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Ensemble / Performance — No Comments
24
May 13

Ensemble Plays for Seniors (5/24/13)

Our Kagan & Gaines Music Co. ensemble played for an enthusiastic group of some 50 elders at Roosevelt Towers on Friday, 24 May 2013. We played through our entire set of fourteen R&B and blues songs: “It’s All Right,” “My Girl,” “Rainy Night in Georgia,” “Feel So Bad (Ballgame on a Rainy Day),” “Black Magic Woman,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “The Thrill is Gone,” “People Get Ready,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Baby What You Want Me to Do / Bright Lights Big City,” “Come Together,” “So In Love With You,” “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” Our set lasted just over an hour, the longest we’ve ever performed.

Mickey Johnson, Mike Estelle, Billy Smith shared vocals in various combinations. Our teacher and leader Jim Goelitz, Alex Scaramuzza and I played guitar, Lawrence Brown played bass, and Justin Young played drums. It was disappointing that our keyboard player, Vera Beilinson, didn’t join us. Jesse set up the sound system before hand and made sure we sounded our best.

The audience had a good time and enjoyed our playing. Mickey went all out on his James Brown rendition for “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” As at our church gig earlier this year, it was a perfect way to finish the set.

Practicing and playing music–both alone and in a group–offer many pleasures and satisfactions, but there’s nothing like performing–and playing well–for a receptive and enthusiastic audience. I think everyone in the group enjoyed it as much as the listeners. I appreciate Mickey Johnson’s arranging for our gig. I would love to do this more often.

Blues / Learning Music / Performance — No Comments
01
Jan 12

2012: A New Year

A new year begins. However, arbitrary a demarcation that is, it’s an opportunity to look backward and forward. 2011 was overall a good year, especially in regards to my music. I achieved some significant milestones in playing with others and in performing. Those have been goals since I started taking lessons and I want to continue on that path. I’ve come a long way since my first lesson. It’s taken longer than I expected and been more difficult than I imagined before I started out. I still feel like something of a beginner. I’ve greatly expanded my musical abilities, but there is so much I still want to learn, so much I want to be able to play. It almost goes without saying that this will be a lifelong process.

I’d like to start going to more blues jams. There are three that I know of: Harlem Avenue Lounge (where I’ve been a couple of times), Rosa’s Lounge–both on Thursday nights, and  at Buddy Guy’s Legends on Mondays. I don’t feel I’m quite ready to participate, but I hope to get up the courage before the year is out.

A more long-term (but hopefully not too long) goal is to get into some kind of blues band, where I could get more experience playing and performing and expand my repertoire. Ideally, I’d like to play in a group of more experienced players, so I could learn from them and gain experience “playing out.” It will probably be a year or more, before I’m up to that. Someday, I’d like to put together my own blues band, but I’m definitely far from ready to do that. I still need my training wheels–as I’m often reminded in my ensemble class.

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
25
Jun 11

My Third Anniversary

On Wednesday, June 25, 2008, I took my first electric guitar lesson with Jim Goelitz at Kagan & Gaines in Forest Park (a nearby suburb of Chicago). Except for a few gaps of a week or two, I’ve taken a lesson every week since then.

For the first year or so, I took an hour lesson, but then cut back to 30 minutes for reasons of economy. Having a weekly lesson to prepare for has been important in helping me maintain a regular practice schedule. In the beginning I practiced 20 to 30 minutes a day–most days. More recently, I’ve tried to practice at least an hour (usually in two 30 minute segments). Sometimes I practice a total of 90 minutes, but other times I miss a day. I usually average around five hours a week and always wish I could manage more. I’m convinced that more playing time leads to more improvement.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been playing guitar for three years. In some ways, I still feel like a beginner. Given how much there is, potentially, to learn, perhaps I always will. At the same time, when I look back, I can see how much I’ve learned so far. Scales, chords, riffs, techniques or music that once seemed challenging, if not impossible, I now can play comfortably. There are always new challenges, but fortunately I love learning new things.