Guitar

Why I Play “The Hunt” – a Song by Tommy Emmanuel

At the time of this writing, I am uploading a video of myself performing a tune by Tommy Emmanuel called “The Hunt”.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RxQhEHwSUyQ

It is a fast, fiery piece and it is his signature piece (one of them).

Why would I even attempt to play this and post it to YouTube – where people can easily see him destroy me, guitaristically? 🙂

Well, this piece really energized me when I first heard it and turned me onto the idea of being a man onstage with just a guitar and “electrifying” the audience. I must say, before seeing Tommy I thought that solo guitar had to be either like Joe Pass or classical (both of which I love), but neither of which has the frothing-at-the-mouth energy I wanted as part of my own solo playing.

I was unaware that this kind of playing was available to me in a blues / rock / acoustic/ steel string idiom. If you have not heard the piece it’s kind of like southern-rock-meets-flamenco.

I have been shedding (practicing) this piece for about a year. And while I am my own artist, have my own thing to say, and urge others to find their own voice – it is great to learn from masters, and take on new challenges by emulating what they do. Part of what I am excited about is where these musical ideas will take me once I have digested them.

The reasons that I practice this piece are many.

1) Tommy is like the “Michael Jordan” of guitar – and as far as I am concerned I am responsible to pay attention to what he’s doing and push myself to be as good as he is. Of course my “artistic voice” will and should manifest differently than his – but if he can do a 360 slam dunk, well I gotta work on mine!

2) This forces me be “out there” spiritually and grab people at a show, to get the high energy going in my playing. I tend to be too introspective (see my previous post).

3) I have had to learn new techniques, and am still working on them. The hardest for me is the alternating D bass in octaves with a flatpick while I play thirds with my m&a fingers on my right hand. My picking has been pretty fast for years.

4) One has to throw away proper left hand classical technique to play this piece: if you are playing with proper “hand” position you can’t do the pull offs and get the chords quick enough. As well, you can’t play the scales without the pull offs or else they don’t sound right – i.e. it ain’t all alternate picking!

5) I am hoping that it will get me to actually “think” differently. Actually, it has.

So there you have it. I will continue shedding this piece for a while still. Tommy plays stuff by Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed, so it’s the same thing for me.

This is my “tip of the hat” to a modern day master of the guitar – Tommy Emanuel.

Providing Contrast For an Audience

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Greetings!

Well I am writing this after a day and a half of preparing & uploading YouTube videos. Will I ever get off the computer?? Oh nooooo…..

As a freelancer a lot of work with no up front results need to go in. I.E. – one must have faith that what one is doing will yield a result. I do. And there’s no getting around it at the time of this writing – if you are a musician and not on youtube, you are missing out. What a cool way to get people to see you play music! In just a few short weeks I have been able to send video links to bookers & record labels – and not to mention, get new fans.

It’s funny, being a performer and understanding (or trying to understand) what audiences like. Crafting an act is a little bit like what they tell you about picking up girls – you gotta be a little bit of a prick. Be nice, be charming – but just a smidge cocky, but in a friendly, confident way. Being too sensitive, too nice looks like you are weak. Ever try to be nice & sensitive and see the girl you have a crush on go for the prickiest guy in the room? I have been that guy!

You can be the prick, and then when you got the “girl” feel free to be nice and show the sensitive side. Similarly – give the audience the “show” tunes and once you got ’em, ballads are ok.

Were I left to my own devices, I’d probably play ballads all the time. I love playing notes and letting them ring out and I can just stay in that meditative state forever. Nice for me, but not for the listener after an hour. I gotta tell you – audiences keep me on my toes. I know that I have to entertain and create excitement. It’s a little bit like what I mentioned about being a “pick up” artist.

A big part of my interest in acoustic guitar as opposed to a straight ahead jazz sound is that I can get that “roar” out of an acoustic when it is strummed. I had been missing that with the clean electric sound I was getting. Seems like a paradox, I know.

Ok, if you are an icon like James Taylor then maybe you can go and play ballads all night. But I’m not (yet).

So, in offering a “balanced” solo acoustic guitar act – I am keeping in mind that I need a healthy mix / awareness of

tempos – fast, medium, slow
rhythmic ideas – different grooves
tunes – melodic, funky, fast, more classical, more bluesy
a few freaky technical display tunes, just for the circus act
originals vs cover tunes
textures – arpeggios, single line, contrapuntal stuff
dynamics!!! everything from big flamenco strums down to whispery harmonics
shmoozing vs playing
how I will start & end the act!

If any of these elements is not there, it could potentially be a Thanksgiving meal without stuffing, or a Japanese meal without wasabi. Know what I mean?

I love how Tommy Emmanuel has a bulletproof show. I went with some friends, and there was something for all of us. I loved his ballady, melodic originals the most but I think the more typical audience members (non musicians) liked the energy, the contrasts – and even the sillier stuff like him singing “Heartbreak Hotel”. I mean – whoa – this guy kept everyone’s attention for 2 hours – just a man and a guitar. That is equally, if not more amazing than the playing itself!

That being said I invite you to watch the vids on you tube. The only “pretty one” I have uploaded at this time is “She’s Leaving Home” by The Beatles. All the others are tricky freaky audience attention grabbers.

https://youtube.com/profile?user=crescentridge

No more Mr. Nice guy – I want to “pick up the chicks” !!! (musically speaking) 🙂

I sincerely hope you are entertained!

Until next time –

Rhythm

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Greetings musician friends!

Well, I just spent all day yesterday re-recording the Dr. Lonnie Smith tune “Play it Back” on solo acoustic guitar. I have had the honor of playing this with him live at a few gigs and jazz festivals, and it’s one of those tunes that jam bands are jumping all over.

It’s a blues that never goes to IV chord, and has a characteristic little riff and break at the V chord.

Anyhow, that being said – I feel honored to have played with Dr. Lonnie, as he is one of the remaining jazz, blues & funk greats from the past. But man, let me tell you the stuff he does on gigs now is the future – he gets WAY out there!

I love the way he just rocks this whole groove on the stage and that’s part of what I am going for in my solo guitar act. Not to be a good guitar player, but to be a house rocker, a musical force like a Lonnie. That’s the thing with the greats – they are a musical force, not just a good instrumentalist.

So why did I re-record? Well, see my entry about spiritually vs technically correct. I have done recordings where I did not feel the groove was on the money, and had engineers, sidemen, friends, family – everyone say “It sounds good”. And then I go to listen and it just ain’t movin’ me, or makin’ my feet tap.

That’s why I re-recorded. The difference is so subtle – if you A/B the takes, they sound the same….but wait – I find myself grinning with the new take.

And, the thing with music where the groove is off is this:

1) you hear a piece of music, sense a possible groove and start moving your body
or maybe just tapping your foot

2) something in the music goes against the grain of body rhythm, you have to stop moving, and get a new frame of reference, and try to hook your body moving up to it again. Doing this continually as the music unfolds is the worst exhaustion I know. Eventually, one is forced to disconnect from the music in a “body rhythm” fashion and is forced to listen “from the neck up”.

OUCH. God forgive me, I have in my past created music that does this. Being stressed with studio time & costs, not hiring the right people, and just lack of experience and feeling off-center can knock the groove out.

Finally I feel like I am getting it!

When the groove is on:

1) you hear a piece of music, sense a possible groove and start moving your body
or maybe just tapping your foot

2) the music is obeying the same law that your “body rhythm” obeys. You, the listener can move your body and every little pop and squeak from the music your listening to goes right with how you are moving.

When this happens, a momentum known as “depth of groove” builds, and the joy and enjoyment build and build because you are in a flow, and you never have to “correct” where you are at in the trajectory of your dancing or foot tapping motions.

So, just like Stevie Wonder says in “Sir Duke”:

“But just because a record has a groove
Dont make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter ‘A’
When the people start to move”

The final judge is not me in this case. Of course it is good if I feel good about the music I am making, as no amount of whitewashing, accolades or praise will ever make me feel good if I feel that my music sucks.

You, the listener have to enjoy the music for me to be happy. And I’ll know by the twinkle in your eye, or the vibe “between the lines” of your email, or tone of your voice if it really turned you on.

So it is not about the money, the ego trip, the career; it is about the music being right. Whatever good follows that is gravy!

Gratitude

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Wow, I feel so caught in the pop culture as I write this, with “The Secret” and all the Law of Attraction stuff out there.

(Also – you musicians might ask why all this new age fribble is under a music or guitar heading here in the blog. Well guys and gals – music is a microcosm of life.)

I love the book “Ask and it is Given”. In it, there is a description of 22 processes that anyone can do to lift their “vibration” and get more of what they want by feeling good spiritually and emotionally.

The first on is entitled “The Rampage of Appreciation” and focuses on gratitude. Whoa! This is big.

I have spent so much time, I admit, wanting more, and in the process not been grateful for what I have. I’m not saying “Guilty me, I won’t go to heaven, children are starving, I am so bad…”. That is just a BS approach to face value gratitude which is only a beating up of oneself.

What I am saying is that when quietly one stops to look, and love – your pet, your people in your life, your opportunities, the capacity of your mind – you find yourself in a heavenly state of mind after having done so. And it is a very natural thing to do, if you just allow yourself.

And from that heavenly state of mind / spirit / whatever you want to call it – comes all good, all abundance. You don’t “do it to make money”, you do it for it’s own sake – but you’ll see that you have aligned with abundance.

It may sound trippy – but try it. When I walk out onto 74th street here in Jackson Heights, I look and appreciate the green trees, the ethnic diversity, the calm of an outer borough, and how it all helps me make music and live peacefully. I look at my kitty and see the hours of love this little creature has given me. I look at my past and thank everyone who was smarter and more experienced than me for nurturing and helping me. And on and on…

That’s why I called the new CD “Gratitude”. I suppose I always use a CD title or liner notes to reach people spiritually. I laid a copy on my mom and she had asked me why I named the title “Gratitude” and while my usual m.o. is to bicker with her, I told her why. And I underlined to her that part of that gratitude was that she raised me the best she could, and made sure I had guitars and guitar lessons and never told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t be a guitarist. Her belief in me was a given. Wow! Yeah Mom!! As I told her, I was almost in tears, and I felt that she was touched, and appreciated my appreciation!

We can and should practice gratitude deliberately – that is, not once in a while by accident. Why? Because life is be richer and happier when we do so. And the goodness snowballs!

One thing I do when I am with my girlfriend is be consciously grateful that she’s in my life. If I see a habitual, old thought of “Man I wish she wouldn’t..” or “I hate how she’s…” I know that I am headed for disaster, internally. Most people don’t realize that these states of mind are their own doing! I think that’s what happens when couples leave the honeymoon stage. Appreciation diminishes and thoughts of what’s “not good” take charge.

First thing I do when that comes on is tell her, out loud, “Honey, I love you just the way you are – please don’t change a thing”. And while I may smirk and she knows something pushed a button in me, she smiles back and things diffuse.

I have at that point gone 180 degrees away from trying to change her. I accept her as being different – and appreciate the good things about her such as her perky attitude, her beauty, her honesty, her love of animals, her integrity, herr punctuality, and her eagerness to get along with my family. The appreciation helps me get properly aligned.

When I meditate and actually slow down enough to see emotions and images pass through my “universal” awareness, I see that as humans we are all really the same. Despite our seemingly outward differences – there is a common denominator. It is all about how we deal with what is in front of us, and how we perceive real from unreal. We may each have been given a different “lump of clay” as our life circumstances (talents, location, ethnicity, etc), but the craft with which we mold and sculpt what we’ve got is what it is all about. We can either allow goodness, appreciate, and feel our sprits in us, or not.

Allowing “love” to flow, or allowing the feeling of love to be felt – is the key to this. Why not try some gratitude and start the flow? Try it, you’ll like it!

Say Goodbye to The Shiny Silver Disc

By Adam Rafferty 3 Comments

I recently did a new recording project here at my home studio and thought about “pressing” my CD. That’s what I’ve done since 1993 – recorded and pressed CD’s.

I can’t believe I sound like such an old fart here – but I finally got an iPod about 6 months ago. I have not bought a CD in what feels like at least a year. My Dad subscribes to Rhapsody and has not bought CD’s.

Just “google” the term “the future of cd’s” and you will see bleak articles. The day of the shiny silver disc is over I think.

Hmm…doesn’t seem like such a good idea to spend a lot of money pressing CD’s of my new music. A quote from Discmakers came in at around $2300 for 1000 CD’s with the tax, shipping and an extra $400 for them to do the design.

Now, as a working musician what can I sell on gigs? I have always sold CD’s as a main part of my tour income, not to mention online sales.

I also have an instructional DVD and 3 guitar books I have written, all of which are reproducible by any 13 year old on a computer.

What is it that I can offer that is unique: my performance! You still can’t copy that experience digitally, so step one is that our performances – i.e. the experience of having us there performing is special. But,merchandise has really helped supplement income at gigs.

Ok, I can also sell frisbees, t-shirts and mugs but that’s a lot to carry. I probably will get tees made, but whoa! I’ll have a lot of carrying in the airports!

I did see something extremely interesting the other day – a service that allows musicians to sell music downloads at gigs. WHAT? Yes – check it out.

https://discrevolt.com

You sell the fan an attractive physical card with a unique download code on it, and they can go home from your gig and download the music. I suspect we’ll see lots of variants on this soon.

Any thoughts? Let me know….