I play Your Song by Elton John arranged by Larry Beekman

Here is a video I made a few weeks ago. It's a nice arrangement for classical guitar of Your Song by Elton John. The arrangement is by St. Louis guitarist Larry Beekman. I played my 1984 Guild Mark V classical guitar. I bought the guitar new from Dr. Guitar in Watertown, NY. I made the video in the lesson room where at Dr. Guitar.

Guitar Recital at Ives Hill, Watertown, NY

Today I played a one hour guitar recital/concert at the Ives Hill retirement community in Watertown, NY.  It was one of my best performances ever. Overall I was relaxed, confident, and expressive. On the couple of tunes where I got into minor trouble (that in which only I knew what was going on) it didn't rattle me. As my mind wandered here and there to either negative or positive thoughts which were not related to the music, I quickly brought myself back to the music.
Here are the pieces I played:
Romance, the first piece.
Next I played Chet Atkins arrangement of Mr. Bojangles.
Then I played Matteo Carcassi studies #3, 7, and 19 ( probably the best I've ever done on the 3 pieces in a row).
From there I played Fernando Sor studies #2,3,4, and 5 from Andres Segovia's compilation 20 Studies for guitar by Fernando Sor.
Then I played selections by Francisco Tarrega: Stuides #1 & 2 ( from Isaisa Savio's book Ten Studies for Guitar by Francisco Tarrega).
Then I playe FT's Lagrima followed by Estudio en forma de Minuetto.
Then I went out on a limb and played FT's Estudio Brillante. (I did a pretty darn good job on that considering the difficulty level of the piece. I played at a slower tempo  which helped a great deal).
 At that point I wasn't sure where to go.
So I decided to play Estudio Inconcluso by Augustine Barrios Mangore.  Because I decided that on a whim I took off prematurely and fumbled the first beat of the first measure. Laughed it off, restarted and did a fair job of it.
I think that after that I played an arrangement of Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline (arranged by  )
I then finished with Mason Williams' Classical Gas.
All told I filled up a solid hour with commentary in between many of the selections.

For this event I used my Guild Mark V guitar with a piezo electric pick up plugged into a Fishman Solo Amp 220. It all sounded great (at least from my seat.) I recieved many compliments.

What is important to me is that I am getting a grip on the stage fright, the performance anxiety.

I attribute that to a couple of things recently. One is the series of guitar  performance/workshops I have been giving at libraries in Jefferson County. The other event, that was a real eye opener for me was going to see NY City guitarist Peter Fletcher performing at the Onondaga County library in Syracuse. There were only about 15 people there, but he gave it his all. I learned a lot just by watching him. I was familiar with much of the music he played. I detected a couple of points where he had a menbtal lapse, like he forgot where he was, but his recovery was so quick, so smooth, it was impressive. But I am sure no one noticed, and if they did it did not matter. Not to him, not to the audience, not to me. Nobody cares. And one piece he played I thought was really off from beginning to end. He is such a fine musician and guitarist he must have known. However, he just rolled along with it and seemed to be caught up in the reverie of the piece from start to finish, as if all he were doing were intentional. Maybe it was. Either way, the man handled it brilliantly. Watching him boosted my confidence immensely.
Here are two other observations: I sat in the front row and while waiting for Fletcher to take the stage a man sitrting next to me asked if I had ever seen or heard of him before. "No.", I replied. "Well, you are going to be blown away." he said. Mingling with people after the show a woman came up to me and asked if I was a player. I said yes, but that I was mostly a dabbler. " I could tell," she said, "by watching you I just knew you were a player."  How is that? I wonder what I was giving away about myself as I watched Fletcher's excellent performance?
So, what I learned was to give your "All" to the music, no matter what size the the audience or where it is. And secondly that the audience is far from critical or judgemental. Relax and give your best.

I play an open mic night at Aubrey's in Cape Vincent NY

There was another open mic night tonightn at Aubrey's in Cape Vincent. Hosted by Phil Dumond. So I went down and played a few tunes. Basically I think I sucked. Well, not really, not in the big scheme of things,but I was not satisfied with my performance. I have been working up some new pieces and would have liked to tried them out, but my confidence failed me. Why? Well, once again I will balme it partly on my sound. We had a tough time getting the volume up where I would like it. There was a lot of room noise to play over. The place was full of people. Anyhow, I recently bought an LR Baggs pre-amp which I thought would solve the volume problem. And it did EXCEPT there was an annoying hum coming through the system. If  I held the pre amp in my hand it was OK. When I set it down the hum would manifest. After some screwing around I simply played with a less than ideal sound. It was annoying and distracting. Other performers this evening didn't seem to have this problem. I do not experience this trouble when I play through my Fishman SoloAmp 220.
Let's size things up. I can play the guitar. I have the technique. For the most part I know my songs.I think my biggest problem is concentration. Distraction. I distract myself with my goofy thoughts as much as getting distracted by equipment/sound problems.

Open Mic Night in Cape Vincent NY

The photos presented here were snapped by me during an open mic night at Aubrey's Restaurant in Cape Vincent, NY.  The event was hosted by my long time friend Phil Dumond. He had been after me for a long time to come down and play, so finally, this past saturday I did just that. While there I snapped some photos. It was a really fun time. Phil is a very entertaining fellow and a terrific host. I played a few pieces and did OK. I have played better before.  If my sound were a bit louder I think I would have done better. I find that I can never get enough volume when plugged into some one elses syste. With my Fishman Solo Amp I do just fine. The problem has to do with nylong strung classical guitar. It has a piezo electric crystal pick up in that was installed back around 1987. It was one of the first of that sort available. I suppose there are newer devices I could replace it with. But, I believe all I need is a pre-amp. I have a Zoom A2 effects box that I though would work as a preamp, but that didn't really give me much more boost. So, a couple days ago I ordered an LR Baggs GigPro universal preamp. I am hoping it will be just the thing to boost me up in such situations.

Tom O'Rile, 2nd frm left on bass. Far right is Paul ferguson on keyboard. 2nd from right on guitar is Phil Dumond.

Ian Wagbone.

Otherwise, I was only mildly nervous so I don't think that affected my playing too much. It seems to me my playing is always better when I can hear myself playing loud & clear. With that in mind I have also been thinking about a wireless in ear monitor. That may be the ticket.

Open Mic Night in Cape Vincent NY

The photos presented here were snapped by me during an open mic night at Aubrey's Restaurant in Cape Vincent, NY.  The event was hosted by my long time friend Phil Dumond. He had been after me for a long time to come down and play, so finally, this past saturday I did just that. While there I snapped some photos. It was a really fun time. Phil is a very entertaining fellow and a terrific host. I played a few pieces and did OK. I have played better before.  If my sound were a bit louder I think I would have done better. I find that I can never get enough volume when plugged into some one elses syste. With my Fishman Solo Amp I do just fine. The problem has to do with nylong strung classical guitar. It has a piezo electric crystal pick up in that was installed back around 1987. It was one of the first of that sort available. I suppose there are newer devices I could replace it with. But, I believe all I need is a pre-amp. I have a Zoom A2 effects box that I though would work as a preamp, but that didn't really give me much more boost. So, a couple days ago I ordered an LR Baggs GigPro universal preamp. I am hoping it will be just the thing to boost me up in such situations.

Tom O'Rile, 2nd frm left on bass. Far right is Paul ferguson on keyboard. 2nd from right on guitar is Phil Dumond.

Ian Wagbone.

Otherwise, I was only mildly nervous so I don't think that affected my playing too much. It seems to me my playing is always better when I can hear myself playing loud & clear. With that in mind I have also been thinking about a wireless in ear monitor. That may be the ticket.

I buy a used Ramirez R4 Classical Guitar from Guitar Center

This is me playing my 1984 Guild Mark V Classical Guitar at a wedding in December, 2012Add caption

A couple weeks ago I bought a used Ramirez R4 classical guitar. I have been looking for another guitar but good ones do not show up locally very often. I searched Guitar Center's web site and found four of these Ramirez guitars, one each at four different stores around the country. I bought the one from their Fairfax, Virginia store. These guitars sell new for $3,000.00. I paid $1,500.00. That was the price at all of their stores for this model used instrument. This one was made in 2007. The experience wasn't the easiest. I spent a lot of time on the phone with an inexperienced employee which resulted in a convoluted mess with my credit card. I had to call the card company and spent more time trying to get that all sorted out. All told i was a solid two weeks trying to make the purchase and get the guitar delivered to my local Guitar Center store in Syracuse, N.Y. Finally, the big day arrived. I went to the store, opened up the box took it out it inspect & play it. It was a very nice looking instrument, appeared well made. I strummed a chord & it was out of tune, in fact the strings were loose. No problem, I began to tune. The first thing I noticed was the tuning machines felt somewhat cheap. They worked OK, just had a cheap feel. The ones on my 1984 Guild Mark V are vastly superior. After it was tuned I discovered almost every fretted note rattled or buzzed. There was no way you could play this guitar with a solid rest stroke. It was horrible. A closer examination revealed that once upon a time the bridge had lifted up causing an arched shaped cavity between it & the body. This cavity had been filled with some sort of epoxy or glue, and done poorly. My suspicion is that someone left this guitar in the sun or the heat and then initiated a home repair, botched it up and left the guitar in a most unsatisfactory state of playability. The GREAT part of this story is that Guitar Center has a terrific return policy. The would have let me take it home to evaluate for 30 days. However, it only took 15 minutes in the store to discover it was flawed. So they cheerfully refunded (credited my credit card)my money. All of it. I didn't even have to pay for shipping or handling. That was terrific. My final feeling about the R4 is that they are probably a good instrument, however, I would never buy a guitar for $3,000.00 that had cheesey tuners like this one did. In fact, for $1500.00 you should get much better tuning machines.

Recuerdos De La Alhambra

I teach guitar at a store called Musicology. It's on State St in Wwatertown, NY. When I have a no show or a space in between lessons I use that time for practice. Lately another guitar teacher has been sitting in watching me play. The other day I played for him Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega. For what ever unexplained reason Iwasplaying the piece better than I have ever played it. I was amazing myself with it. Then, right at the end of it I got lost. I tried a couple times to come backto the forgotten measure of music. Then I a realized I just had to jump to the ending which I still feel I played better than ever. It was one of those special moments that occur from time to time with me and the guitar.