGF organizers etc. They all seem to enjoy the story of how I got here and that I am writing a blog about my experiences. They are committed to having the festival grow and having it be a worthwhile experience for everyone. Two significant performers I have met are Steve Housand, formerly from The Little River Band and John Spillane, an Irish icon of traditional and modern folk tunes. I witnessed, from a distance of less than 12 feet, Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth create his sonic sculptures using electric guitar and sound effects and watched true Irish traditionalists like Jim Murray perform the music they were born to play.
It has been so incredibly rewarding to have both Richard and Beverly here to steer us in the right directions and to help us make heads and tales of the events. Richard has made a point of introducing me to several people, performers, CIGF organizers etc. They all seem to enjoy the story of how I got here and that I am writing a blog about my experiences. They are committed to having the festival grow and having it be a worthwhile experience for everyone. Two significant performers I have met are Steve Housand, formerly from The Little River Band and John Spillane, an Irish icon of traditional and modern folk tunes. I witnessed, from a distance of less than 12 feet, Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth create his sonic sculptures using electric guitar and sound effects and watched true Irish traditionalists like Jim Murray perform the music they were born to play.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The First Full Day of Festival Activities
I am writing this at some time past midnight Irish time. This little town is still quite awake. We arrived back at our hotel a few minutes ago and I thought I had better recap today's events before they become a indecipherable blur. This morning started with a relaxed pace. We slept in until around 10am, just enough time to get up and catch a breakfast here at the hotel. The Emmet serves a full breakfast as part of our fee. John has been taking full advantage by ordering a cooked meal and I have been opting for the the granola, yogurt and tea instead.
Richard had a gig teaching young people at the local Community College. Therefore we did not connect with he and Beverly until later in the evening. John and I did another stroll around town. Since it is so different from home we have been really enjoying just soaking in the atmosphere. There was a farmer's market in full gear today and it featured fresh locally caught fish. I recognized the flounder and that was all. Also there was a table full of cheeses of an incredible variety. Had we been hungry it would have been tempting. One of the featured performers of the festival, Gareth Forsyth, was playing music at the farmer's market. He is an excellent guitarist and vocalist and we enjoyed him enough to make a point of catching his pub performance this evening as well. John and I were very impressed with his playing and surprised to see how under-appreciated he seemed to be. He worked hard to entertain and it seemed everyone aside from ourselves ignored him while he played at the pub. The farmer's market folks listened more intently.
Last night Lee Ranaldo, from the Sonic Youth, opened the festival with a ticketed concert at DeBarra's Folk Club. We passed on his show, primarily because we need to control our spending. During our afternoon stroll we stopped into DeBarra's. This was our first look inside the epitome of Irish pubs. The walls inside are a veritable museum of music memorabilia, photos, instruments, and various decorative motifs. This is the pub that all other pubs wish they could be. We spoke briefly with a gentleman, whom I later learned was Ray Blackwell, one of the festival organizers. His parents are the proprietors of DBarra's Folk Club. We asked Ray whether the Ranaldo show went well. He said it was brilliant, more like a sonic artwork and a perfect way to open the festival. This left us feeling a bit empty for having missed it. According to the schedule for today, Ranaldo was due to lead a seminar at the parish hall across the road from our hotel so we headed over there for the 7pm start time. Again we were greeted with news that this seminar was a paid event and again it was not within our budget. Ray was collecting admission and since we had walked over there I figured at least a bit of friendly conversation was in order. I mentioned that I learned about the festival from Richard Gilewitz. Ray knew Richard and said "Oh yeah, you two can go on in, Richard told us that he had a couple of friends here and he's put you of the guest list and he is expected to show up after doing his sound check. What a pleasant surprise and completely unexpected! From everything I have discerned, Ray is the main "Go-To" guy for the festival.
Now for the seminar. Lee uses an electric guitar, a blue Fender Jazzmaster, to create a myriad of sounds. This guitar's cosmetic condition definitely reflects the artist's unconventional playing techniques. If this guitar were a child, Ranaldo would be arrested for child abuse. During the seminar which was a concert for the most part, he rarely played his electric guitar traditionally. The guitar was strung up by a cord and it dangled freely from the ceiling. With the guitar in this position, he used a violin bow to coax a variety of tones and sounds form the strings. At points he punctuated the sonic earscape by gently and not so gently banging the back of the guitar with the frog of the bow, producing a variety of sounds depending upon the intensity and location of the attack. He had several effects pedals and while the guitar groaned and droned he would coax even more sound from the instrument by manually adjusting, activating and deactivating the effects pedals and the amplifier. At times he propelled the dangling guitar into a circular spin around his stage area. I was impressed that he did not get smacked by the rotating instrument as he prowled the stage area.
Once released from its bondage he held the guitar by the body and trailed the headstock across the top of the amp, then across the floor resulting in a fresh barrage of sounds. He jammed a screw driver under the strings at the ninth fret, putting a new kind of tension on the strings and took advantage of this secondary bridge saddle to create a new texture of tones by playing above and below the screw driver bridge. This display of experimental music continued uninterrupted for about 40 minutes. He eventually pulled it to an end to field questions from attendees. He shared that he had a hard time quitting because the acoustics in the building were phenomenal.
We exited prior to the conclusion because we needed to head across town to The Venue in the O'Donovan Hotel. Our next stop was the Acoustic Forum which featured five guitarists including Richard. Each musician took turns playing a tune through two rounds and then sadly the time was up. More on this event in the next edition.
Part 2
The artists who participated in the Acoustic Forum were Kevin McNally who played classical and tradtional Irish tunes, Jim Murray, who also played tradtional Irish music, Sarah Cockery, who played fingerstyle and sang American folk style music, Paul Buckley who played American Blues standards and Richard Gilewitz who chose to play Walbert's "Dance" and Fahey's "Spanish Two Step". They did a round robin format where took turns playing a tune and talked about their influences. Each performer played two tunes and the time was much too quickly used up.
After the forum we took another stroll around town to check out the music scene. We attempted to see Eric Bell and Guests but this venue was completely jammed with people. Then we walked down to the The Wrastler where Gareth Forsyth was playing. He was recommended by Richard and Beverly. In contrast this venue was only sparsely populated. Gareth played his heart even though most of the people there ignored him. John and I discussed amongst ourselves about how frustrating this has to be to a musician. Being a novice, I am not certain how I would handle the situation. With my own angst about performing in public, I might actually be better off if everyone ignored me.
Richard had a gig teaching young people at the local Community College. Therefore we did not connect with he and Beverly until later in the evening. John and I did another stroll around town. Since it is so different from home we have been really enjoying just soaking in the atmosphere. There was a farmer's market in full gear today and it featured fresh locally caught fish. I recognized the flounder and that was all. Also there was a table full of cheeses of an incredible variety. Had we been hungry it would have been tempting. One of the featured performers of the festival, Gareth Forsyth, was playing music at the farmer's market. He is an excellent guitarist and vocalist and we enjoyed him enough to make a point of catching his pub performance this evening as well. John and I were very impressed with his playing and surprised to see how under-appreciated he seemed to be. He worked hard to entertain and it seemed everyone aside from ourselves ignored him while he played at the pub. The farmer's market folks listened more intently.
Last night Lee Ranaldo, from the Sonic Youth, opened the festival with a ticketed concert at DeBarra's Folk Club. We passed on his show, primarily because we need to control our spending. During our afternoon stroll we stopped into DeBarra's. This was our first look inside the epitome of Irish pubs. The walls inside are a veritable museum of music memorabilia, photos, instruments, and various decorative motifs. This is the pub that all other pubs wish they could be. We spoke briefly with a gentleman, whom I later learned was Ray Blackwell, one of the festival organizers. His parents are the proprietors of DBarra's Folk Club. We asked Ray whether the Ranaldo show went well. He said it was brilliant, more like a sonic artwork and a perfect way to open the festival. This left us feeling a bit empty for having missed it. According to the schedule for today, Ranaldo was due to lead a seminar at the parish hall across the road from our hotel so we headed over there for the 7pm start time. Again we were greeted with news that this seminar was a paid event and again it was not within our budget. Ray was collecting admission and since we had walked over there I figured at least a bit of friendly conversation was in order. I mentioned that I learned about the festival from Richard Gilewitz. Ray knew Richard and said "Oh yeah, you two can go on in, Richard told us that he had a couple of friends here and he's put you of the guest list and he is expected to show up after doing his sound check. What a pleasant surprise and completely unexpected! From everything I have discerned, Ray is the main "Go-To" guy for the festival.
Now for the seminar. Lee uses an electric guitar, a blue Fender Jazzmaster, to create a myriad of sounds. This guitar's cosmetic condition definitely reflects the artist's unconventional playing techniques. If this guitar were a child, Ranaldo would be arrested for child abuse. During the seminar which was a concert for the most part, he rarely played his electric guitar traditionally. The guitar was strung up by a cord and it dangled freely from the ceiling. With the guitar in this position, he used a violin bow to coax a variety of tones and sounds form the strings. At points he punctuated the sonic earscape by gently and not so gently banging the back of the guitar with the frog of the bow, producing a variety of sounds depending upon the intensity and location of the attack. He had several effects pedals and while the guitar groaned and droned he would coax even more sound from the instrument by manually adjusting, activating and deactivating the effects pedals and the amplifier. At times he propelled the dangling guitar into a circular spin around his stage area. I was impressed that he did not get smacked by the rotating instrument as he prowled the stage area.
Once released from its bondage he held the guitar by the body and trailed the headstock across the top of the amp, then across the floor resulting in a fresh barrage of sounds. He jammed a screw driver under the strings at the ninth fret, putting a new kind of tension on the strings and took advantage of this secondary bridge saddle to create a new texture of tones by playing above and below the screw driver bridge. This display of experimental music continued uninterrupted for about 40 minutes. He eventually pulled it to an end to field questions from attendees. He shared that he had a hard time quitting because the acoustics in the building were phenomenal.
We exited prior to the conclusion because we needed to head across town to The Venue in the O'Donovan Hotel. Our next stop was the Acoustic Forum which featured five guitarists including Richard. Each musician took turns playing a tune through two rounds and then sadly the time was up. More on this event in the next edition.
Part 2
The artists who participated in the Acoustic Forum were Kevin McNally who played classical and tradtional Irish tunes, Jim Murray, who also played tradtional Irish music, Sarah Cockery, who played fingerstyle and sang American folk style music, Paul Buckley who played American Blues standards and Richard Gilewitz who chose to play Walbert's "Dance" and Fahey's "Spanish Two Step". They did a round robin format where took turns playing a tune and talked about their influences. Each performer played two tunes and the time was much too quickly used up.
After the forum we took another stroll around town to check out the music scene. We attempted to see Eric Bell and Guests but this venue was completely jammed with people. Then we walked down to the The Wrastler where Gareth Forsyth was playing. He was recommended by Richard and Beverly. In contrast this venue was only sparsely populated. Gareth played his heart even though most of the people there ignored him. John and I discussed amongst ourselves about how frustrating this has to be to a musician. Being a novice, I am not certain how I would handle the situation. With my own angst about performing in public, I might actually be better off if everyone ignored me.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
We have arrived in Clonakilty
Wow it was truly an adventure today. I managed to get us from Dublin to Clonakilty and I don't think I did any damage to the car, maybe a few brush scratches. These roads are wild! Narrow and twisting like a deranged python. They invite aggressive shifting, slowing as you approach a corner then accelerating powerfully as you pull out of the corner. A corner that wasn't blind was the exception. I probably angered a few locals because I didn't throw caution to the wind. On most sections the speed limit is the equivalent of 60 mph. Roads and curves like these at home would be posted at no more than 40 and down to 15 on some of the curves. I have to do all the driving here because, honestly we really couldn't afford renting the car and adding another driver would be even more expensive. I survived the day and have become fairly comfortable with driving on the left but not completely so. It is anything but natural yet. The British car club folks at home would love these roads. Well even though we arrived unscathed, I am quite mentally exhausted from being on edge for every moment of the drive. I do not know how long it took. We didn't keep track of our leaving time. We left some time in the morning and arrived in Clon sometime in late afternoon. I believe we had the Garmin set to avoid tolls and we did just that. It did guide us through Dublin although and that proved to be a true baptism in managing the left hand driving thing.
Most of the day was cool and beautiful. Clouds moved briskly over head, shutting and opening the curtains on the sun. Brisk breezes from the ocean energized this activity and we got a little peek at the sea in the distance at one point. It is on our agenda to make our way down to the oceanside. Clon is an incredibly picturesque town, it's got a touristy side but not tasteless as many American tourist traps seem to be. It is a lived in town, the streets are filled with shops that cater to providing one's daily needs. As John and I strolled through a number of streets we did not see a single souvenir shop. There are posters up advertising the CIGF in most shops. I'm sure if Richard hasn't seen them yet he will be pleased to see that his name is placed in a prominent position. Somehow I have to manage to acquire at least one of these posters. Richard is doing two workshops and a performance. Ironically and conveniently his performance will be based at our hotel, The Emmet Hotel. There is another workshop I want to attend on accompanying Irish music sessions. We will be skipping the paid concerts, too expensive at 20 euros each person, each show. Neither of the featured performers are within my taste so this isn't much of a sacrifice. We stopped for a small dinner of soup at the Phoenix Bar. John Spilane is scheduled to perform at the Phoenix on Sunday and I would love to see him. He is a guitarist, duh, and a vocalist. I asked one of the locals if it gets pretty busy during this annual festival. One of the gents said "Yes it gets mental !" Packed to the gills. He said he's been considering putting a stick on the end of a cereal box, then adding some strings and participating in Saturday's attempt at breaking the world record of the most guitarists playing the same song at one time. He said he wouldn't play a real guitar because the poor guitar would need therapy after he got a hold of it. Last year there were 800+ participants. This is going to happen in the town square which is directly across the street from our hotel and overlooked by our room. When I tried to play guitar today my playing felt mediocre at best. I think I may be tired because even with jet lag, my playing was better yesterday. I immediately thought of how difficult it must be for a performer like Richard to jump into a show after spending a whole day traveling and getting from point A to B and then dealing with the pressure of putting on an excellent show. Epic fail on my part. Make a note: teenage girls of every nationality seem to have one thing in common. They are boisterously loud bunch. Currently the square is literally filled with teenagers, if this continues late into the night, we will not be getting much sleep. Where did all these kids come from? Do they have school in the morning? It seems as though they have suddenly materialized. Well I'm wrapping this up to get in some more practice.
Most of the day was cool and beautiful. Clouds moved briskly over head, shutting and opening the curtains on the sun. Brisk breezes from the ocean energized this activity and we got a little peek at the sea in the distance at one point. It is on our agenda to make our way down to the oceanside. Clon is an incredibly picturesque town, it's got a touristy side but not tasteless as many American tourist traps seem to be. It is a lived in town, the streets are filled with shops that cater to providing one's daily needs. As John and I strolled through a number of streets we did not see a single souvenir shop. There are posters up advertising the CIGF in most shops. I'm sure if Richard hasn't seen them yet he will be pleased to see that his name is placed in a prominent position. Somehow I have to manage to acquire at least one of these posters. Richard is doing two workshops and a performance. Ironically and conveniently his performance will be based at our hotel, The Emmet Hotel. There is another workshop I want to attend on accompanying Irish music sessions. We will be skipping the paid concerts, too expensive at 20 euros each person, each show. Neither of the featured performers are within my taste so this isn't much of a sacrifice. We stopped for a small dinner of soup at the Phoenix Bar. John Spilane is scheduled to perform at the Phoenix on Sunday and I would love to see him. He is a guitarist, duh, and a vocalist. I asked one of the locals if it gets pretty busy during this annual festival. One of the gents said "Yes it gets mental !" Packed to the gills. He said he's been considering putting a stick on the end of a cereal box, then adding some strings and participating in Saturday's attempt at breaking the world record of the most guitarists playing the same song at one time. He said he wouldn't play a real guitar because the poor guitar would need therapy after he got a hold of it. Last year there were 800+ participants. This is going to happen in the town square which is directly across the street from our hotel and overlooked by our room. When I tried to play guitar today my playing felt mediocre at best. I think I may be tired because even with jet lag, my playing was better yesterday. I immediately thought of how difficult it must be for a performer like Richard to jump into a show after spending a whole day traveling and getting from point A to B and then dealing with the pressure of putting on an excellent show. Epic fail on my part. Make a note: teenage girls of every nationality seem to have one thing in common. They are boisterously loud bunch. Currently the square is literally filled with teenagers, if this continues late into the night, we will not be getting much sleep. Where did all these kids come from? Do they have school in the morning? It seems as though they have suddenly materialized. Well I'm wrapping this up to get in some more practice.
just a quick note
I have spent my first day in Ireland. Spent most of it in the motel working on jet lag. Today the real adventure begins. I knew renting a car was going to be expensive but my goodness this is incredible and unfortunately it met my expectations. If you are thinking about movng to Ireland be prepared to spend at least $3000 a year on auto insurance. This is a definite argument for using public transportation. My husband is with me and it is great to have his company as we partake in this adventure.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Lots of passed time
It has been awhile since I have posted to this blog. The beginning of the school year certainly forces a change of focus. Organizing and implementing curriculum for my art classes and preparing for the next big step in my fellowship journey are on my mind regularly. At school, New Prairie High School in New Carlisle, IN, the year has begun on a positive note and NP UNplugged, the acoustic music club that I have sponsored for the previous two years is on it's way to growing. This club has a small core of students who are devoted and enthusiastic. They are all seniors and it is essential that the torch gets passed to equally interested underclassmen who will help keep the flame burning. I have floated the idea of starting an Open Mic aspect to the club and the kids are excited about that facet. In October, we will plan for our first meeting devoted to giving kids the opportunity to perform for a small audience.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The School Year Has Begun in Earnest
Oh I did get spoiled this summer. It was such a treat to absorb myself in playing guitar and now I am working at adjusting to what is actually "normal". My days from the time I rise in the morning to sometime in the evening are devoted to my career as a high school art teacher. The summers are always necessary to both students and teachers as opportunities to refresh the mind and spirit. The summer of 2010 shall always be savored in my memory as a very special time of renewal, exploration, improvement and intrinsic joy. This period has been characterized by goals being striven for and achieved and quickly replaced with new objectives. The bar is constantly rising just out of reach as I work to stretch my skill level incrementally upward. This is a prime example of learning being a life-long process.
I have to realize that it is impossible to maintain the practice schedule that I followed this summer throughout the school year. I am back to squeezing in a bit of practice during my lunch and for a few minutes before I leave for home and during the evening after I have returned home. Weekends are precious for their potential for sustained practice time. I keep a guitar at my desk. In fact it is my first six-string Breedlove, nicknamed "Buzz" by my dear husband. I will explain the moniker at some later time. This guitar has been through a lot and its acquisition set in motion the student-teacher relationship that I have with my mentor, Richard Gilewitz. I would have never met Mr. Gilewitz if I had not stumbled across the Breedlove brand, went to Hoosier Dad's music shop, made the purchase of that guitar and acted upon the owner's encouragement to attend a concert presented by Gilewitz. Little did I know in April of 2008, that such vital seed was being planted. I will continue this later. It is nearing midnight and I should have been asleep 30 minutes ago.
I have to realize that it is impossible to maintain the practice schedule that I followed this summer throughout the school year. I am back to squeezing in a bit of practice during my lunch and for a few minutes before I leave for home and during the evening after I have returned home. Weekends are precious for their potential for sustained practice time. I keep a guitar at my desk. In fact it is my first six-string Breedlove, nicknamed "Buzz" by my dear husband. I will explain the moniker at some later time. This guitar has been through a lot and its acquisition set in motion the student-teacher relationship that I have with my mentor, Richard Gilewitz. I would have never met Mr. Gilewitz if I had not stumbled across the Breedlove brand, went to Hoosier Dad's music shop, made the purchase of that guitar and acted upon the owner's encouragement to attend a concert presented by Gilewitz. Little did I know in April of 2008, that such vital seed was being planted. I will continue this later. It is nearing midnight and I should have been asleep 30 minutes ago.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Back To Work
Summer Break is officially over and now my guitar playing has to take second fiddle to my career as a high school art teacher. I am pretty excited to meet my new batch of students who shall come bouncing through the classroom door bright and early on Monday morning. I expect to put out an announcement for NP UNplugged the high school acoustic music club that I started. We will continue the tradition of meeting on Wednesdays after school for an hour.
My big challenge is developing a solid guitar practice routine now that I have lost flexibility with my time. I can no longer stay up until 2:30 am reviewing tunes or practicing technique. There are new pieces of music that I am anxious to learn including some Beatles arrangements by David Walbert. I also want to continue improving upon the tunes I currently have memorized. I have decided that they are like my kids. I must make sure they are given ample attention and care otherwise they are likely to simply wither away, become weak and eventually die off. Unfortunately, there are a few tunes that I nearly had memorized and lost track of because my attention was diverted to other pieces. There are two in particular that I feel guilty about never really conquering. Minuet For The Backroads and Greensleeves are nagging at me to be revived. There's a goal for this weekend along with masses of other responsibilities.
My big challenge is developing a solid guitar practice routine now that I have lost flexibility with my time. I can no longer stay up until 2:30 am reviewing tunes or practicing technique. There are new pieces of music that I am anxious to learn including some Beatles arrangements by David Walbert. I also want to continue improving upon the tunes I currently have memorized. I have decided that they are like my kids. I must make sure they are given ample attention and care otherwise they are likely to simply wither away, become weak and eventually die off. Unfortunately, there are a few tunes that I nearly had memorized and lost track of because my attention was diverted to other pieces. There are two in particular that I feel guilty about never really conquering. Minuet For The Backroads and Greensleeves are nagging at me to be revived. There's a goal for this weekend along with masses of other responsibilities.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Gillacampers 2010-August 7 and 8
Gillacampers Troy, Ohio August 7 and 8, 2010 | ||||
| Back Row: Me, Matt Stump(shop owner),Richard Gilewitz, Fred; Front Row: Camille , Mark, Leibert, John |
Gillacamp Weekend Has Drawn To A Close
It was a great experience indeed. Just like Saturday's sessions, I approached Sunday's sessions with the intent to learn as much as possible and to conquer some of my fears. I made some improvements along those lines but I still was extremely nervous while attempting to play Dance. I made enough mistakes that Richard stopped me relatively early to help me with some of the problem areas that he immediately caught. I did not have shaking hand syndrome this time around but some of my errors were based upon anxiety and others upon simply playing the piece incorrectly. He did something a bit different. He and Leibert played along with me during a second attempt. When asked, I told him that an additional level of tension was added to the experience. I was stressing about getting through the piece without a memory lapse but also about maintaining a steady rhythm so that he and Leibert could have at least a slight chance of hanging with me.
In the last hour of our day Richard again offered up the opportunity to play another piece for the group. I didn't give myself long to think about it and just volunteered to play again. This time I chose to play The Foggy Dew, a traditional Irish piece that in essence is not particularly difficult. It does lend itself to a bit of improvisation. I did some of that but must admit that nerves contributed to a loss of rhythm on my personal additions which I'd deem as sloppy and disjointed. It would do me good to "organize my improvisation" which I suppose sounds somewhat contradictory. It make sense to me although. During this "turn in the hot seat" Richard provided a series of distractions as he purposely walked back and forth in front me, messed with stuff on the table behind and bumped into me. I believe he may have done a few other things but honestly I wasn't paying much attention to that. This exercise was meant to replicate what could easily happen during a live performance. Surprisingly, the attempted intrusions upon my concentration were easier to deal with than performing for an attentive audience(I find this ironically humorous)...at least until he bumped my hand away from the strings. I quickly recovered from that nudge and finished the piece.
While nestled in the cocoon of anonymity within the group, I can quietly play through a piece of music in preparation for a performance experience. Then, I immediately tense up as soon as my butt hits the hot seat and things fragment to varying degrees.
We spent a decent share of time on John Fahey's "Take a Look at That Baby" , "Angels We Have Heard on High" and using open G tuning with slide. I started to feel a bit more comfortable with the slide. It is a priority to incorporate slid techniques to my playing. I really enjoy the sound. Like everything, it will take years of practice to truly master the textures that this tool can add to music. I often think about how music and visual arts overlap. Many visual art design concepts carry over into musical arrangement, expression and skill development.
We also spent time on set development. The weekend flew by and suddenly it was time to pack it in for Gillacamp 2010. Even though I was truly tired, I was not ready to see it end.
After the camp, a group of us met at a local Italian restaurant, La Piazza to socialize, wind down and review the weekend's experiences. Guitar-talk was a dominant focus of our conversations but many tangents were hit upon and a fairly boisterous time was had by all. Our backgrounds were diverse but we shared a mutual goal. Leibert made the comment that this year's camp had the highest level of players of any of the previous years. There were no "newbies". I recognized the difference as well. I have clear recollection of being an absolute novice, struggling to make sense of everything being thrown at me. I still hold the perpetual position of the least experienced player by years and even decades. There's a lot of catching up to do. In two days my teaching year begins and I will again need to organize my practice schedule around a full-time job. The trip to Ireland will be the next significant fellowship adventure. I depart for Dublin in about four weeks. In between that time I will be teaching art each weekday. Guitar practice will be dominating my spare hours and moments. It will be necessary to have my art students "trained" and have material ready to fill the two weeks that I will be absent from the classroom.
In the last hour of our day Richard again offered up the opportunity to play another piece for the group. I didn't give myself long to think about it and just volunteered to play again. This time I chose to play The Foggy Dew, a traditional Irish piece that in essence is not particularly difficult. It does lend itself to a bit of improvisation. I did some of that but must admit that nerves contributed to a loss of rhythm on my personal additions which I'd deem as sloppy and disjointed. It would do me good to "organize my improvisation" which I suppose sounds somewhat contradictory. It make sense to me although. During this "turn in the hot seat" Richard provided a series of distractions as he purposely walked back and forth in front me, messed with stuff on the table behind and bumped into me. I believe he may have done a few other things but honestly I wasn't paying much attention to that. This exercise was meant to replicate what could easily happen during a live performance. Surprisingly, the attempted intrusions upon my concentration were easier to deal with than performing for an attentive audience(I find this ironically humorous)...at least until he bumped my hand away from the strings. I quickly recovered from that nudge and finished the piece.
While nestled in the cocoon of anonymity within the group, I can quietly play through a piece of music in preparation for a performance experience. Then, I immediately tense up as soon as my butt hits the hot seat and things fragment to varying degrees.
We spent a decent share of time on John Fahey's "Take a Look at That Baby" , "Angels We Have Heard on High" and using open G tuning with slide. I started to feel a bit more comfortable with the slide. It is a priority to incorporate slid techniques to my playing. I really enjoy the sound. Like everything, it will take years of practice to truly master the textures that this tool can add to music. I often think about how music and visual arts overlap. Many visual art design concepts carry over into musical arrangement, expression and skill development.
We also spent time on set development. The weekend flew by and suddenly it was time to pack it in for Gillacamp 2010. Even though I was truly tired, I was not ready to see it end.
After the camp, a group of us met at a local Italian restaurant, La Piazza to socialize, wind down and review the weekend's experiences. Guitar-talk was a dominant focus of our conversations but many tangents were hit upon and a fairly boisterous time was had by all. Our backgrounds were diverse but we shared a mutual goal. Leibert made the comment that this year's camp had the highest level of players of any of the previous years. There were no "newbies". I recognized the difference as well. I have clear recollection of being an absolute novice, struggling to make sense of everything being thrown at me. I still hold the perpetual position of the least experienced player by years and even decades. There's a lot of catching up to do. In two days my teaching year begins and I will again need to organize my practice schedule around a full-time job. The trip to Ireland will be the next significant fellowship adventure. I depart for Dublin in about four weeks. In between that time I will be teaching art each weekday. Guitar practice will be dominating my spare hours and moments. It will be necessary to have my art students "trained" and have material ready to fill the two weeks that I will be absent from the classroom.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Just Because I Haven't Written An Entry....
...that doesn't mean I'm not busy. I have been practicing everyday for no less than 2-3 hours. Sometimes my practice will be an early morning one, sometimes it will be late at night or anytime in between. My sessions are very sporadic and are broken up by things like cleaning the house, shopping etc.You know those necessary little irritations that keep all of us from doing what we really prefer to be doing. In seven days I will find myself in Troy, OH for my third Gillacamp at Sound City Music. This will feel a bit like a reunion and unlike my first year at camp I will be joined by fellow guitarists whom I will recognize on sight, Leibert, John and Camille and of course our teacher Richard Gilewitz. Jim Holifield, the principal at New Prairie Middle School commented to me in an email message that my guitar skills should be improving by leaps and bounds. It is pretty difficult for me to be objective about such things but I have found one way to do that. Now last year at this time I had six tunes memorized, Echoing Gilewitz, Freight Train, Study for Margot, Dance, Silent Night and Spanish Two Step. In the past twelve months I have increased my memorized repertoire to a total of seventeen pieces. In fact, since this June alone, I have managed to add Prelude 1, Nocturne, Study in Bm, Anji and Falling Slowly. Trust me this is a definite improvement because memorization was a real stumbling block for me. In fact, last year I religiously played 500 repetitions of Freight Train to try and burn it into my brain. After those 500 repetitions it still was not there. I admit I was really frustrated with myself. Is my memory flawless? Do I have to pull out the music and check up on myself or remind myself of a passage that is on mental mute? Yes to both questions. In fact I am writing this as a break from focusing on Echoing Wilderness. I realized today that I hadn't played that piece for about two weeks because of new music I have been attempting. Gillacamp presents its own new challenges. Loch Lomond/Scotland the Brave, Take a Look At That Baby, Angels We Have Heard On High are on the syllabus. Fortunately, we campers have been provided the music ahead of time and it is giving me some time to familiarize myself with the pieces. I am feeling panicked at this point.
I have only twelve days of summer freedom left before the school year starts. I admit it will be difficult to put myself back into that daily schedule. I will adjust, but I know I am going to be tired and stressed. It is almost scary to think that the Ireland adventure is only a month and half away as well.
I have only twelve days of summer freedom left before the school year starts. I admit it will be difficult to put myself back into that daily schedule. I will adjust, but I know I am going to be tired and stressed. It is almost scary to think that the Ireland adventure is only a month and half away as well.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Working Hard For The Most Part
Since my return from ODPCFF, I have been digging in on my playing. For example this morning (very early I might add, around 6:00am) I spent about 90 minutes playing primarily Walbert's Dance. I have been attempting to incorporate a few nuances such as vibrato, volume variations, and paying strict attention to notes that are sustained. What I really cannot stand is when I produce a note that buzzes in the least little bit or when I flub the note progressions in a passage. David caught that I was not playing the artificial harmonics correctly. I was adding too many bass notes. Correcting this was part of my focus today. David also caught a spot where the tabulature of the transcription had an incorrect note. This doesn't sound like much of correction to make but I have been playing it wrong for over a year and that incorrect note does not sound out of place. My brain expects the incorrect tone and now I must retrain it to expect the correct one. It is my fault as well for not really looking at the notation. So I have two clear corrections to focus upon and I made some progress today but it will take a lot more effort between now and Gillacamp to entrench the corrections. I also focused upon a run that I particularly love in the piece but often stumble on. I repeated the whole thing several times today and Friday night. It is amazing how one's objectives evolve as you make improvements in your playing. At least for myself, I constantly push to play better. The bar keeps shifting up. I particularly enjoy moments of complete immersion, when the music seems to have the control. This does not happen regularly and it seems I must be "alone" for the magic to happen. I recognize the feeling as "mushin" , the martial arts' concept of automatically reacting correctly with an empty/mu spirit/shin, actually a clear mind that is unencumbered with the process of making a decision. It is a zen thing. In my case this cannot happen without the repeated practice of techniques and progressions. It is partially a muscle memory thing that is of course fundamentally tied to the nervous system. I believe that there are chemical synapses in the brain that actually are forming as one really learns something and repetition causes the pathways to strengthen.
Yesterday John and I attended the Celtic Fest in Seitz Park along the St. Joe River in South Bend. This was a very relaxing afternoon of lounging, eating Irish food provided by Fiddler's Hearth, and listening to some of our local Celtic influenced musicians present a relaxed concert of jigs, reels, ballads and personal compositions. I have been feeling stressed lately and this was a good way to decompress. I even brought my guitar along and tested myself with figuring out chord progressions while I quietly played along with the musicians. Having the guitar there also provided me with some practice time in between sets.
Yesterday John and I attended the Celtic Fest in Seitz Park along the St. Joe River in South Bend. This was a very relaxing afternoon of lounging, eating Irish food provided by Fiddler's Hearth, and listening to some of our local Celtic influenced musicians present a relaxed concert of jigs, reels, ballads and personal compositions. I have been feeling stressed lately and this was a good way to decompress. I even brought my guitar along and tested myself with figuring out chord progressions while I quietly played along with the musicians. Having the guitar there also provided me with some practice time in between sets.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Recapping
It feels almost unusual to be home and settled for awhile. Two of my travel-based aspects of the Lilly project are in the history book. I thought it'd be useful to contrast the two festivals that I attended. My original grant proposal was written with the intention to attend one of Richard's Gillacamps on Amelia Island, Fl. The venue for that camp unexpectedly closed so alternate plans were formulated and my trip took me to the U. of Miami instead. This was a longer trip so my husband was unable to attend. Also my travel plans morphed into flying to Miami and Birmingham, renting cars and acquiring lodging. As a solitary traveler this just made more sense, but it did have me hopping planes and limiting what I could bring with me, specifically the number of guitars(one). It's useful to reflect on how I would have changed my approach to this trip. I think I did pretty well but for one person I had too much to lug around. My idea of shipping back my laundry and items that I no longer needed did work out beautifully and this was an excellent test run for Ireland. Although shipping redundant items will not work for the up-coming Ireland trip. My Hiscox guitar case did a great job of protecting my instrument. I actually observed the guitar being loaded onto airplanes twice and both times the airlines handled it respectfully. Thanks Delta and American luggage handlers. I noted that three of the classical guitar students at the MIGF also had Hiscox cases.
Now in contrast the ODPC festival was an adventure shared with my husband and it served as a vacation break for him. We drove to this four day event and with our Scion XB for transport we were able to pack it liberally. In fact our clothing was packed into one medium sized case and everything else occupied the bulk of the space. This included our cooler, two guitars, two mandolins, a banjo, a bodhran, video equipment, camera, and my trusty little Asus netbook. We joked about how the proportion of clothing to "music stuff" was skewed in favor of the later.
As would be expected the "expenses" of each trip were sharply contrasted. My lone Florida adventure exceeded the fifteen hundred dollar mark to complete.. I am almost afraid to tally the whole cost. There is no way I could have afforded this without the funds the fellowship provided.. My participation fees alone were around $350. The fee for attending the ODPC funfest was a one time $5 fee for all four days. One must keep in mind that the festival does run solely on volunteer efforts. The only people making money were the vendors and those who were selling off their used instruments. Of course we had hotel, travel and meal expenses. ODPC was not free and it did reach into the $600 plus range. Again since our finances have been tight we could not have afforded this trip without my portion being aided by the Lilly grant.
Now I want to contrast the "feel" of both events. Here is what they had in common. Participants who were dedicated and enthusiastic, teachers who worked very hard to engage and help their students learn, performers who were top-notch and well prepared for the performances they delivered, and venues that seemed perfect for the sort of event presented.
MIGF and ODPC were quite different in flavor. MGIF performances attracted both families and friends of the performers and folks from the community who would be characterized by middle class and above. The audience was likely to be college educated(if they were old enough yet) and whose musical interests bent towards classical traditions. The traditions of classical performances seem to revolve around maintaining a strict decorum of black clothing for the performers, specific ways to enter and exit the stage, little to no verbal communication with the audience(Mir Ali broke this commandment and it was quite refreshing) and a certain stiffness that comes from trying to accurately play a piece of music with respect for the composer. This does not mean that personal expression was restricted, it just seemed to take a back seat to written music. Now I will admit that I was not familiar with much or any of the compositions presented so my analysis probably exposes that ignorance. I was truly surprised that some of the performers had their music in front of them during the performance. Now much of this seems to shatter when the Flamenco tradition creeps in and takes over the performers spirits. Richard's participation in this series was definitely a mould breaker since his mastery of many traditions clearly results in his own interpretations of the pieces he has chosen for his extensive repertoire. As he presented material to students who are nurtured in the classical tradition with material that expected them to experiment, they had definite difficulty. Mir Ali, another master, who performs and teaches within this classical tradition did not fear bending the music to his own personality. He has a special gift for arranging multiple performers, pushing them out of their comfort zones.
ODCP was definitely the "common" peoples event and families participated together often spanning generations. The participants spanned the gamut of raw beginners to seasoned professionals. Much emphasis is placed upon being able to develop the skills to jam together with other musicians. Instead of inhabiting the hallowed grounds of academia this festival populated the local county fair grounds and had much of that atmosphere permeating it. Great strides were made to make everyone feel welcome, young, old and all in-between. It was a very fluid event with people and their carts of instruments, chairs(you had to bring your own) and accessories shuttling through aisle ways and in and out of barns with wonderful titles like "swine", "rabbit", "poultry" and "beef". As one acquaintance described it, "looks like an exodus of refugees". Neither bovine or bunny were in sight and the only birds spied were the occasional swallows and wrens that fluttered their ways in an out of the structures. It is easy to feel comfortable in a situation such as this. Certainly there is less stress about attempting new material and making the typical newbie mistakes. Since there were so many people, most wouldn't even hear your clunkers. The musical foundation for those who play chording instruments was learning the basic three chord progressions in the major keys and throwing in the occasional relative minor. The focus of this sort of event is trying to make it possible for the masses to participate in the joy of music. Old Timey music dominated and Celtic traditions were an extremely strong focus as well.
Now in contrast the ODPC festival was an adventure shared with my husband and it served as a vacation break for him. We drove to this four day event and with our Scion XB for transport we were able to pack it liberally. In fact our clothing was packed into one medium sized case and everything else occupied the bulk of the space. This included our cooler, two guitars, two mandolins, a banjo, a bodhran, video equipment, camera, and my trusty little Asus netbook. We joked about how the proportion of clothing to "music stuff" was skewed in favor of the later.
As would be expected the "expenses" of each trip were sharply contrasted. My lone Florida adventure exceeded the fifteen hundred dollar mark to complete.. I am almost afraid to tally the whole cost. There is no way I could have afforded this without the funds the fellowship provided.. My participation fees alone were around $350. The fee for attending the ODPC funfest was a one time $5 fee for all four days. One must keep in mind that the festival does run solely on volunteer efforts. The only people making money were the vendors and those who were selling off their used instruments. Of course we had hotel, travel and meal expenses. ODPC was not free and it did reach into the $600 plus range. Again since our finances have been tight we could not have afforded this trip without my portion being aided by the Lilly grant.
Now I want to contrast the "feel" of both events. Here is what they had in common. Participants who were dedicated and enthusiastic, teachers who worked very hard to engage and help their students learn, performers who were top-notch and well prepared for the performances they delivered, and venues that seemed perfect for the sort of event presented.
MIGF and ODPC were quite different in flavor. MGIF performances attracted both families and friends of the performers and folks from the community who would be characterized by middle class and above. The audience was likely to be college educated(if they were old enough yet) and whose musical interests bent towards classical traditions. The traditions of classical performances seem to revolve around maintaining a strict decorum of black clothing for the performers, specific ways to enter and exit the stage, little to no verbal communication with the audience(Mir Ali broke this commandment and it was quite refreshing) and a certain stiffness that comes from trying to accurately play a piece of music with respect for the composer. This does not mean that personal expression was restricted, it just seemed to take a back seat to written music. Now I will admit that I was not familiar with much or any of the compositions presented so my analysis probably exposes that ignorance. I was truly surprised that some of the performers had their music in front of them during the performance. Now much of this seems to shatter when the Flamenco tradition creeps in and takes over the performers spirits. Richard's participation in this series was definitely a mould breaker since his mastery of many traditions clearly results in his own interpretations of the pieces he has chosen for his extensive repertoire. As he presented material to students who are nurtured in the classical tradition with material that expected them to experiment, they had definite difficulty. Mir Ali, another master, who performs and teaches within this classical tradition did not fear bending the music to his own personality. He has a special gift for arranging multiple performers, pushing them out of their comfort zones.
ODCP was definitely the "common" peoples event and families participated together often spanning generations. The participants spanned the gamut of raw beginners to seasoned professionals. Much emphasis is placed upon being able to develop the skills to jam together with other musicians. Instead of inhabiting the hallowed grounds of academia this festival populated the local county fair grounds and had much of that atmosphere permeating it. Great strides were made to make everyone feel welcome, young, old and all in-between. It was a very fluid event with people and their carts of instruments, chairs(you had to bring your own) and accessories shuttling through aisle ways and in and out of barns with wonderful titles like "swine", "rabbit", "poultry" and "beef". As one acquaintance described it, "looks like an exodus of refugees". Neither bovine or bunny were in sight and the only birds spied were the occasional swallows and wrens that fluttered their ways in an out of the structures. It is easy to feel comfortable in a situation such as this. Certainly there is less stress about attempting new material and making the typical newbie mistakes. Since there were so many people, most wouldn't even hear your clunkers. The musical foundation for those who play chording instruments was learning the basic three chord progressions in the major keys and throwing in the occasional relative minor. The focus of this sort of event is trying to make it possible for the masses to participate in the joy of music. Old Timey music dominated and Celtic traditions were an extremely strong focus as well.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Giving the Johnson Octave Mandolin some attention
Picking my way through the melody of "Wayfaring Stranger".
Expectations Being Met
It's 10:00 pm and John and I have made our way to the hotel in Big Rapids, Mi to settle in for the night. Two days of the Original Dulcimer Players Festival are now history. We have spent the last two days shuffling our instruments to and from various sites within the festival venue. The setting for the festival is the county fair grounds outside of the town of Evart, Mi. Yesterday we attended workshops on music theory and Irish music. I have found that it is pretty easy to discern whether a workshop will meet my needs. Sometimes well meaning presenters just do not have their act together. I found that rather than politely suffering through a weak presentation, it is better to quietly exit and spend my time focusing on the music I am trying learn and perfect. John and I are pretty like minded in this respect and we are happy to search out a spare space within a barn to play our instruments.
The weather has been a bit of a challenge. Yesterday started out stormy but by mid-day clouds cleared enough to allow temperatures to rise into the high eighties and produce steamy conditions that my body just does not appreciate. Both of us were feeling heat stressed by the time early evening approached so we headed back to the hotel around 5:00 pm. After dinner I settled into about a two-three hour practice session which suits me just fine.
My favorite workshop from yesterday was the Irish session. It was taught by David James. He is actually from South Bend and is the resident expert on Irish traditional music. David is an excellent instructor who fully engages his students. His enthusiasm for Irish music is contagious. I confess a love for the genre as well. This affinity was sparked decades ago when as a curious teenager, I came across an album by the band Pentangle. The rhythms and sounds hooked me. Here it is forty years since that fateful find and I have a couple Irish tunes that I play on guitar daily and this coming September I will be heading to Ireland for the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival.
When all is tallied, I did actually manage something like 5 hours of practice yesterday.
Today we arrived on site at around 11 am. I abandoned my guitar comfort zone for the workshop portion of the day. I own an octave mandolin(larger and deeper voiced than it's little brother)and a workshop that taught a simple version of "Wayfaring Stranger" was my first destination. I like the octave mandolin because I can use fingerpicking techniques since the neck is both a bit wider and longer than a regular mandolin. I really enjoyed the experience and the instructor did a fine job and was genuinely enthusiastic. I actually did okay reading the notation and making the adjustments to the GDAE tuned mandolin.
The second workshop covered adjustment and setup of a banjo. The instructor was quite prepared with excellent handouts and he clearly had decades of experience.
The third workshop was conducted by David James and he did a superb job of teaching basic bodhran(Irish hand drum). I've owned a bodhran for about 6 months but was pretty clueless about the methods associated with playing it properly. My interest in this instrument is motivated by desire to improve my sense of rhythm and timing. My difficulty with those musical elements has been a constant challenge.
Once this workshop was completed we headed on over to the main stage and watched performances until around 8pm. Tomorrow promises to be another busy day of workshops, practice time and the intention of participating in some jam sessions. We expect to stay late into the evening tomorrow. If it is anything like last year, there will be jam sessions at several locations that will extend into the wee hours.
The weather has been a bit of a challenge. Yesterday started out stormy but by mid-day clouds cleared enough to allow temperatures to rise into the high eighties and produce steamy conditions that my body just does not appreciate. Both of us were feeling heat stressed by the time early evening approached so we headed back to the hotel around 5:00 pm. After dinner I settled into about a two-three hour practice session which suits me just fine.
My favorite workshop from yesterday was the Irish session. It was taught by David James. He is actually from South Bend and is the resident expert on Irish traditional music. David is an excellent instructor who fully engages his students. His enthusiasm for Irish music is contagious. I confess a love for the genre as well. This affinity was sparked decades ago when as a curious teenager, I came across an album by the band Pentangle. The rhythms and sounds hooked me. Here it is forty years since that fateful find and I have a couple Irish tunes that I play on guitar daily and this coming September I will be heading to Ireland for the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival.
When all is tallied, I did actually manage something like 5 hours of practice yesterday.
Today we arrived on site at around 11 am. I abandoned my guitar comfort zone for the workshop portion of the day. I own an octave mandolin(larger and deeper voiced than it's little brother)and a workshop that taught a simple version of "Wayfaring Stranger" was my first destination. I like the octave mandolin because I can use fingerpicking techniques since the neck is both a bit wider and longer than a regular mandolin. I really enjoyed the experience and the instructor did a fine job and was genuinely enthusiastic. I actually did okay reading the notation and making the adjustments to the GDAE tuned mandolin.
The second workshop covered adjustment and setup of a banjo. The instructor was quite prepared with excellent handouts and he clearly had decades of experience.
The third workshop was conducted by David James and he did a superb job of teaching basic bodhran(Irish hand drum). I've owned a bodhran for about 6 months but was pretty clueless about the methods associated with playing it properly. My interest in this instrument is motivated by desire to improve my sense of rhythm and timing. My difficulty with those musical elements has been a constant challenge.
Once this workshop was completed we headed on over to the main stage and watched performances until around 8pm. Tomorrow promises to be another busy day of workshops, practice time and the intention of participating in some jam sessions. We expect to stay late into the evening tomorrow. If it is anything like last year, there will be jam sessions at several locations that will extend into the wee hours.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tightly Focused Practice
On Sunday afternoon, I had my first lesson with Richard since The MIGF. Although it was brief, (we both wanted to watch the World Cup final), it was focused and contained enough guidance to give me a good working approach towards Prelude 1.
Today is not a particularly "exciting" day to read about. I really focused my practice upon two pieces of music, Nocturne and Prelude 1. Yesterday's lesson with Richard pin-pointed measures or parts of measures that I am likely to find challenging. My time was spent reviewing my notes from his instruction and applying those concepts to actually playing Prelude 1. It is a very new piece of music for me, I received it from Walbert about 6 days ago. After today's review it started to feel a bit more familiar under my fingers, but firmly situated within what I refer to as the "exploratory" stage. Richard has limited my practice to about the 2/3 point of the whole piece until I can manage the difficult bits. There is a left hand ring finger stretch that is a serious challenge. It is not completely out of my capabilities because I have managed it with a struggle. RG has challenged me to have Prelude 1 memorized in time for Gillacamp. Surprisingly, I have memorized the first page and some of the measures on the second page. This does not mean I can play the music with anything resembling confidence. Nevertheless, I should be able to commit it to memory by August 7th.. but it will surely be a work in progress, much like everything that I play. As far as Nocturne goes, I do have this one memorized but it still needs a lot of work. I am beginning to feel the piece, which signals a step of progress. I broke up my practice of the above pieces by playing through Dance, Study for Margot, Maison Blanche Exit Song, Anji, The Foggy Dew and Star of County Down.
Tomorrow, I will have to at least begin to organize myself for the ODPC Festival. We will be leaving for Evart, MI sometime on Wednesday. I will probably pack clothing, essentials and do a bit of shopping for refreshments on Tuesday. I always wait until the last minute to pack instruments. A packed instrument is an un-played instrument. The festival events begin on Thursday and extend until Sunday morning. John and I hope to be participating in workshops and jam sessions. I only worry about the weather since a major heat wave is predicted to hit us on Wednesday. Perhaps a three hour drive north will take us to cooler conditions.... There is a guy offering a fingerstyle clinic, so I may pop in and see what he has to offer. Judging by his write up his right hand technique is limited to p, i and m. and with "banjo" style finger picks.
This festival is something that John and I will participate in equally but with different focuses. I do plan on packing my octave mandolin and the tin whistle to give them their annual workout. We did really enjoy the atmosphere of the event last year. Lots of nice people and virtually everyone is a musician.
Today is not a particularly "exciting" day to read about. I really focused my practice upon two pieces of music, Nocturne and Prelude 1. Yesterday's lesson with Richard pin-pointed measures or parts of measures that I am likely to find challenging. My time was spent reviewing my notes from his instruction and applying those concepts to actually playing Prelude 1. It is a very new piece of music for me, I received it from Walbert about 6 days ago. After today's review it started to feel a bit more familiar under my fingers, but firmly situated within what I refer to as the "exploratory" stage. Richard has limited my practice to about the 2/3 point of the whole piece until I can manage the difficult bits. There is a left hand ring finger stretch that is a serious challenge. It is not completely out of my capabilities because I have managed it with a struggle. RG has challenged me to have Prelude 1 memorized in time for Gillacamp. Surprisingly, I have memorized the first page and some of the measures on the second page. This does not mean I can play the music with anything resembling confidence. Nevertheless, I should be able to commit it to memory by August 7th.. but it will surely be a work in progress, much like everything that I play. As far as Nocturne goes, I do have this one memorized but it still needs a lot of work. I am beginning to feel the piece, which signals a step of progress. I broke up my practice of the above pieces by playing through Dance, Study for Margot, Maison Blanche Exit Song, Anji, The Foggy Dew and Star of County Down.
Tomorrow, I will have to at least begin to organize myself for the ODPC Festival. We will be leaving for Evart, MI sometime on Wednesday. I will probably pack clothing, essentials and do a bit of shopping for refreshments on Tuesday. I always wait until the last minute to pack instruments. A packed instrument is an un-played instrument. The festival events begin on Thursday and extend until Sunday morning. John and I hope to be participating in workshops and jam sessions. I only worry about the weather since a major heat wave is predicted to hit us on Wednesday. Perhaps a three hour drive north will take us to cooler conditions.... There is a guy offering a fingerstyle clinic, so I may pop in and see what he has to offer. Judging by his write up his right hand technique is limited to p, i and m. and with "banjo" style finger picks.
This festival is something that John and I will participate in equally but with different focuses. I do plan on packing my octave mandolin and the tin whistle to give them their annual workout. We did really enjoy the atmosphere of the event last year. Lots of nice people and virtually everyone is a musician.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Sometimes You Just Have to Accept The Inevitable
I couldn't help but surrender to the same rays of sunshine that immobilized two out of three cats.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
A Delayed Reaction
Yesterday, you know that point in time past, and not the Beatles tune(well actually the tune is quite interesting too) was an interesting day. It began with the receipt of new music as I mentioned earlier and was an erratic affair of fussing around the house and playing guitar. I did manage a solid 3 hour guitar session in the afternoon that was interrupted by John returning home from work and the realization that our couch had reached the unacceptably corroded phase. We went out and purchased a new one that will join our household sometime on Saturday. I think I'm going to enjoy relaxing on a sofa that doesn't have a cracked frame, collapsed cushioning and general deterioration from 15 years of wear and tear. Since the living-room is my practice zone I will get a lot of use out of this new couch. The drive to the store took longer than the choice of the new piece of furniture. So this ended up being an expensive day because, I also sporadically ordered a couple of Peter Lang CD's. Actually the ordering part was a gut reaction but the discs are on my Richard Gilewitz's Required Listening Library List. I ended up staying awake all day and stuck myself in bed at the "early for me in the summertime" hour of 1:00am.
Today, I ended up arising at 6:30 am this morning. Grrrr, another measly 5.5 hour nap. No sense fighting it although. Later on I was pleasantly greeted by two more Walbert arrangements, Julia(Beatles) and Air on a G string(Bach). I have this feeling I am queuing up the next 10 years of repertoire development. By noon the Peter Lang CD's arrived, gotta love Amazon.com. In fact, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window is providing musical background as I compose this installment.
I did manage more time with Prelude 1 today. I'm still focusing on the first 2 pages, just not comfortable with the phrasings yet. It seems every new piece of music challenges my brain to coax my fingers to properly react to new picking and fretting combinations. I guess this is one of those blatantly obvious observations. It is my hope, that as I go through this learning process, it will be easier to make the connections. More specifically, I am still working at internalizing Nocturne and I spent some time with Maison Blanche, Accordion Bells and Study in Bm.
Now here's a hilarious irony. Prior to leaving for Miami, I purchased additional and specific insurance for my guitar. I received a letter today saying that the company is rejecting my application for the insurance because they do not insure instruments used by "professional musicians". I think I will need to phone them up and let them know that PROFESSIONAL musicians are paid "hundreds of dollars a year" for their services and "travel all over the world and Alabama" to perform. Whereas, Yvonne Desrosiers has actually traveled to Alabama and even Florida and Ohio to play guitar, she pays for the privilege and therefore doesn't qualify as a professional. I think Richard will vouch for my lack of professionalism. :) I can see a difference, I hope they can too.
Sometime around 1:30 pm, I just could not resist taking a nap, a delayed reaction from my sleep deprivation. Well that has refreshed me enough to manage being alert during today's Fire Arts workshop and coherent enough to put some words together into readable sentences. You gotta love spell checker although. Excuse me.....I hear something.... Yes my guitar is calling my name, apparently it gets lonely and cranky if ignored for about four hours. I'm going to get in some more playing before my next "nap".
Today, I ended up arising at 6:30 am this morning. Grrrr, another measly 5.5 hour nap. No sense fighting it although. Later on I was pleasantly greeted by two more Walbert arrangements, Julia(Beatles) and Air on a G string(Bach). I have this feeling I am queuing up the next 10 years of repertoire development. By noon the Peter Lang CD's arrived, gotta love Amazon.com. In fact, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window is providing musical background as I compose this installment.
I did manage more time with Prelude 1 today. I'm still focusing on the first 2 pages, just not comfortable with the phrasings yet. It seems every new piece of music challenges my brain to coax my fingers to properly react to new picking and fretting combinations. I guess this is one of those blatantly obvious observations. It is my hope, that as I go through this learning process, it will be easier to make the connections. More specifically, I am still working at internalizing Nocturne and I spent some time with Maison Blanche, Accordion Bells and Study in Bm.
Now here's a hilarious irony. Prior to leaving for Miami, I purchased additional and specific insurance for my guitar. I received a letter today saying that the company is rejecting my application for the insurance because they do not insure instruments used by "professional musicians". I think I will need to phone them up and let them know that PROFESSIONAL musicians are paid "hundreds of dollars a year" for their services and "travel all over the world and Alabama" to perform. Whereas, Yvonne Desrosiers has actually traveled to Alabama and even Florida and Ohio to play guitar, she pays for the privilege and therefore doesn't qualify as a professional. I think Richard will vouch for my lack of professionalism. :) I can see a difference, I hope they can too.
Sometime around 1:30 pm, I just could not resist taking a nap, a delayed reaction from my sleep deprivation. Well that has refreshed me enough to manage being alert during today's Fire Arts workshop and coherent enough to put some words together into readable sentences. You gotta love spell checker although. Excuse me.....I hear something.... Yes my guitar is calling my name, apparently it gets lonely and cranky if ignored for about four hours. I'm going to get in some more playing before my next "nap".
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Fresh Music for the Butcher
I received an installment of fresh compositions from David Walbert yesterday. Actually it includes his arrangement of "Yesterday" by Lennon and McCartney. The first piece in the group that I am putting my attention towards is Walbert's Prelude #1. It's a very pretty piece and because I frequently listen to Richard's "Music of David Walbert" album, I have a good handle on what it is supposed to sound like. With mucho practice perhaps I'll be able to have my playing do the piece justice. It starts with a beautiful series of hammer-on and pull-offs. I am focusing just on the first page and a bit into the second at this time. Next on the list will be Yesterday and Richard has offered to help me out on that one, which is always appreciated. I also plan to get his help with some of the currently tricky passages in Prelude 1. In fact, I managed to stay up way too late last night( well it was dark out but technically it was this morning, since my head hit the pillow sometime around 3:45am. As I lay there I realized my poor hubby was going to be up in about an hour) because I was having fun working out the left and right acrobatics. Somehow I think I'm going to need a nap later today, considering I was up at 8:30. Hummm less than 5 hours sleep, let's see how that affects my functionality. Another hot and humid day is on the menu, not much motivation to leave the air conditioned comfort of home.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Stepping Back
Today has thus far been exclusively dedicated to the guitar with the exception of a quick trip to Staples with my hubby and this literary digression. I still have this goal of committing Nocturne to memory before the weekend concludes. It is a good thing this is a three day weekend because it looks as though I am going to need that additional day. I have been breaking up the Nocturne focus with other tunes that although memorized still need additional work. Honestly, they all need work. Perfection is elusive and impossible. Sometimes I get frustrated as I can only see(technically hear) the mistakes I make and my memory works so very slowly. From my perspective it seems that "others" have an easier time of storing tunes in their brains. Well back to work.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Self Defense
You have to look closely. Yes those are peanuts in my ears. They were applied in self-defense as Julie and Jackie, my studio buddies dropped hints about my having a show in the Fire Arts gallery next year. This helped me ignore the hint and continue playing Echoing Gilewitz.
A Perfect Day
My day started at 9:00 am. This felt like sleeping in because it is the latest I have gotten up so far this summer and the longest I have slept. I followed my typical regime of preparing for the day by brushing my teeth and getting dressed, shuffled downstairs and started up the computer and grabbed the closest guitar which ended up being my 12 string. So I greeted the morning with a mournful rendition of The Foggy Dew, played around with the mood of the piece during many repetitions and moved on to Loch Lomond/Scotland the Brave. All because the 12 string beastie was already in Open C something tuning. I ignored the churning computer for another 45 minutes or so and moved onto working on Nocturne and Anji, my current main focuses. I have this goal of getting Nocturne memorized before the weekend is out. I am creeping forward and not altogether confident that I will achieve that arbitrary challenge. A practice session feels totally incomplete if I haven't played Dance and Study for Margot so they both got ample attention today along with Freight Train, Falling Slowly and Scarborough Fair.
I forced a separation between me and instruments and left to get my morning Starbuck's Frappacino(at some point I realized I hadn't had anything to eat yet) and to get some DVD cases for the festival videos I have rendered. By this time the morning had waned and mid-day surfaced. After organizing the videos, I couldn't help but grab the guitars and get back to work on my playing. I ran through a few of the exercises Walbert presented to me then picked my way through several tunes.
John was my nourishment savior and came home from work with a sandwich from Subway for my dinner. Thanks hon! Then it was off to Fire Arts for me to mentor the high school kids who are participating in summer studio. I keep a guitar at the studio and took a few breaks from the kids and played some more music. In fact I ended up leaving about an hour late because I was pretty absorbed in the tunes. My studio buddies seem to be a willing audience, at least I hope I'm not torturing their ears. They did stay until I was finished.... Not so true although for the pit bull dog one of the kids brought to the studio. He was sweet tempered and friendly until I began to play. He absolutely was offended by the sound of my guitar. It completely frightened the poor pup and he huddled next to his owner and barked at every strum. Fortunately, my dog is completely unaffected by the sound of my playing and often lays next to me during a practice session.
I forced a separation between me and instruments and left to get my morning Starbuck's Frappacino(at some point I realized I hadn't had anything to eat yet) and to get some DVD cases for the festival videos I have rendered. By this time the morning had waned and mid-day surfaced. After organizing the videos, I couldn't help but grab the guitars and get back to work on my playing. I ran through a few of the exercises Walbert presented to me then picked my way through several tunes.
John was my nourishment savior and came home from work with a sandwich from Subway for my dinner. Thanks hon! Then it was off to Fire Arts for me to mentor the high school kids who are participating in summer studio. I keep a guitar at the studio and took a few breaks from the kids and played some more music. In fact I ended up leaving about an hour late because I was pretty absorbed in the tunes. My studio buddies seem to be a willing audience, at least I hope I'm not torturing their ears. They did stay until I was finished.... Not so true although for the pit bull dog one of the kids brought to the studio. He was sweet tempered and friendly until I began to play. He absolutely was offended by the sound of my guitar. It completely frightened the poor pup and he huddled next to his owner and barked at every strum. Fortunately, my dog is completely unaffected by the sound of my playing and often lays next to me during a practice session.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Applying Lessons
I have been home for a solid week since my seven day guitar immersion at the Miami International Guitar Festival and subsequent two day Walbertization. The whole 9 day adventure was a whirlwind of learning. I have had the opportunity to meet some fabulous guitarists. I was absolutely surrounded by talented and dedicated musicians whose skills rightfully are leaps and bounds beyond my relatively rudimentary level. As I reflect upon everything I become aware of how kind everyone was and even though there was a huge musical divide I was not shunned or ignored. I have tried my best to gain knowledge and nudge my skills forward as I participated in workshops, individual lessons with Richard Gilewitz and David Walbert, observed demonstrations and performances and listened to conversations of the guitarists. In this current week's time I have done my best to catch up on chores that were neglected in my absence and to digest my lessons. My days have been sporadically broken into bits of playing, reviewing notes, reviewing video and making discrete video discs, and working on a couple of new pieces of music. I have been focusing a lot of energy on another David Walbert piece "Nocturne" I have some of the puzzle pieces memorized and am building it measure by measure. I am also working on "Anji" which was the focus of one of my lessons with Richard. I finally have gotten a feel for the timing and bluesy bounce of the piece and have a desperate need to burn that hard won achievement into my brain. Walbert made a few left hand adjustments in Study for Margot so I am working at incorporating those changes and just simply improving the piece. He also gave me a wealth of advice and exercises to improve the mechanics of my playing and begin to add some color and texture.
Soon I will begin preparations for the next adventure, attending the Original Dulcimer Players Funfest in Evart, Mi. Contrary to the title this is a huge acoustic music festival that provides workshops and playing opportunities for much more than hammered dulcimer players. Most acoustic instruments are represented and positive energy flows freely. John and I get to participate in this one together which is a definite plus.
Soon I will begin preparations for the next adventure, attending the Original Dulcimer Players Funfest in Evart, Mi. Contrary to the title this is a huge acoustic music festival that provides workshops and playing opportunities for much more than hammered dulcimer players. Most acoustic instruments are represented and positive energy flows freely. John and I get to participate in this one together which is a definite plus.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Stumbling Blocks and Irritations
While the computer awakened this morning I did my usual thing of grabbing a guitar and practicing. No sense staring at a loading computer screen, may as well accomplish something. The last few times I have played Echoing Gilewitz, Richard caught the fact that I keep flubbing the patterns in a some of the sections. I have made concerted efforts to repair this problem in the past and had falsely slipped into the thinking I had the problem nipped. This is so far from the truth that I am really irritated with myself for not repairing these ingrained errors. I have just spent minutes 30 attacking the trouble spots, repeating, repeating and repeating them some more, then incorporating them into the whole tune. I get it right sometimes and then it seems my fingers have their own little nasty agenda and they just go ahead and play them incorrectly. Maybe today will be Echoing Gilewitz day. Clearly it is going to take several hours to retrain my stubborn brain and right hand.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
David Walbert directs me in an exercise.
Well sort of.... we actually posed for this shot, balanced the camera on a support and set the timer and hoped for the best. I wasn't as stunned as I looked.
Monday, June 21, 2010
I've Been Walbertized! And it is GOOD!
I just settled back into my hotel room in Birmingham, Al. I arrived at the airport yesterday at 12:10 pm, deplaned, got my luggage, picked up a rental car and made it to Yoda's Den(Gilewitz's affectionate term for David Walbert's home studio) by 1:07pm, not too bad considering my flight was 10 minutes late as well. Sunday's session focused upon Study for Margot and Dance, both being Walbert compositions that I have been playing. He suggested new left hand fingerings in a few places on Study that help me smooth out some sections. We also worked on picking mechanics. He showed me and helped me develop some techniques that I had never tried before, including string stops, vibrato, right hand sweeping strokes, rest strokes etc. So much information flowed and it will be great if I can remember 50% and incorporate into my playing. Walbert is an absolutely fantastic teacher and it became apparent within 20 minutes why Gilewitz reveres him so much. Their approaches are similar but David's is deeply rooted in his classical roots. Richard has prepared me so well that as we finished up today's three(supposed to only be two) hour session and I told David I had only been playing since August of 2008, he was truly surprised. He assumed I had much more experience. Today's session started out on "Falling Slowly". He felt I already had a good handle on the piece so he helped me take the piece farther with the addition
vibrato, crescendo and sustain of the bass notes. From there we went onto "Spatter the Dew" an Irish piece I have struggled to sort out the timing. I think I have it now. It is a 9/8 slip jig with a few sections that tricky for me. I have some new pieces to work on as well and am anxious to get busy on those. I leave early tomorrow morning to head home. Crossed fingers that the weather won't muck up my flights.
vibrato, crescendo and sustain of the bass notes. From there we went onto "Spatter the Dew" an Irish piece I have struggled to sort out the timing. I think I have it now. It is a 9/8 slip jig with a few sections that tricky for me. I have some new pieces to work on as well and am anxious to get busy on those. I leave early tomorrow morning to head home. Crossed fingers that the weather won't muck up my flights.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Final Concert of the Festival
This afternoon the audience was treated to the final concert of the Miami International Guitar Festival. It was a double bill including a solo classical guitarist and a local group consisting of two guitarists and a percussionist. St. Bede's Episcopal Church was the venue for this concert and it provided a very nice atmosphere. The audience was small but appreciative and both acts were awesome. I will provide more details later but wanted to get a bit written before heading out in the morning. It will be a hectic day. I must leave the hotel around 8 am, gas up the car, drive to the rental company, get a shuttle to the airport, find my boarding gate and get checked in. I will be praying for no glitches because I have only a small window of time for my first lesson with David Walbert. I am looking forward to the experience. Richard spent some more lesson time with me today. We focused mainly on Anji because I really wanted to work on the timing of the piece. I finally got that going and am desperately hoping it will stick with me. I went over part of Dance as well but there really wasn't much time for a critique on that one. I think RG thought I may as well do that with the maestro who wrote it. Camille, another one of RG's students and I will be heading out in a couple minutes to go see Toy Story 3 in iMax and 3d, yee haa.
A Fantastic Concert
Last night Richard and Mir Ali presented their music to an appreciative audience. Mir opened the set with a series of fantastic numbers that showcased his incredible skills. Unlike other classical performers that I have seen, he is relaxed and poised on stage. He even presented with a bit of humor. I think this was interjected because he knew Richard wasn't going to hold back during his set. I did not get drowsy during his set so I think that was a sign that he was good. Richard's playing was top-notch and he really entertained the group with his skills and banter. One can only wonder how a "classical" audience relates to this sort of performance. Judging by the laughter and applause, I think he was a hit. As is typical for me, I found myself completely absorbed in his playing. I listened for enjoyment and for learning. Every time I attend one of his concerts I try to soak in something new, nuances like vibratos, ghost notes, glissandos etc. He provided me with two study sessions yesterday. One session was paired with our lunch where he went over aspects of promotion, using the Festival as an example to learn from. He also gave me a hypothetical situation and asked how I'd handle it. With yesterday's concert as a foundation, here's the scenario: Mir Ali is suddenly ill and I have been elected to perform in his place. It is understood that I am not a "headlining" act but I need to fill 20 minutes of time with a set of tunes. Which tunes would I play and in what order? RG is the headliner so my set would precede his. I chose to start with Freight Train. I said I would include Scarborough Fair, my two Irish tunes, Study for Margot, Study in Bm, and I would finish on Echoing Gilewitz as a tribute to my teacher. He stressed retuning quickly and working on dialogue in-between tunes. I told him I would relate some of the history of the pieces. He told me my new goal for the year is to put together a solid 20 minute set. During the second session, we worked on the first measures of Dance. I have a lot to correct and I need to get more starting points, places where I can just pick up the tune at key points. More lesson time today starting at 1pm, another concert between 4-6 and then we wrap things up and tomorrow morning I head out early for the airport and I'm off to Birmingham and quickly hook up with Walbert, if the flight is on time. I have to admit apprehension. I need to develop an attitude of "just relax, go with the flow and work at improving".
Friday, June 18, 2010
Miami International Guitar Festival-1st Concert Day
This was another busy day. It started in the morning with workshops over slide and sound. After those two experiences I, along with the rest of the students, had the opportunity to watch and listen as Richard and Mir Ali practiced and jammed together. They experimented with a number of different tunes and seem to have settled on combining efforts on Greensleeves, Romancsa(I have this title wrong), a medley that begins with Anji and wrapping up on Freight Train. This is subject to change since they are currently meeting here at the hotel to go over more details. They have another rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. We attended a concert in the recital hall that RG will perform in Friday evening. It opened with Rene Gonzalez, head of the U of Miami classical guitar program, he was joined by a flutist later in the set. The show was wrapped up by a newly formed classical guitar trio, The Miami Guitar Trio. Their performance was nearly perfect. All of this provided a great experience even though I wasn't able to play much today. Because of my association with Richard I was to able attend a post concert informal get together at a local sports bar. It was interesting to listen to all of the conversations between these artists as they shared information about their careers and devotion to playing their instruments. I had very little to contribute except when the talk became more purely social. RG is wondering how the audience will react to his non-classical approach to playing. It will be quite interesting to see how everyone adjusts to having a performer break all of the rules of a classical concert. I believe tomorrow I will be spending my day doing two things, playing guitar on my own(haven't actually had much time for this) and providing an anchor for another of RG's students,Camille, who is coming into town for his concert. The concert will open with Mir Ali, a spectacular classical/flamenco style player and RG has the second set. At the end they will join forces for a few tunes. I'm going to bring this to a quick close and focus on some of my playing.
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