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Blues / Electric Guitar / Ensemble / Learning Music / Performance — No Comments
29
Oct 11

Milestone: My First Gig (10/29/11)

I got to the Pine Avenue United Church in Chicago about fifteen minutes early and sat in the car trying to meditate and calm myself. I had never played guitar in public before and had only played with our Kagan & Gaines ensemble for a couple of months. For the previous couple of days, I’d been extremely nervous about this event. When I saw Jim Goelitz, my guitar teacher pull up, I went to the door with him. He had brought three large guitar amplifiers from Kagan & Gaines.

Lawrence Brown, our bass player, is education director of the church, so he was already there for the youth outreach program, which lasted all weekend. Justin Young, our drummer, was also already there. Jim and I set up the amps in front of the stage next to where Justin had set up his drums.

The room was a large auditorium-like space the size of a basketball court (there was even a hoop at the end opposite the stage). Near the stage were a number of folding chairs and behind them were folding tables and chairs.

The program started a little after 3:00. Six young women did an interpretative dance to a couple of modern recorded gospel songs. Then four young people from another church did a mime interpretation of two gospel songs. They wore black robes and white gloves. Stark white makeup highlighted their facial expressions.

I’d been nervous that Alex Scaramuzza, guitar, and Mickey Johnson, vocal, hadn’t arrived, but they made it before it was our time to go on. I was relieved our group wasn’t first on the program. It gave me a chance to get used to the space and the audience.

We started with an instrumental, Jimmy Smith’s “Back at the Chicken Shack.” Then Mickey came up and we did “The Thrill Is Gone” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “My Girl,” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Even though it wasn’t on the planned set list, Mickey announced Otis Rush’s “Feel So Bad” and we played that after “Thrill.”

He obviously likes that song, and he used it effectively to get the crowd going. He had suggested playing it at our practice the previous evening. Fortunately, I had an intuition to go over the chords yesterday and so I was able to get through it OK. I played almost the entire set without music.

As our final number, Jim picked “Equinox,” the John Coltrane jazz tune, which I felt weakest on. Fortunately, Jim and Alex played the melody. I’m still having trouble with the timing on it. Once Mickey left, the audience started to disperse. They especially responded to “My Girl,” recognized the instrumental lead-in, and sang along.

Blues / Electric Guitar / Learning Music — No Comments
15
Jun 11

Do I need a guitar teacher?

Many famous blues players were or are “self-taught.” They learned to play guitar by listening to other musicians play, or by listening to radio or to records (remember those big black disks?). They kept listening and kept trying to figure out how to make the sounds they heard with their own guitars. If they were lucky, a member of their family or a friend might show them how to play. Or they might live where they could see and hear a local player. Blues greats from John Lee Hooker to Buddy Guy have learned this way and you can’t argue with the results they achieved. They obviously spent many hours “woodshedding” to develop their skill. It took devotion, commitment, persistence, passion and perhaps some obsession with music. And, of course, some talent.

Nowadays, aspiring guitarists have a lot more resources to draw on. In addition to recordings in your preferred format, there are dozens of instructional books (often with a CD), instructional or concert DVDs, as well as the vast resources of the Internet. The YouTube website alone has thousands of short videos of performance or instruction (though the quality varies).

When I decided to learn guitar, I wanted to begin with a teacher. I thought this would make it easier to get off to a good start and avoid developing bad habits that I would have to unlearn. People differ in how they learn best, but working with a teacher has proved to be good for me. Most of the learning process is still in my hands (literally as well as figuratively), but I believe I’ve learned more and learned it better by having a teacher.

There are two principal benefits to me. While I am very motivated to learn, I still enjoy the “discipline” of having a regular weekly lesson to prepare for. I like having that “deadline” to help structure my time and help me maintain priorities among all the competing tasks and responsibilities. (I’m very curious and interested in a lot of things, so one of my biggest challenges is setting priorities and focusing on what’s most important.)

Even more important is having an experienced and knowledgeable musician to guide me along the path. Of course, Jim Goelitz, my teacher shows me how to play and demonstrates techniques, but he also can watch me play and advise me how to improve. He’ll suggest a better fingering or a very slight change in hand position to get a better sound. For me, it’s invaluable to have someone who notices things that I don’t. I can usually tell if I play a wrong note or don’t make a chord change in time, but he notices if I’m playing the right notes in the wrong rhythm, for example.

I feel very fortunate that I happened to find a teacher who is (1) a good musician, (2) a good teacher, and (3) a good fit for me.

I also draw on other resources: books, CDs and DVDs. Living in the Chicago area, I’m lucky to have easy access to a lot of blues clubs, live concerts and festivals. All of that contributes, but I’m convinced my playing would have developed quite differently without a teacher.