Progress Being Made

It's been awhile since I visited my own blog. It is amazing how much time school takes up and how exhausted one can feel after a day with the kids. It is a mere two weeks before Spring Break and I believe everyone at school is ready to relax for a week and recoup some energy to close out the end of 2010/11 school year.  Winter's ugly grip may have finally eased and in fact today the temperature managed to rise to 70 degrees! The last of the artificially made snow mountains have actually melted in the past day or two. Oddly we have not had one of our intense rain storms that usually does this work. Does this hearken a dry growing season? Our farmers won't be pleased with that. Hopefully the protracted and snow filled Winter has put a major dent in the fleas, tick and mosquito populations.

I have been making time for guitar practice on a daily basis. In fact I cannot remember a time when I didn't manage at least an hour of playing time each day. Well wait a minute there was the day we flew back from Ireland. It's pretty tough to play guitar when it is packed away in the bowels of an airplane.

Certainly the high point of the past few months has been my trip to Inverness, Florida for the Floral City Gillacamp held at Full Moon Concerts the venue owned and operated by David and Terri Hartman. This intensive workshop filled the final weekend of February and it again required that I pack up my gear and board a plane. Although I am still quite an "amateur", I am becoming much more comfortable with negotiating flight arrangements, rental cars, airports etc.

Gillacamp, as always, was a fantastic experience! I had the privilege of meeting another batch of dedicated guitarists from Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, Arkansas and Illinois. It was especially nice to reconnect with friends.   My friend Camille graciously provided me with lodging, yummy breakfast oatmeal and tours of the area including an opportunity to get my feet wet in the ocean.  We spent a number of hours discussing our approaches to guitar and playing tunes.   Mark, a very seasoned player and his spouse, Jennifer traveled from Chicago to attend camp.  Their joyful approach to life is infectious. Richard provided us with excellent instruction as we freshened our skills and broached new musical territory. It seemed as though the topics and structure of camp fit my needs and desires perfectly. I had the opportunity to improve upon "Scarborough Faire" and to work on developing some sort of comfort level with slide.  We planted the seeds for learning "Thumbsing", one of my favorite Gilewitz tunes and for Richard's arrangement of "Sunflower River Blues", a John Fahey piece I have wanted to learn since I first heard Richard play his arrangement nearly three years ago.   The camp location at the Full Moon concert venue was perfect.  The owners have an amazingly nice venue situated on their farm.  They have converted a barn into a little concert hall complete with a really nice sound system, lighting and enough space to accommodate an audience numbering of around 100.

Saturday's menu included some timing work to warm us up, picking pattern practice that Richard used to orchestrate us into an ensemble,  slide exercises and Scarborough Faire. After we worked on "Scarborough Faire" on Saturday,  Richard had me come up and play it for the group using his LR Baggs Acoustic Reference Amp for sound.  I think I may have been the only student with experience playing that particular arrangement prior to Saturday's session.  Richard quickly targeted my timing flaws. There isn't much that gets past el Maestro.  Since I've been working on this piece for over a year my mistakes are pretty entrenched.  He upped my apprehension by telling me I'd be playing the piece again on Sunday on the "BIG STAGE".  Holy Panic! Batman!   Although I was nervous during my mini performance, I was calm enough to avoid the dreaded adrenalin hand tremors.    All in all Saturday's activities offered up really big delicious and nutritious musical meal.  Can you tell that I composed that last sentence while being hungry.

Saturday evening was truly grand.  After a bit of a break, Camille and I returned to Full Moon for the evening's concert.  David and Terri played a fun and varied opening set that featured vocals, guitar and piano.  I can see why they put together their own little theatre paradise because they obviously enjoyed performing together and their set was solid and entertaining.  Richard followed with a spectacular two set concert.  He was hot from the first number to the last and the crowd was very receptive.  In fact Dave and Terri said Richard's show set a new attendance record.  I just love these opportunities to see Richard play.  I try to absorb as much of his technique as possible, but I'm don't possess the ability to pick up music from listening to it.  I definitely envy those who have that advantage.   Maybe this is something I will develop as I become more experienced but it does seem to be a natural thing for some players.  I, in contrast, need as many visible crutches as possible like having the music to reference.  I do benefit from listening to the music I am learning and practicing.  It helps me internalize the tunes and rhythms.

Sunday morning started pleasantly.  Camille and I rose reasonably early with the intention of heading to the ocean.  I had lamented that last June, even though I had spent seven days in Coral Gables, I never made it to the ocean.  Camille was determined to rectify that situation so we used a couple hours of free time to go to the beach where we got our feet wet and watched the surf.  As I said a great way to start the day.  This adventure was followed by brunch with the Gillacampers and back to work at Full Moon where we worked on learning Thumbsing and Sunflower River Blues and participated in a master class.  The master class format had each of us performing up on stage.  I was the first one up and did a reprise of Scarborough Faire.  I surprised myself and settled right into playing.  I stumbled in a couple places but was able to continue playing despite of the bloopers.  Then each camper, David, Terri and Richard all made comments.  Lots of helpful stuff was shared and one of the campers, a newer player, said I was his new hero.  He was very complimentary.  It felt good to have someone appreciate my playing but I was quickly brought back to earth by the critiques of the more experienced folks and Richard who able to give me some excellent pointers that covered stage presence, dynamics and timing.  It meant a lot when Richard said that I appeared to be relaxed during my performance and he was looking for me to show signs of stress.  He said I had entered the next stage, the first stage is becoming so stressed that you screw up and cannot complete the tune.  The next stage is being able to mask the nervousness.  I think I like this thing of performing first, if I have to wait for everyone else to play then the apprehension builds.  After I was finished I was able to relax and focus upon trying to provide helpful critiques for the other players.  Mark did a really nice job of showcasing one of his compositions and he has a nice relaxed stage presence.  Another guitarist name John also played a really nice personal composition with a zen like quality.  Camille was the Gillacamp idol although when she played one of her tunes.  Everyone was very impressed and she was pleasantly shocked by the positive reaction.  At the conclusion of the master class Gillacamp was officially over and it was time to pack up the gear and direct our attention to a post camp party where we all had the chance to kick back, socialize and reflect on the weekend's activities.  I found myself feeling a bit blue.  This has become a Gillacamp pattern because I simply do not want the workshop to end.  We returned to Camille's home after the party and I had to get myself packed for an early morning exit.  In fact I was driving down the highway towards the Orlando airport by 6am.  Yawn.

With each Gillacamp experience, my appetite for learning increases and my capacity of internalization expands.  In the beginning it was everything I could do to get my right hand fingers to hit the correct strings in the proper order.  I had no concept about timing and rhythm.  Music theory was something I knew existed but I completely lacked any knowledge base.  I was like one of those journals you can buy from B and N with blank pages waiting to be filled.   Some of those pages are being filled but there are an infinite number waiting for attention.  I am having a great time working on alternating bass rhythms and a wide range picking patterns with increasing dexterity and speed.  Memorization of pieces of music has shifted from being absolute frustration to being an absorbing challenge.  I can work out the timing of many pieces, my notation reading is improving and I am developing a fundamental knowledge of theory.  Richard has remarked that my tone and hand position are good so my efforts on those mechanics are paying off.  It is especially exciting is that my energy and drive have not dissipated.  I actually have a repertoire.  It is varied and in need of constant attention as I work to get each piece worthy of playing for an audience.   Realistically none of the pieces are polished enough for performance.  I have been making gains and at the same time I have much to learn as this journey continues.