Guitar

What Do You Spend Your Days Doing?

Greetings friends. Top o’ the morning to you!!! 6:14 am…thunderstorm outside. Coffee brewing…it’s a great day!

Recently a fellow musician was asking me about how I have produced DVDs, CDs, booked tours and basically been a productive musician.

He himself is an awesome guitarist, so musical talent and skill wasn’t the issue at all. However, he found himself running from gig to gig hurriedly, and was curious about lessening the “craziness” in his life and accomplishing more meaningful things musically, financially and spiritually .

He flat out asked me “What do you spend your days doing? What does a day in the life of Adam look like?”

Great question, and I hope you enjoy the answer.

I feel as though through my 20’s and into my 30’s I had a tricky time navigating “making a living” much the way he did. Not just money-wise, but making for myself a life of quality, fulfillment, and happiness in general.

I very much hope that anyone reading this (particularly younger musicians starting a career) will get the most usable, most important piece of info they’ll ever get…right here.

I say this not out of arrogance or self importance, but out of respect for the information itself, which I did not create! I have been fortunate over the past few years to have learned “sacred information” taught by wise men for generations.

Ready, set, here goes. This will take some work.

1. Determine your life’s main objective.

2 Write down 5 to 10 goals you’d like to achieve.

3. Determine the ONE of the 5 goal that is the most important, the one will have the most impact on your life.

4. Fully visualize its completion with absolutely no concern of how to do it. Know unfailingly that once you see it in your minds eye, it is achieved.

(The sky is the limit by the way.)

“What? That’s it?” you ask. Yes – but in this tiny answer runs a depth too vast to explain in a short post!

To visualize something not yet here, to use the imagination faculty is planting the seed of great accomplishment in your life.

Many will tell you to “be realistic” and look what’s around you. Frankly, if you are looking at what’s around you, you are seeing the “past”, the end of the life cycle of creation.

It takes enormous courage to look into yourself and set a goal. Size is not the issue – you can visualize a penny or a million dollars for example. Visualizing them costs nothing except your time and effort – same energy required!

When you decide clearly what your goal is, your daily activities then support the goal, the vision, the objective. You become a 24/7/365 problem solving, goal achievement machine.

Any creation requires a plan. I love to use mundane, everyday examples. Take for example a Thanksgiving meal, and let’s walk through the visualization and manifestation.

The visualization comes first. Let’s say you want the following on the table by a given time: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls, gravy, vegetables, and something to drink – let’s say wine for grown ups and juice for kids.

Then – all actions lead to the goal, but please meditate deeply on the fact that the end vision came first, and the actions come after the vision of completion. These actions may include making a list, shopping, chopping, buying utensils, inviting people over via phone & internet, defrosting items, and planning a coordinated cooking schedule so everything is served hot at the same time.

Do you see that the full visualization of the end result informs the actions? Seeing the end makes you into a mechanism to achieve the end objective and pulls you to the vision, every time, without fail. We do this constantly in everyday life. It’s a natural law – like gravity.

Every single time I travel by plane, I think of the Wright Brothers, who did the same thing. It took incredible vision before anyone had flown, for 2 guys to see this possibility and not give up until it was reality.

The common person can say “planes, yeah whatever” because they only have the strength to look at what is – which is already the past. To say “yeah whatever” to planes is easy, lazy and what most common people do.

To look into your own life, with imagination and create and do what the Wright Brothers did is the mark of greatness.

To then see this in action, you will realize – it’s not about the goal itself. To see the Divine Laws in action and bring your visions to you is the most fulfilling thing in life…breathtaking. Through achievement, you grow spiritually and see with new eyes.

So to answer my buddy’s question “what do you spend your day doing?”, I review goals, determine the most important, and then get to work on finishing them.

Even if you work a regular job, have kids, or go to school – you can still set a goal and choose the most important one, and visualize it’s completion.

Homework Assignment…don’t read it, do it!!!

1. Determine your life’s main objective.

2 Write down 5 to 10 goals you’d like to achieve.

3. Determine the ONE of the 5 goal that is the most important, the one will have the most impact on your life.

4. Fully visualize its completion with absolutely no concern of how to do it. Know unfailingly that once you see it in your minds eye, it is achieved.

The Bandstand is Sacred

By Adam Rafferty 4 Comments

Last night I played one of my venues in Austria that I first played 14 years ago…it’s a modest place….just a schnitzel, beer and good time music spot for touring acts.

It’s insane to think I stepped in that same room 14 years ago on my first European tour!

In preparation for last night’s gig, I made a list in the hotel of a bunch of tunes I either have not played recently, have not played yet, or new ones I wanted to try out.

My attitude for a moment, was that since this wasn’t a “serious” concert hall gig I could try things out and experiment.

But wait – there’s a flaw in that kind of thought…because that’s like saying “these people” in the audience don’t matter as much as “other people” in a concert hall.

Basically that’s like saying “you don’t matter”. What if you were one of the people at last night’s show, and what if I took that attitude?

As the place filled up, I saw longtime fans and friends in the room and knew they came for a great show. My adrenaline started pumping. I often think of the Billy Joel lyric to Piano Man – “he (the bartender) knows that it’s me they’ve been coming to see, to forget about life for a while.”

Like a bull that sees a red cape waving, when I see an audience, I know there is no holding back, there are no more excuses, there is nothing short of giving 10,000%! Life is not a rehearsal. Bullshit walks. Excuse my French.

The stage is the final destination for which all the sacrifices, hard work and practice hours have been put in. To squander it on “trying something” instead of really “doing something” is a waste IMHO. This is where the world class performance goes down. Not sometime in the future – but RIGHT NOW.

By the 3rd tune in to my first set, the sweat was dripping, I was soaked. I saw people out there grooving. I pulled out all the stops…humor, beatbox, chops, beauty of sound and a blues feel from hell. Of course I played the heaviest and sweatiest groove I could muster up.

I take no prisoners…I play as if it’s my last gig on planet earth, and I give thanks each and every time for the opportunity to have this blessed life of playing music. When I finish the gig and take bows, I give thanks to God, The Universe, my musical fathers and the audience again and again.

Slam dunks baby – in your face! 🙂 That’s the attitude.

What a night it was…it felt so good, so right to give give give to the audience, to bring these people joy, and it was a magical night.

And then I thought back to my mentor, Mike Longo and all the other jazz mentors…and they always said that “The Bandstand is Sacred”. Now I understand even more what he meant.

Being on the bandstand means it is time to “hit” – not to try things, not to experiment, not to give anything short of 100%, ever.

Every gig counts.
Every time you play music it counts.
Every one who listens to you counts – the most!

Music is as “serious as a heart attack”. If you are not serious about it, move over – because I am, and I’ll run you over.

The Bandstand is Sacred

I’m glad it was taught to me, over and over – and I am glad I remembered that last night.

How To Achieve Originality in Your Music

By Adam Rafferty 24 Comments

Originality in your musical expression comes unexpectedly as a by-product and is not pre-thought or pre-meditated.

Originality, or an individual sound is the result of “assembling” your music based on “un-original” but correct principles, and then focusing “flow” through the lens of your personal experience.

Throughout your life you make thousands of decisions, collect preferences in terms of what you like and don’t like…and no one has these experiences, in this combination – except you. You have a totally unique viewpoint! Celebrate that! You can’t not be you, and that is beautiful.

To “try” to be original, is just the EGO at work. There is no trying to be original involved in true originality, IMHO. In fact – you may not ever perceive your own originality the way others do. To strive to be a pure channel for music – and serve it properly is the true way of someone whom others may perceive as “original.”

In spiritual traditions, many strive to “be like a hollow reed” for spirit to flow through. That’s the idea! Be a hollow reed.

To imitate another – you deny YOUR beliefs in “sound musical principles” and barely skim the surface…it’s an okay starting point for a child, but your story, your preferences, and your rich experience carry an authenticity and tell a story in a far more satisfying, deeper and authentic way than your imitation of another could ever possibly tell. Believe in your experience and your story….don’t give it up and think someone else’s is better!

How can one avoid imitation? Just learn correct musical principles and apply them. Applying principles is a better way to go than imitating another players idiosyncrasies.

When I study rhythm, I just try to do it right. When I play a scale I try to do it right. When a melody speaks to me, it’s the melody – not me, I am just the listener…when I beatbox – it’s my love for James Brown, Run DMC and groove, and I just try to do it right, put it as deep in the pocket as I can. When I fingerpick, I try to use good technique like my teachers showed me and get a nice tone. When I practice, I go slow and play things over and over…just trying to do it right. Get it? Others say I sound original – but I am just trying to do it right, as best as I can.

Keep doing your musical homework and don’t think about originality. Just play music as well as you can – strive for beauty, tone, time, touch and technique….study harmony, rhythm and repertoire – and let listeners perceive your “originality”, after the fact. Your original voice is something which you may not perceive yourself just yet. It is the ghost between the sounds, the relation of how you get from one idea to the next. The essence carried by your music reveals itself when you simply play properly and honestly.

Inspiring Others Makes it All Worth It

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Yesterday I had a “day off” out here on the road…no concert. A buddy of mine who teaches music at a high school (here they call it “Gymnasium”) asked if I’d stop by to play for the kids. “Sure!” I said.

I was transported back to my own high school days just seeing them. I remember in my high school, we’d occasionally have musicians come in and play – great musicians – and they probably had no idea just how much they were inspiring some of us.

Adam Rafferty plays for students in Aachen Germany March 28, 2011 — Adam Rafferty plays for students in Aachen, Germany March 28, 2011

The kids here in Germany were wowed by the fact that I am from New York…they can psychologically project their dreams and hopes about traveling there and touring the world onto me. Err, well I do live there and do tour the world….but they probably paint a rosier picture in their minds than what I experience sometimes, and that’s a good thing!!! 🙂

I played guitar for them, threw in a little “Billie Jean” and “Thriller”, and then afterwards talked to them and connected to learn about them.

In return for inspiring them and bringing them some musical sunshine, I got an even greater gift in return. I felt happiness, joy and dare I say…love. They inspired me immensely.

Passing inspiration to others in a classroom is something I miss since I have been touring…I gotta figure out how to work that back into the mix!

Last night at the end of the day, as I reflected I thought to myself “this makes it all worth it.”

Long Term vs Short Term – Craft vs Overnight Success

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Yesterday I had a terrific chat on Facebook back and forth with 2 of my favorite guitarists – Andy McKee and Bryan Rason and a few other good guitar friends as well.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz_hqnowzzE]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCjHwNq0dho]

I posed a hypothetical question – “with the possibility of easy youtube success, why even bother developing a craft?”

I had seen one too many overnight sensations of meaningless musical fribble and inside – wondered whether the world, or I had gone mad 🙂

Of course the question was a conversation starter, and my circle of friends all agreed hands down that there will always be flashes of attention and front page news, but offering a deeper satisfaction, honing of one’s craft and meaningful communication will stand the test of time. It is what we all yearn for, be in musically, professionally, or personally.

This warmed my heart to know that I was not alone. And, as I woke up this morning (sounds like a blues tune) I reflected on what success guru Brian Tracy has to say, which was along parallel lines.

Of course Brian is not a musician, but here goes. (paraphrased)

“The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people plan in the long term…5, 10, 20 years ahead.”

“Successful people’s actions are necessary and disciplined fro what they want in the future rather than immediate gratification.”

“Unsuccessful people do what feels good, and is fun right now with little or no thought for future consequences.”

I think this is a really good summing up of what a musicians evolution ought to be like as well – in terms of development.

When you do the work…the scales, the technique, the practice, the creativity – and let’s not forget – the listening – you are adding to the “long term” picture of what you will offer. You are getting the skills that no one can take away from you.

Look at the towering greats of music – whomever your favorite may be. In order to be like them and not just “imitate them” – you’d have to put in the hours and do the work they did, make the mistakes they made, and listen as long as they have listened.

I raise my coffee mug on a chilly German morning and salute YOU for thinking long term, developing your craft – whatever it may be – and offering all that is YOU, through your hard work.

Time to practice.