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.