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You are here: Home / Archives for Tour Diary

Tour Diary

Adam Rafferty Tour Diary 11/15/08 – Guitar Air Travel Tactics

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Alternative title to this post could be “Shame on You Airlines!!!”

Let me start by saying that if you have any brilliant ideas about traveling with acoustic guitars, I  am all ears.  I am sitting in the Prague airport, still a little perplexed, as I write.  Luckily I am here with guitars which are all in one piece and did not go broke getting them here.

Just when I think I’ve got the “flying with a guitar dilemma” licked, the ever evolving chess game between the dark forces of the airlines and us good guys (musicians) takes an unexpected twist.

I did everything by the book.  I loosened the strings, bubble packed the neck within the hard shell case, and as I have written in an earlier post – I then pack  the case in my casextreme.com travel case, like a good acoustic guitar student should. 🙂

I know many guitarists just show up to the gate either with a hard shell or a gig bag – and this is Russian roulette.  God forbid they tell you is has to be checked, you are in trouble – or maybe you just don’t take the flight.

This tour was pretty extensive – so I traveled with 2 acoustics, and an electric.  So, all in all thats:

2 acoustics in road cases  (playing solo, one needs a backup axe)
1 Electric in a soft case (fits in overhead)
Suitcase
Laptop & Gear case

Guess what?  The fun started when Swiss International Air charged $200 for taking a 3rd luggage piece getting out of the gates in NYC.   That’s just one way, folks.

Ouch. 

And flying from Koln to Prague – I had paid for 3 luggage pieces online ahead of time – but basically that just gave me the “privilege” of dividing my 23 kilo allotment across 3 bags.  

Why must there always be surprises? At the counter I was told it would be 140 euros.  But fear not – a creative solution came…

It did not take long to figure this out –

$200 NYC to Europe
$200 approx (140 eur) Koln to Prague
$200 Europe back to NYC

 

That would be $600 for this tour alone if I just took my lumps and handed my credit card across the counter.  And guess what – I’m coming back to Europe in the Spring…another $400 – $600.  That could amount to $1000 or more – just to shlep a backup guitar 2 times that I almost never play.

And The Solution Is…

First off, I twisted their arm to let me take a hard shell in the cabin, and left a road case with my friend in Koln. Having another person there to pass gear off to was key!

So friends – the solution is (drum roll, please) I will be leaving lots of gear here across the pond.  Actually, guitarist and instructor Stefan Grossman put the idea in my mind so kudos to him – park guitars and other equipment junk in Europe, and travel light.  

So, a Taylor, a Yamaha Electric (Killer axe – I bought 2) and maybe a boss multi-efffects board will stay here.  I just can’t bear to pay the offensive B.S. money they want to charge.

Assuming my guitars foster parents will humidify it regularly, I should be in good shape.

I’d rather buy more guitars with the money I save.  🙂

Greetings from The Road Again – European Tour Update 11/9/08

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Greets Friends!

I am traveling once again on the good ol’ German rail system – and figured it is as good a time as any to give you a tour update.

Today I got to immerse myself in the joy of practicing.  This tour has been hard work and lots of travel – but I have really gotten in some good practice in hotels and can feel new musical areas opening up, and it is very exciting for me.

It’s something I can’t quite explain…it feels just so  darn good to work on my acoustic guitar playing!  I worked long today and yesterday on re-arranging my own tune “Shelter Island”.

The tune is not yet recorded, as I knew it “wasn’t quite there yet” – but the solutions I had been seeking popped up over the last 48 hours!  It will be “unveiled” on youtube soon.  It is a pretty, sprightly little travis picking ditty with a nice melody that just feels great and sounds great.  When the right hand fingers are firing just right….well I don’t want to stop playing it!

At some point, a voice in my head said “hey, try this slighlty different hand position” – and next thing you know, the strings were poppin’ effortlessly under my right hand.

As well, on the Bennie Wallace tour I started investigating new phrasing techniques by using “the feeling” of hammer ons and pull offs in the right places to get melodies to “lay” more the way Charlie Parker and Dizzy would phrase.  Not many guitarists use the left hand fingerings in this way.  I felt a new level of steadiness in the time and “locking” with the drums.

It’s awesome…there is always new stuff to work on, and I will never get it done.

There must be some kind of similarity to practice and meditation in terms of brain waves, or “states”.  If I am not mistaken,  the “alpha” state is our regular waking mind – and as one slips into meditation one achieves a “beta” state.

It never fails – it takes 30 minutes or so of practice for the guitar to “open up” – which is really my state slipping into another mode.  Musical solutions reveal themselves, new tunes appear and music plays itself.

And all I can say at that point is “thank you” to whomever is giving me the gems, the ideas and the music lessons from some other realm.

Until next time, be well and keep swingin’

The Miraculous Nature of Manifestation

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Greetings from Cologne Germany!  It is a gorgeous sunny morning and I am drinking a nice hot coffee!

Describing a miraculous experience is impossible in words.  The idea is for you to have this experience yourself, so that you may know of what I truly speak, from within yourself.  Then and only then will you resonate with what I am saying.

It is similar to reading a book about being in love, or reading about joy.  Words can only conjour up images and imaginings,  and are not the experience itself.

It seems that it is all the rage today to learn about the message of manifestation as described in “The Secret” and then become a teacher of it.  Gurus teaching gurus.  But to see it in action, truly see this law function, for big and small, makes one wonder about the meaning of life and the nature of our minds and souls.

The law of manifestation holds true for small things and big things, positive things and negative things – to see that regardless of any label you give it, that what you get is what you envision.   The question then arises, is life an inner experience or an outer experience?  Truth be told, there is no difference between outer and inner.  There is no hiding the inner within the shell of the outer.

Many of the “manifestation” articles, books and movies (and gurus) get their draw by telling you that you can be rich, famous and all that material stuff – which is fine, but it is only a small sliver of the richness of life.  The magic is not in those things.  The miracle is to see the law in action, and be awestruck at it’s miraculous nature.

When you start seeing manifestation occur in your life without strain, without effort – and grounded in a knowing that what you had in mind would of course manifest, your old cosmic view of time, distance, age, separateness and ego starts to crumble and a new view of it all emerges.

This is the indescribable gift, the miracle.

I’d like you to prove the law of manifestation to yourself today, and it can be done quickly easily.  How you observe your everyday life has everything to do with it.  You use this law all the time without realizing it.  It’s as if you are in fact a miracle worker, and don’t know it – so it is time to watch your life differently.

What is something you are planning to do today?

Eat food?
Call someone?
Buy something for yourself or someone else?
Go to work or school?
Tell a friend something?
Brush your teeth?
Practice an instrument?
Exercise?
Finish a term paper?
Do laundry?

Decide on something very small (and seemingly un-miraculous) that may even be part of your routine and just play around with the idea that it has in fact not yet happened, and acknowledge 100% that the picture is in your mind.

One example that I particularly like is getting an item such as a cup of coffee.  I’ll use that here, but you can use anything today as you play around with this.

Pick something very easy so you can watch the manifestation process run smoothly.  Do all the steps I have described, don’t skip anything even if it seems silly.

1. Start by acknowledging that the picture in your mind is THE SAME THING as if it were physical reality.

Say aloud “The picture in my mind is my reality.  My reality is the picture in my mind.  Both are one.”

2.  Envision the item in a picture form or verbal form.  Acceptable modes are 1) seeing it in your mind’s eye 2) seeing on an actual image, such as a vision board 3) writing 4) speaking.  All forms.

Ex:  See the coffee in your mind and acknowledge that it is in your mind and not yet physically present.

Say aloud “I am manifesting the picture of _______ that I have in my mind”.

Remember, this is about seeing this entire manifestation process from start to finish.  This is not  a regurgitation of other teachers methods to get wealth and fame.  Allow yourself to witness the miraculous.

3.  Either make the coffee or buy it.  Really do it if you want to understand these words. Reading alone will not do it.  Do whatever it takes to manifest the coffee.

4.  Look at the coffee that is now in front of you.  Reflect deeply on the fact that your vision became reality and that you can do this again and again, and have in fact been doing this your whole life, and will continue to do so.

You did whatever it took and organized things around your vision to bring it into being.  This is the meaning of “God helps those who help themselves”.

5.  Know that the label you give it “big or small”, “important or unimportant”, “rich or poor”, “miraculous or mundane” is just a description in your mind.  Truth be told, if you have done steps 1 through 4 you have in fact operated the law of manifestation.

6.  Ask yourself where the time between the vision and the manifestation went.  Who experienced the time and where did it go?  When you get insight into the non existence of time, you will see that you can create anything you want and not even see time, money or effort as part of the equation.

7.  Reflect on the miraculousness that you brought forth the thing you envisioned.  If you are unable to see this and feel “big deal, I bought a cup of coffee” then you need to quiet down your mind because that just means you can’t sit still long enough to reflect and see the miracle of this cosmic event!

The coffee is the same thing as your highest goal, your dream of a family, a degree in school, career or anything else.  It is good to see  the process from start to finish with a relatively easy item, and look at the process during each stage.

As I reflect on my life, I see clearly that the origins of everything I have started with visions in my mind.  Some things came (and come) immediately and others take years of work.  Doesn’t matter though.

As a kid who loved the rock band Led Zeppelin, I can remember just “having to have” a Zeppelin t-shirt.  Well, I looked and looked and got one.  “Big deal” you say, “lots of people have those”. My reply is that it IS a big deal and that every one who wanted and sought and got one is a “creator” and has successfully operated the “law of manifestation” by holding the vision and getting one.
That is all for now.

A Note from 10,000 Feet

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Greets Friends!

I am writing you from about 10,000 feet just on the other side of the Atlantic in a Swiss Int’l Air Plane.  I am embarking on a long 7 week tour in Europe. I can’t sleep, and guess what – I play hours after landing in Hamburg!  .

Well, why not write a blog entry?  🙂

=-=-=-=

As I chatted on the plane with my row companion, we discussed how artists are not taught business.  Hmm, well in music school I learned NO business stuff -it has all been from life experience.

Years ago on my first tours I’d find that I had a fanny pack full of Austrian schillings and have no idea if I made money, lost money or what on a tour.  Having money felt good, but it was so fuzzy….

This occurred to me when Mom & Dad would say, “how’d you make out?” and all I had was a blurry memory of beer, selling CD’s, buying train tickets and having a great time.  But oh no – here comes the credit card bill with the plane tickets for a trio!

And then a voice spoke to me – “the numbers don’t lie”.

I’d love to teach this to young musicians.  (And if anyone out there has any suggestions for me as to getting better at budgets & planning I am all ears! Maybe a good book?)

I realized that with a spreadsheet program (I use excel) I could easily enter  expenses as negative numbers in one column, income in another and voila – have it do some fancy totaling and see how well I did at a glance, and update anytime I pop in new numbers.

I actually just spent some time here on the plane setting up the template and could semi – project the tour income.  Ok, there will be meals, then who knows what the CD sales will be – but all I have to do now is pop in numbers every day (USD or EURO – I set up conversions & totaling ) and I have a nice red box at the bottom with my “bottom line” in USD.

Of course when you are building a career & following your passion money is not the only measure, but “the numbers do not lie”.  It’s always worth it to get out and play – but it is nice to come home with some dough too!!!

A great thing about this process is that I can see more clearly now that if I’d like to up my overall income, I need to earn a certain amount each gig, which amounts to setting firm prices for concerts.  This process makes clear what I’d have to say “no” to, and helps me navigate my negotiations more clearly!

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this…time to try and sleep some.

Stay tuned!

🙂

Adam Rafferty Gig Review @ The Bug Theater – Denver, CO Sept 9, 2008

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

Greets friends.  Boy I feel great.  Playing concerts makes me feel human again. After even a few days off from gigs, my skin starts to crawl!!!!

Last Night’s gig at THE BUG THEATER in Denver was really a blast. I teamed up with local songwriter / guitarist  Wayne Gremminger and we played a set each for the audience.

It’s funny – on previous trips to Denver to visit friends I felt myself get very “squirmy” and downright uncomfortable.  Playing a gig here paints an entirely different picture  of the place.

When you are a musician you need to play just like a fish needs water.  I am an addict, what can I say? 🙂

=-=-= About the Gig =-=-=-=-=-

Wayne’s set was an intimate, introspective, gorgeous 45 minutes of music.  He has gone for free to hospices to play music for dying peopple. He’s even traveled to India to play music for dying people at Mother Theresa’s house for the dying – just to give these souls a ray of musical sunshine before they pass on.

That tells me something about his character.

I met Wayne at a friends party and we hit it off immediately.  He expressed to me how much wanted to get back into playing music for people, after not having done it for several years.

Not only am I appreciative that he organized last night (all I had to do was show up and play – imagine that!) but it warms my heart to know that I provided just the motivation he needed to make his comeback performance a reality.

The result?  Everyone wins – I had a blast, Wayne made his comeback and the audience had a great time!!!

Until next time, keep swingin’!

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