It was a nice quiet Blues Jam. As quiet as a band playing in an Ale House or bar can be. There was no controversy that I was aware of. And for me no huge revelations just a sort of quiet acceptance of a norm. Which is kind of cool all by itself.
I’d really had my revelations days before when I was given a verbal lesson on how to play slide guitar. The tips and instruction imparted to me sent me off to look up things that lead me to whole new information which then had my brain buzzing and head spinning with all sorts of possibilities. Unfortunately I’ve had very little time to experiment with this new information so I can start to make use of it. That’s ok. The creative possibilities it exposed are still there and I’ll get to them.
The other realization I had was as I was getting ready to head to Halligan’s. It occurred to 
me that somewhere in the last few days I had quit caring, I’d quit worrying. Don’t misunderstand here. I care very much about going to the Blues Jam and doing the
very best I can and learning everything I can to improve. But I quit caring about what songs I played. Whether I played them the last time at Moochies or at Halligan’s. It didn’t matter to me. I just want to get to play and sing and it doesn’t matter what it is. This is significant because I had been worried about doing the same songs every time or every other time and it no longer mattered. I no longer felt the need to control which song we were doing. I was good with saying ‘Here’s what I’ve got in my repertoire right now. What do you want to do?’ It’s a whole new place for me.
It doesn’t mean I won’t learn new songs. And it doesn’t mean I don’t still have a lot to learn. Quite to the contrary. I have plenty to learn and I’ll still be adding songs to the repertoire. I have several pulled out to learn. I’ll just be open to more things that people suggest, sooner. So, if someone says ‘hey what about…’ I’m more inclined to say, ‘let 
me see what I can do with it.’ New songs help to keep things fresh and keep me moving forward as well as keeping me humble. So, we did a new song this week. I have been working on ‘Don’t Start Me to Talkin’ and thought I had the lyrics down but I still managed to get my brain and mouth out of sync. This is happening often enough that I have made peace with the fact that the first time out of the gate, I’m probably going to flub something. Once I’ve done it though, it becomes easier to get it right. So I don’t feel near as frustrated or devastated as I would have a few months ago. I knew that song was going to be a little tricky because it has a lot of stops. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. And Nick tore up his lead on that one. So, yeah. Wow. That was great to hear.
It was nice to get to pull out a couple of songs I haven’t done in a few months. Though that only proved to me that at least one of those needs dusting off a little more often. Now, ‘Shaky Ground’. Oh that was fun. This was only the second time I’ve sung this one and in fact, that I’m aware it’s really only the second time I’ve heard it done at the Jam so it was a nice one to change things up. I was pretty pleased with how it was sounding as we were playing so I was excited to get to see the video. Now I’ve seen the video and can say except where we didn’t really get stopped at the same time, I think it turned out really good.
It’s nice to start to settle into a level of normal where the butterflies and jitter bugs aren’t holding a rave in my stomach every time I get ready to play. They’re still there. Just not quite as active all the time. I know for some people, they don’t feel like this goes away at all so they find ways to deal with it. Dark glasses are a great solution I hear. And even for the
people that seem to still feel that fear getting up on stage, it’s still worth it. I know I’ve said it before. It is scary getting up on that stage. Especially the first time. After a while though, it starts to feel normal. It’s just something you do.
As usual, I have video from the Blues Jam. I’ll get it posted as soon as I can. In the mean time I’ve included a few photos. It was a bit dark inside which means the video and the pictures are a little dark. I’ve lightened these up some to make them easier to look at.
forget about, our health, and I was going to write about that. It would have gone nicely with why this post is late. That will have to wait because we had a Blues Jam out at Moochies and I think, since it was such a fun time, it will be more fun to write about and I’ll get to that other post another time.
unusual. We all have our favorites, or the songs we are most comfortable with and I suspect, when it comes time to play we tend to gravitate towards those comfortable old friends. It’s scary enough to get up on stage. Now you want me to do something different? You’re joking, right.
sounds like it’s played with a big band and is a bit faster in my opinion. The tempo is probably the same it’s just the added instruments that skew it for me but I don’t think so. Anyway. We took it out and gave it a whirl. Again, I haven’t seen the video but I didn’t finish it thinking how awful it went so I figure that is a good sign. Since I was playing with Bryan for that set we did ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. This had both some hit and miss for me. I felt pretty good about the vocal. I had to stop playing part way through because I got off beat. And my lead didn’t go as nice as I would have liked. Then again, Bryan sounded great. So… The cool thing about playing with Bryan is that he’s got these instrumental pieces that either are or just sound like they are surf guitar songs but slightly bluesy. I love surf guitar. I don’t
with. We all practice the easy stuff more because it feels good to play it. But if you don’t practice the hard stuff, it won’t get any easier. I know I have been doing this with ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. I didn’t at first. But, using the excuse that I was adding new songs and needed to practice them to learn them, I have slacked off practicing that song. After this weekend, I know, it’s my hard song. I need to practice the crap out of it. I need to work on it every session. Even if it’s just one time through it. I need to do it. I need to remember to practice the hard stuff. And to keep trying.
We had an extra week between jams because of Father’s Day. I hadn’t heard until Father’s Day if we were even going to have a second jam for this month and I guess I let my guard down a little, or something because, I suddenly felt completely unprepared for it. Maybe because I have a new tool to work with and I don’t feel like I’ve had near enough time to make good use of it. Maybe because something finally clicked with me for my vocals that I’m still working on and I feel like I’m learning everything new again. Or because I am learning some new stuff on guitar that I want to incorporate but I’m not sure I’ve got it down well enough to do it.
in a manner they feel relatively competent at to trying a new technique or medium to create their art and they have to spend time learning all over again how to create a circle. It’s frustrating. It’s exasperating. And you feel like you are never going to be good enough again.
progress with it as I would like before the next jam. Which, no doubt, is contributing to my feeling unprepared. I’ll get there though. I have that new tool.
My microphone is a Sterling and requires phantom power for it to work so this covers that.
unfair to everyone else. Especially since, there were some really good bits in there. I thought about making a bunch of excuses for how things went. That would be even sillier in my opinion. Once you see the video, you see where the short comings are. That’s the beauty of recording the performance. And as hard as it can be, it’s exactly why I do it. And I’m not going to keep it to myself. I’m going to share it. I’m going to share it because sometimes it helps to see someone else learn.
The lesson I’ll start with is that I do know how well it’s going. I just need to listen to my instincts. And if it’s not going well, it can be turned around. I just have to pay attention. I knew my performance on the first song did not go as well as I wanted. I could hear it and I could feel it. After seeing the video, I can say, I was right. Now I get to learn from that, and learn how to turn it around so it is going better, quickly.
big lesson, was that I still have a lot to learn. I still have a lot to learn about playing the guitar in general, as well as playing the guitar in the songs I’ve been playing. And I still have a lot to learn about my own singing. Oh yeah, and I still have a lot to learn about leading the group and communicating with everyone. I’m going to come back to this because it is big.
Just because we had to cut things short doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it to go. It definitely was. I got to learn some things as always. And, I got to have some cool conversation with a couple of people I haven’t really had a chance to talk to before. Which was great. I don’t always get to do that so I don’t know that much about some of the people I play with.
We had a little trouble getting started with ‘Big Boss Man’ because I was playing it Jimmy Reed style and one or two of the other people on stage were used to playing it Elvis style which I guess is more rockabilly. I’ll have to look it up because I don’t know if I’ve heard that version. Oh, and to add to the possible confusion, the Grateful Dead also covered it. That’s the big challenge with some of these songs. There are so many different versions to reference. But this one, I came to from the earlier, Jimmy Reed version. I like the way his version of the song flows. It especially fits well with the amusement I get from some of the lyrics of the song. I’m a bit short and I love being able to sing the line ‘you ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s all’.