I promise this is not a story, lesson, rant, or lament about practice before performing. It’s a good idea and recommended of course. However, it’s actually a comment on the completely different mindset I usually find myself in after I have had some practice and play time on my guitar. I’m in a much better and more upbeat mood and I know it comes out in what I write here.
Yes. I had some practice and play time on my guitar before I sat down to write this. It was lovely. So much fun. I even played with my pedals a bit which I haven’t really done in a while. You know there is some evidence, somewhere, that playing music is as therapeutic as meditation. I believe it. And the more I learn and better I get at what I know the more fun, less frustrating, and even more therapeutic I find it.
Hey. We had a Blues Jam last weekend. It was great. Honestly, as much fun as it is to get up and play with a group no matter the crowd size, it really is more fun to get up and play when there are a lot of people. And the jams are more fun when we’ve got more musicians as well. We like to talk shop. And unless we have other friends or family that are musicians, most people we talk to don’t really care that we were supposed to start on the five but forgot and then the rhythm guitar was a half step off key. And are those vintage tubes in that amp or newer ones? Don’t you think the original Cry Baby is better than these newer wah pedals? Yeah, you know. They think we are from some distant planet. So it’s great to have more musicians to play with and chat with in between sets. As you might guess that was exactly the case with this jam. And it was so much fun.
We did have a couple of new people show up and that’s always great. It’s fun to have new people join in and bring a fresh take on things. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not quite what we hope, and sometimes it leaves you thinking maybe not. We had some good and some I’m not so sure. We had some technical glitches too. No one got zapped this time. We had a guitar strap issue and someone finally completely broke in Tommy’s Lucky 13 amp that we’ve been road testing for months. And it all worked out in the end.
I got to play with Tommy for the first set and that was fun. We gave the new song a go, I thought I knew the words much better that I really did so while I did ok playing it, though I got tips on why the turn around didn’t sound right, I had some issues with singing it. I’ll have it down soon though. And we did a few that I do standard. Though, Tommy plays, or has played, a lot of bluegrass. So playing with Tommy is a little like trying to jump on a speeding train from a beach chair. It’s fun though. And it sounded good. And I think I was able to keep up. Though, I still need to turn it up on those solos.
I had an odd experience with one of the new jammers. I’d go into it a bit more except, I’m not sure I can without sharing all the details and particulars of what happened. And even then, I’m not sure it would explain what made it such and odd experience. It would probably just sound like I was whining or that I got my proverbial toes stepped on. I didn’t. And it wasn’t like he was overtly rude or that it ruined my night. It did none of that. And in fact, we managed to play a couple of songs, that I haven’t even practiced in months, and they turned out really good. So, we’ll skip the why and what happened to make it odd for me. Though I will say I think a couple of others found playing with him a little on the odd side as well.
We are at risk of not being able to continue the Blues Jam. Aside from this weekend, the last few months have seen really low attendance. And that’s not just audience attendance. The numbers of musicians coming out has dwindled considerably as well. When that happens once in a while because of holidays and the like, it’s not a big deal. When it starts to seem like the new status quo at a regular venue, then it becomes an issue. It’s not easy to find places where we can play, or that will let us play. While the Charlotte area does have a live music scene, it needs support. It needs the support of venues that see it as worth the effort to have live music. And, it needs the support of an audience in order to convince the venues to continue to support it. What that means is, if a band, singer, jam, whatever, doesn’t bring more patrons to the venue than they would have with just sports on the television, then it’s not cost effective for the venue to have live music. So the band, the performer, the jam, loses it’s spot on the calendar for that venue. Our low participation numbers over the last several months mean, our regular location is reconsidering having us there. This jam was good. It was a good size. There were lots of people, and a fair number of musicians. And I heard one of the staff say that this one was actually worth it. The big unknown though is if we will be able to sustain that.
I know that sounds like a bit of a downer. And it is. It will not, however, keep me from continuing to play guitar and learn new songs. No matter what happens with the jam, I have learned so much, and made so much progress in my singing and playing over the last couple of years and I’m not inclined to let that go. I’m excited to continue to learn new songs. I can actually see the day when I’m picking up songs from listening to them and I’m not hunting around for TAB or sheet music. I’ve already started to hear and begin to try to pick out bits of things. When I’m practicing and take a moment to just noodle around, I’m starting to find bits of different songs. I’ll play something and think, wait, that sounds like… and then I’ll think of what it is and then I purposefully try to find the right riff or key or whatever it is that I’d found. It’s a huge step for me and I’m super excited to be at this point. I’m not interested in going backwards. So I will continue to play and learn and hopefully get better.
Oh. Yes, you did read right. There is video. I’ll work on getting it edited and posted so you can judge for yourself how things went.
I’m not entirely sure what is up next. I know we have the Thanksgiving holiday coming up in the US and I have the week after that off from the day job. I need to get on to the new art project with the new Snowman. I made some progress on the modeling last week and I need to spend some time in the chair working the last bits of this one part out. Then I think I’ll be pretty comfortable getting to the rest of it. There are quite a few bits to be modeled for what I’m looking to do. And yes, I’m still planning on a Holiday card out of it for this year. Though probably not before the holiday gets here. Hmm. Maybe that will be the what’s next.