Floral City Gillacamp Crew

Ray Blackwood and I share a wish for world peace

Front of our Hotel

Playing "Dance" in our hotel room

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.  

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. 

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.
  

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.

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

 

 

WhyVon and Chamomile share a laugh

Camille and I get along great and share a love for guitar.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.