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.

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.

Dr. Rene Gonzalez addresses the audience prior to opening the concert series of the MIGF

Camille and Me-Founding Members of the Students of Richard Gilewitz Support Group

All Smiles After a Successful International Guitar Fest Experience

Richard Gilewitz Sound Checks prior to his Friday night concert

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.

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.

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".

Mir Ali(left) and Richard Gilewitz(right)

Here's our group on the final workshop day at The Miami International Guitar Festival

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.

I Made It!

It is around 8pm and a very busy travel day has concluded. I am settled into my hotel room in Coral Gables near the University of Miami. Fortunately everything is quite convenient because the traffic is horrendous. Yesterday I awakened feeling like a cold was doing its best to threaten my guitar bliss. Well I'm not giving in! Today I do feel worse. My plane flights were a bit on the stressful side, beginning with a 60 minutes delay at SBN which ultimately left me with 20 minutes to navigate myself to my Miami bound plane from Atlanta. It seems that every time I have had a connecting flight it was necessary to practically run to the next boarding gate but this was the ultimate. I deplaned with less than 20 minutes to make it to the next gate. In fact once I made it to the gate most of the passengers had boarded and my name was not in the system leaving me concerned that they had automatically moved me to later flight. Now my biggest fear was that my guitar would be loaded on a different flight. It was a tense 45 minutes as I waited at the baggage carousel for my guitar and luggage. Kudos to Delta, they got it right and I have my trusty 6 string with me. My cold has caused some complications in fact during the descent into MIA I thought my ears were going to burst. It was pretty darn unpleasant and has currently left me hearing in mono because my left ear has been left with reduced hearing. I hope I didn't pop an eardrum or something. I guess the sinus meds I took weren't effective enough. Once I checked into my room my next goal was to find a drug store and to get some more meds which I have done and am getting some relief. I have talked and texted with John numerous times. It is going to be pretty tough to manage 9 days without my soul mate at my side. I probably won't see RG tonight. He has commitments with the festival organizers and some of the other performers. Workshops begin tomorrow morning so we may touch base to make plans to meet. In the meantime I will take advantage of this "me" time and get some practice in.

If All Goes Well

I will be flying out of South Bend in about nine hours. I plan on hitting the bed earlier than usual tonight. I did wake up this morning feeling kind of sick. Not a good thing with so much on my plate for the next 9 days. Maybe it is a little bit of a cold that I will shake quickly. I've been downing Vitamin C and fluids to battle this bug. It is affecting my throat, not sore but scratchy with the feeling that if I spoke a lot I just might lose my voice. Also a feeling that my asthma wants to kick in is lurking. Positive thing about this Richard won't have to hear me whine when I hit a rough patch in my playing. By now I had better have everything prepped and ready because the point of no return is looming and if I have forgotten something hopefully it is something that is easily acquired in Miami. So I had better hang onto my brain and focus.

OMG It's Getting Close

Well Monday morning will see me blurry-eyed and panicked at the same time. I'm going to need to be at the airport at 5:30 in the morning, yes I said morning. The toughest part will be kissing the hubby goodbye...I'm going to miss him. Do you think anyone would notice if I slipped him into my luggage and if he just didn't show up for work for seven days.

The last few days have been all about tying up loose ends and there have been several. Tomorrow I will do some packing of incidentals. If I was really organized I'd make a checkoff list. Nah. I'll wing it. Doesn't everybody forget something on a trip. Let's hope it won't be my guitar or any of the essential accessories and music that I will need.

Yesterday, I printed off fresh copies of my music and that took a surprisingly long time to accomplish. I organized all of the pieces of paper relevant to flights, car rentals and lodging. I updated the Garmin and inputted the addresses that I know will be important during my travels. I also packed up my guitar and hauled it over to the insurance company to get a special policy written to cover loss and damage during traveling. Now the really exciting prelude to all of this was cleaning out the gutters on the south side of the house. Even with all this stuff, I managed to run through several tunes sporadically through the day.

Today I added another movement to the gutter cleaning symphony as I shifted attention to the west side of the house and cleared the rotted spinners which serve as a perfect medium for many of the pods to sprout into baby trees. John calls our clogged gutters the "Hanging Gardens". Perhaps they could qualify as a "wonder of the world". What is really quite funny is that I never used to fuss about my fingernails, clean and trimmed was the ideal. Now most manual tasks stimulate a concern about whether I will mess up my right hand nails that are currently at a perfect playing length.

I practice packed some clothes into my guitar's gig bag. My plan is to use the gig bag as luggage since the guitar will travel in its flight case which is cumbersome and heavy for hauling around. Once I settle into the hotel the gig bag will be cleared of the clothing and the guitar will be transported to the workshops in the gig bag.

Made it over to Fire Arts a tad bit early. So I had time to pull out the guitar that I keep there and work on Study in Bm. The Summer Studio kids were totally stuck into their work and didn't need constant guidance so I took a couple breaks and grabbed the guitar for a few more minutes of practice. Playing the studio guitar makes me appreciate my Breedlove C25, it just fits my playing better than the Atlas.

Although it is late. I think I will run through a few pieces before calling it a night.

Moving Right Along

Yesterday provided me with another opportunity to spend hours outdoors completely immersed in guitar practice. I set a goal to get Study in Bm memorized and although I fell a bit short of that intention, I did make considerable progress. I also spent some time with Falling Slowly and Star of County Down. My buddy the metronome joined me for practice and gave me the virtual smack on the knuckles whenever I strayed from the beat. I found a passage in Star...that I had been misinterpreting. So I focused on that area by repeating it numerous times in and out of context of the whole piece. I also worked on Anji again, ran through Dance and Study for Margot a few times along with Scarborough Fair, Accordion Bells, and Maison Blanche. Readers of this blog will have to accept that they will be hearing titles of tunes repeated on a regular basis. Such is the nature of trying to improve...not much chance of that happening without playing pieces over and over. I told RG the other day that I look forward to the time when I can just nail a tune without stuttering around and flubbling sections. He said to expect that to start happening in about 10 years. There comes a point when you have practiced something so many times that it actually becomes part of you. I get inklings of that sensation but they aren't sustainable yet. It is a zen thing that use to be a regular part of my karate training. With my physical limitations I have lost that connection during karate practice which has unfortunately been replaced with pain. I suppose I am somewhat "driven" by the need to experience zen and my music is now the path. As I review all the changes that have occurred in my lifetime, I am sometimes overwhelmed by how varied and rich my life has been thus far. Although I've always been drawn to the guitar, even as a youth, just 3 short years ago I would have never predicted that playing guitar would have become such a dominant part of my existence.

A Day Late......

Busy Busy day yesterday. How in the world does anyone get bored? I took care of several tasks through the day. I called in my prescriptions and then called the doc's office because my insurance plan is demanding that I switch my prescriptions to their mail order service. I had to drive about 30 miles just to pick up the new prescription orders. Now I have to sort out faxing them to mail order company. Stopped by to see Naomi and the grandkids who are doing pretty well even though the boys are definitely fully into an irritating stage of adolescence. Here's hoping they move on from that soon. They will be spending a good deal of today and tomorrow with me. I hope the weather clears and they can help me with some yard tasks.
My guitar practice fell into the early part of the day and one of those sessions that started at around 10pm and ended around 2am. I am slightly concerned because my left hand especially is developing a bit of stress pain. So I am playing in shorter bursts, stretching both hands thoroughly before, after and in between playing. I think I'll blame it on Study in Bm which requires some 2nd fret barres that are giving me trouble. I've adjusted the action of my guitar, attempting to make the barres easier to play but I'm finding that also creates low E buzz when I go to an open tuning. I can ease the attack on that string to avoid the buzz but..
I think I'll remove the bridge saddle spacer that is currently installed and see if that makes a difference. In the meantime, I'll baby that left hand and hope that what I'm dealing with is a bit of muscle strain that will lead to increased hand strength, similar to lifting weights and experiencing some "burn" afterwards. I am getting a slightly quicker and smoother transitions into the tricky chord change in Study in Bm. So there's a bit of improvement happening. Finally re-found the video of RG playing Anji and spent of bit of time watching and listening to that yesterday as well.
I also stopped at the eye doctor's yesterday and fortunately was able to jump right into an eye exam. Yep the prescription needed to be strengthened. New glasses are ordered. It took me forever to pick out a set of frames. The task was accomplished with the help of one of the women working there who actually was able to key into my taste. Let me say that everyone will definitely notice that I have a new set of glasses. My parameters included a list of "NO's" no phony tiny gemstones, no frilly ultra-feminine styles, and definitely no "Sarah Palin" knock-offs. I think my new frames are rather "contemporary".

What a way to multi-task

Yep it 's been quite a productive day and even though it is nearly 11pm the day isn't over. I did some much needed cleaning in the house...kind of sporadically, the walk past it, stop and give it some attention type cleaning. The most sustained thing was taking the livingroom rug outside to the deck in the fresh air. I actually shampooed it out there. Works perfectly in good weather, dries nice and fast. Beyond that it was normal stuff, vacuuming etc. Now I actually accomplished a task that has been on the agenda for many months. Back when Windows 7 was nearly ready to release. I pre-ordered an upgrade copy of the OS for a mere $49 from Best Buy. It's been on the shelf ever since so today was the day to do the big upgrade from Vista to 7. I must say the process was quite seamless. I am actually very impressed. It appears that everything has transferred over and I have full functionality of everything I have attempted to access thus far. This is probably because everything I have is 32 bit capable and that is the version of 7 that I upgraded with. I kind of monitored the process but I was actually able to practice guitar through a good deal of the time with a small diversion of driving out to school to pick up some stuff I needed for Summer Studio at Fire Arts and there was that cleaning thing too. I made some more memorization progress on Study in Bm. There is one "difficult for me" chord change that I will most likely have to repeat a minimum of 50 times to get my left hand to do what it needs to without a huge lapse in time. Spent some more time on Falling Slowly, Anji, Scarborough Fair, Dance and Study for Margot as well. Ran through Accordion Bells a few times too. After the workshop kids finished up this evening I picked up the guitar I keep at Fire Arts and noodled around a bit. Julie and Jackie have a show opening on the first Friday of October and they are really pushing to have me play guitar during the festivities. I might have to suck up my apprehension and do this for them. We'll see how this grant work goes......I don't have much of a repertoire yet.