Beginning to improvise

As a follow up post to my last one (where I segued into the challenges of improvisation) I thought I'd write a short post on - wait for it - how to get started on improvising!  This is something I'd like to be able to do - I still go to guitar jams/singalongs and there is always that break when people with mad skills are able to effortlessly improvise over the chords we are playing.  Not to mention it's a component of the certificate course I'm planning to take next June.   I'm still in the dark about how to get to the right notes before they actually happen, despite having been through some of the instructions on improvisation on classicalguitarcorner.com.  It's just not sinking in.  So I thought I'd branch out into the acoustic world (where improvisation is all part of the genre) to see if there was another way I could approach it.   I came across a site I thought I'd share - it looks promising - using the scale seems to make sense, and the fact that the same 4 chords are repeated throughout the song means there is no guessing game to figure out which chord you're moving to.  (That's another thing I'm having trouble with - I can tell there's a chord change but more often than not don't know which one - but that challenge is for another time).  I also like the incremental approach - starting off with one octave, known chords...  apart from getting seriously bored with Beyonce I think it might have promise, so I thought I'd share - here is a link to part one, and from there, go on to part 2 😊...
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/learn-to-play-by-ear-using-chord-tones-part-one/

Can jazz help my classical playing?

This week I was having an interesting email exchange with a friend of mine who studies jazz guitar.  He wanted to know my take on  comments related to a blog post regarding playing classical guitar vs. jazz guitar...  (paraphrased below)

• Jazz guitarists know the fretboard better than classical guitarists 
• Rhythmic energy and drive is secondary for classical guitarists
• Classical guitarists spend too much time worrying about making the smallest mistake

Hmmm.   From a personal point of view I can confirm I don't know the fretboard at all well and I do indeed memorize a series of shapes and patterns, but my teacher seems to know the fretboard intimately - he often points out that something I'm playing up the fretboard is "just an xyz chord" (news to me!)  And let's face it, rhythmic energy and drive, i.e. a steady down/off beat? is not what's required when connecting musical lines across several measures.  Worrying about the smallest mistake? I figure I'll get to that when I've stopped worrying about the big mistakes. 😆 

But wait!  He followed up with a treatise involving 10 places to play

Cdim/Cm6-5 chords... and 4 (equally confusing) synonyms for the same 4 notes.   What?  I'm not even sure I know how to say that.  I realize that I'm paddling around in the kiddie pool and he's swimming the English channel so far as chords are concerned.  And to be honest,  I don't have much use for 10 places to play a jazz chord just at this minute, but it would be nice to actually have at my finger ends triads etc of major/minor/7th chords all over the neck wouldn't it?  (yes I do know the CAGED shapes and how to use them, but only in theory, i.e. I can work out how to play a C chord at the 8th fret if need be).  So it would be nice to recognize the shapes I'm playing as actual chords instead of having to refer to the sheet music to work out what they are.  The only thing I am confident about in our whole discussion is I can read the exercises (notation) he pointed to without having to convert them to tab!  

So how does this all help me?  I'm not about to start learning jazz guitar - I'm having enough trouble with classical, and anyway I don't have an extra few decades available.  However what I'd really like to be able to do is improvise over basic chords - it's something I'm supposed to be learning but I'm not getting very far, while jazz guitarists can apparently do this in their sleep.  Do I have to know all the scale shapes all over the fretboard and figure out which notes of the scale in the key sig go with which chord and where they are, instantly, on the fly?   Or perhaps just fret all the different chords as they come up and improvise on those?  Or..... well ? you tell me.    Something has not yet clicked, and it's not like I can't hear when it sounds right... the problem is knowing in advance what I need to do to get there!  I'm hoping it's going to be something where I get an aha! moment - like when I found out that modifying the major and minor scale patterns to get the church modes finally made musical sense.  (Previous attempts to understand them had been like peering through the murk at the bottom of the inner harbor).

So enough musing - when I get it I'll post what worked for me (but it could be a while).  In the meantime, here is where I am on my latest classical exercise (where I note the rhythmic accuracy leaves something to be desired still)

What are the 10 most useful things I learned THIS year?

I am tempted to just repeat the list from a year ago, because I have to keep being reminded of the same things over and over!  However here's my attempt to document that I did learn something this year!

1.  Sometimes the best only way to keep in time is to count along with yourself.  It's not easy (especially if you have trouble concentrating on more than one thing at a time, like I do) but the metronome can only take you so far, and it really doesn't sound good playing along in the background!   Seriously though - pieces that don't have a steady downbeat seem to be particularly hard to keep a steady tempo - there was one piece (the Pavan) where I didn't get it until I counted along.

2.  Counting is pretty essential when sight reading too.  My guitar teacher in a fit of what cannot possibly be sadism has given me sight reading pieces that I swear are impossible to read (unless you're a real guitar player, perhaps).  The only way I even managed to get the beat (ignoring the notes) was to count along laboriously.  Worked for 16ths with rests and ties, but not for quarter note (or-  heavens! half-note) triplets.  Any hints on that topic will be welcomed (and it's way too slow to just fit in trip-e-let... I tried!)

3. Playing super slowly really helps with memorization.  Muscle memory seems to fall apart if you play it slowly enough, so you have to really think about the notes and which fingers you are playing them with.  So by the time you relearned how to play it super-slowly you know it a whole lot better.

4. Playing super-slowly really helps with correcting errors you may have been unconsciously making, such as playing the wrong notes (!) or failing to hold them the correct length.   Why? because if you're me, it's probably the first time you've really studied the music closely - it's amazing what you find out...

5. Practicing things 10x in a row correctly is not necessary nor (for me) advisable.  Four is about the right number for me because I've found it tends to fall apart at 3 or 4 if it's going to.  Why is it not advisable for me to do more? If there is one injury I'm prone to, it's tendonitis/over-use injuries.  Enough said.

6. If you can't seem to 'get' the LH fingering, check the RH!   I  know, sounds counterintuitive, but if the brain is puzzling over the RH fingering, it's easy for the LH to fall apart too. I tend to concentrate on the LH, so it makes sense I don't notice when the RH is causing the trouble.

7.  I don't think I've internalized this one yet.  Start learning the dynamics and articulation sooner- while you are initially learning the piece.  I've been told enough times, I thought I'd write it down 😏

8.  Learning to sight read takes a long long long time.  Yep, it was on last year's list as well.  I guess I could add that it takes more willpower than I have to do it every day,  but at least this year I've kept at it for longer periods between breaks, and I enlisted my guitar teacher to help me remember...

9. Recording yourself is really really really useful.  Another one from last year's list.   I can say that I am no longer intimidated by the red button on my phone.  I'll sometimes play a section, listen,  and repeat multiple times until it actually sounds roughly like I think it did to start with.   I guess if this was new year's resolution time, I'd say I need to make myself just as comfortable with the video camera.  Don't hold your breath though.

10.  I'm tempted to make this one a repeat of "you need to practice performing if you want to perform" and it's still true, but I didn't do it this year.   Instead I'm working on the other end of the equation - working up pieces until they are solid enough that they don't completely fall apart under performance pressure.   Having confidence that I really can play it through every time will hopefully help.

Left hand, right hand, all together now....

Usually I concentrate on my left hand...   and when that approach fails, then I check to make sure I know what my right hand is supposed to be doing.  Fortunately that doesn't happen too often, but it's usually a quick fix. Until now.  For my latest piece, there are sections when neither hand wants to happily fall into the next position, (as I've discovered through repeated attempts that resulted in a distinctly unmusical result).  It's finally down to having to train each hand separately until the "hand shapes" needed are part of muscle memory, and then try to put them together.  Sigh.  It seems that gone are the days when I can polish off a piece in a couple of weeks and then move onto something new and interesting. 

For the forseeable future, I have the Carcassi, which is gradually moving up in tempo from "almost stopped" to "only thinking about stopping" - the Prelude, (where I can but marvel at how much refinement is still needed for a 50 second piece), Maria Luisa, which is going back to "too slow to count" to iron out some technical issues, and then the aforementioned piece (Adelita) with the finger tai chi.  Only one more to add to the mix and that'll be it for the next 6 months...  As my guitar teacher points out, it's time to learn several pieces in parallel rather than one after the other.  Don't get me wrong  - I'm still enjoying the challenge of these pieces, but I am not looking forward to the stage where I'm sick and tired of working on them and they still  don't sound right! 

Maybe I'll look out an easy Christmas song or two for a little light relief 😀. 

Am I my own worst enemy? I need self-control!

Go slow.  Don't run before you can walk.  Make sure it's solid before you speed it up.  I know this.  I should do anyway -I've just spent 2 weeks playing a fast piece unbelievably slowly.  And I proved to myself that it works.  Not only did I get to know the piece really well,  I could play it consistently at a slow pace.  So why then, instead of working the tempo back up in slow careful stages, did I speed it up unbelievably fast?   Duh.  Now it's back to making mistakes again😕  I don't honestly know why I think to myself "this is really going well, let's see how much better it sounds when played a lot faster."  Or even more idiotic, "I made a couple of mistakes, let's see if they disappear if I double the speed."  Honestly I really am my own worst enemy.

Thankfully I'm using the super slow method on a second piece, also with a big improvement in consistency.  This time I've been more careful about increasing the tempo slowly. So far so good.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can keep myself under control😂

In the meantime: for the Carcassi - it's back to v-e-r-y s-l-o-w.

Use the end to find the beginning..

I know - that title is either an oxymoron, confusing, or perhaps both, but stay around and all will be explained...   This week I was reminded of a different goal-setting technique (in Noa Kageyama's excellent e-newsletter).  That is, when trying to set goals for a deadline, instead of starting from the current timepoint and working forward, start at the finish line and work backwards.  What does this mean? Figure out the precise goal, and all the tasks that are required to accomplish that goal, then fit them into timepoints between now and then so they fit.   (Actually I think the point of the exercise is to identify the tasks and schedule them - rather than actually working backwards, but I'm not quibbling*)
I've done the goal-setting exercise before with my guitar practice and it works, kind of.   But it usually falls by the wayside sooner rather than later, maybe because the goals aren't tied to a specific endpoint.  As I seem to have a number of projects that are not making much progress, I thought I'd have a go at this technique for the next week or so. 

First I had to identify specific goals and deadlines - believe it or not, that in itself was useful.

By Nov 12 (pm)

• Play the De Visee Prelude at the next online masterclass (part of Simon Powis' ClassicalGuitarAcademy) - probably November 12.  There are a number of us working on it and it was suggested (at least half tongue in cheek) that we would all play the same thing!

By Nov 8 (pm)

• Learn part 2 of Adelita sufficient to play it v slowly
• Read through orchestra music from e.g. the Swan from Carnival of the Animals and identify any challenges to ask guitar teacher 
• Finish working through sight reading practice exercises (8 remaining)
• Be able to play through Carcassi 7 (like this!) but cold @ 30 (super slow) with metronome on 8ths.

After identifying the goals and the deadlines, I then broke down what I had to do to get there. Though  it would be tedious for you to read (so I won't list them here), it was extremely useful for me. For example, to get through the (so called) sight reading I found I had to assign myself more to do at the weekend, because it takes me such a long time (it's not really sight reading, it's more figuring out how to play it.)   In contrast, the orchestra music was pretty simple - read through one piece a day and done!  Learning Adelita involved breaking it down into sections and concentrating on one section a day.  So far so good.  The Prelude however - I've had it a while now, and though I've made progress on dynamics and keeping the voices separate and legato, I rarely if ever play it clean.   I decided I needed to break it down into sections and apply the super-slow approach till I could play each section without errors 4x.  Started this at the weekend, and I found 7 things I needed to do differently. Wow. 

So in summary, what did I get out of this and is it worth continuing?

• Assigning a specific goal to a deadline (even 'fake' deadlines can help!) made things seem achievable as opposed to nebulous 'in the future' kind of goals. 
• Thinking about what was needed to reach the goal resulted in me trying new things (for instance applying the super-slow technique to iron out the problems in the Prelude) - more on using your head instead of just trying harder
• Having only a small subtask to do each day (and then you're done!) made it much easier to actually do, and is well-known as helping to achieve larger goals.
• I got a sense of satisfaction from achieving the smaller tasks
• Even if some of the deadlines prove unrealistic, the information I got from trying will help me set more realistic deadlines in future. Adjusting goals is an important skill in project management.

As for whether I reached any of my goals - that will remain to be seen!

*Definition of "quibble" 'early 17th century (in the sense ‘play on words, pun’): diminutive of obsolete quib ‘a petty objection,’ 

Go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow, go slow....................................

Ever tried to play part of a piece from the middle of a sequence and blanked out?  How about reducing the tempo drastically - do your fingers "forget" what they happily knew at the usual speed?  Mine do.  This is of course further evidence that there is a part of my brain akin to the 'black box' that used to be a common feature of my biochemistry lectures back in the day.  If the mechanism wasn't known, the equations used to show one thing going into the box, and another coming out. What happened in between was anybody's guess.  What brings this to mind?  Well my challenge this week is to play Carcassi 7 cold at an agonizingly slow pace every day.  I can tell what's going to happen - first my fingers won't want to find the strings (cold, remember?) and then I will get to a part where I blank out on which fingers play the note(s) I can hear in my head and have played approximately five hundred times (the black box).  So I will have to get the music out (or play faster) to 'remember'.  Come to think of it, I might also check out what the dynamics and phrasing are supposed to be while I'm about it. And I might figure out the sequencing a little more clearly.  Hmmm... perhaps there is some method to this madness -  My memory might even get to decipher some of the contents of that black box...

But here's the kicker - I have to do this for my guitar teacher next week!   Oh man, I'm going to need a strong drink either before or after that lesson (maybe before and after...)

Decided to see if repetitions of this process (trying to play it cold, sloooow) has any benefit...  so will try it daily and track problems and solutions this week.

DAY ONE.   Quel Disaster!    Playing it at 25-30 (vs. ~80).  Started off by missing strings (as predicted).  Then forgot where to go in multiple spots (also as predicted).  And speeding up (should have been predicted) - just could not stay with the metronome.  Tried the metronome on 8th notes (still hard to follow) and finally on 16th notes, which worked better.    I learned the "forgetting" was usually in the right hand, not the left, so practiced some areas right hand only.


DAY TWO -  Slight improvement...  a couple of sections I practiced yesterday were OK today.  Still missed strings, but mostly in the first few measures, right hand.  Maybe I should do a dry run of the first bit next time to make sure I'm lined up?  Still having problems with the slur section  - my hand doesn't like i on 1 with p on 6, so repeats m, and then I notice what I did and screw up the next bit.  Potential solution?  Changing fingering to add in 'a.' Noticed a squeak I can work to eliminate.  Forgot to put metronome on at all....oh well, it was slow...

DAY THREE - Definitely improved today - only missed or buzzed ?4 notes in a complete run through - but wait!   I "forgot" to go super slow - it was just "slower."   Aaargh.  Back to the metronome tomorrow.  Good news - squeak disappeared, and having done a dry run of the beginning few measures,  only missed one note instead of most of them in the first section.  And the 'a' on the slurs seems to be working but needs more practice.  Worked on trying to find that F#/C stretch by feel because it's a "commonly missed" part - not too much success with that yet.  Figured I'd better damp the E bass at the end so worked on the right hand thumb (which never ever wants to do what I tell it to....).  Thought about adding in breathing room but didn't...

DAY FOUR - Much better at staying with the metronome on 16ths - no tendency to charge ahead at all.   And I managed to get through to the end (i.e. before the repeat) , only missing one note , and in particular the first section when I was totally cold went without a hitch as did the slurs and F#/C (but I did have to look).  But then on the repeat new problems emerged - now I have so much time to think that I'm second guessing myself or analyzing or wandering in my head instead of focusing.  Then suddenly I remember to concentrate and - guess what? I don't know where I am.  Also totally forgot about damping at the end.   So tomorrow's challenge is to stay focused, perhaps by actively thinking about dynamics in the upcoming part instead of the individual notes...
Thinks💭   might try some of my other  "problem pieces" (actually that's all of them currently) at super-slow tempos to see if that will iron out some persistent problems.

DAY FIVE - I can say I know this piece a lot better than I did at the beginning of the week!  Tempo is good but I'm continuing to have problems remaining focused at such a slow pace, and today I had to restart due to 'wandering off' right at the beginning- what can I say? it's too early in the morning.  However once I got  my brain in gear, the second section including the repeat went well.  Tried to think about what I needed to concentrate on in upcoming sections and it seemed to help.  Though I did wander off once, believe it or not thinking about suggestions to avoid wandering off from yesterday's online masterclass!  - and I still forgot the damping. 

I tried the super-slow stuff on Maria Luisa - that's a harder nut to crack - I've tried concentrating on so many different aspects  - one of these days I will figure it out.

DAY SIX  - I would dearly like to say that this is the day it all came together.  Nope.   In fact it was dreadful.  Missing notes with both hands left right and center.  Gave up and practiced thumb damping instead.  Reminds me of when you are clicker training a pig to follow a target (yes, I've done all sorts of odd activities in my career) and things are going along swimmingly until a few days in, then the pig ups and forgets everything you thought it had learned.  This (for a pig) is normal - within a day or so it's back on track and seems to have mastered the task.  Something to do with transitioning from short term to long term memory.  I suppose I could be like that pig.  OR it might have been because I reduced the metronome to 8ths, and here I was again fighting not to speed up instead of concentrating on what I was playing.  I'd love to know why it is so much more difficult to stay at tempo with half as many clicks...  Tomorrow's task - somehow encourage my brain to stay on tempo with 8ths and think about what's coming next...

DAY SEVEN - well today was the day when I actually had to play it, at this painfully slow tempo, for my guitar teacher.   Just so you know, I rarely if ever manage to play anything for my guitar teacher due to nerves and fear of failure.  What happened?  Well I succeeded! - played through the whole thing with minimal mistakes (though admittedly I did have to start twice).  Of course I did not have to stay with the metronome, which helped. Next week's task is to stay with the metronome on fewer clicks, but I think I'll spare you the day-to-day tribulations  😊

Which online sites are most useful for learning student pieces?

Apart from actually listening to your guitar teacher, and checking out performances by all and sundry on Youtube, where else can we go to find out how to manage fingering, determine tempo and figure out how to interpret a piece of music?   Yes, I know that hopefully we are going to end up with our own interpretation, but along the way it's helpful to see what others have done and what sounds good.  These days we have a wealth of online resources, but with that cornucopia of possibilities comes a downside - with no 'expert' moderating what gets uploaded, we could be diligently learning to play an idiosyncratic version, or worse,  duplicating all sorts of errors.  For instance, I learned a renaissance piece, happily emulating multiple student versions.   My subsequent lack of tempo control was pointed out quite vividly by my guitar teacher as he demonstrated the impossibility of 'conducting' my version due to its widely varying tempo.  I went back later to check the online 'student' videos and discovered there wasn't a single version (at least among the half dozen or so I reviewed) that kept to a solid tempo.  Ugh.   Not that online videos aren't useful, but it does mean we have to be somewhat circumspect when using an uncurated upload as a model.

So how, not being experts, do we assess what we are seeing and hearing?    I guess the easiest way is to check the credibility of the musician -  searching YouTube reveals a host of respected names.    For a particular artist you can look for a YT (or Vimeo) channel- particularly good resources include Brad Werner,  Kevin Gallagher, Edson Lopes,  Per-Olov Kindgren, Daniel Nistico,  Eliot Fisk, Zane Forshee and Strings By Mail sponsored artists Gohar Vardanyan, Matt Palmer, Raphaella Smits,  and Irene Gomez.  A new site likely to be useful for a lot of student pieces is guitaretudes.com (sign up required - but you can check out multiple clips posted on the Instagram app).  Another site to try is Delcamp (free sign up) where you can find some beautiful versions of non-copyrighted music posted by members of the forum.   ITunes or CDBaby may be other options for nice renditions, and at ~ 99c for the complete version, hardly likely to break the bank.    So far as other upload sites go, such as Soundcloud, Box (free subscription required) and Vimeo,  you are on your own!

So as I'm going to be learning the well-known Study in Bm by Fernando Sor, I thought I'd go web-hunting to see what is available. As this is (apparently) part of every student's repertoire, I thought there might be some instruction  available, but perhaps because it's so popular, reputable instruction seems to be only by subscription - although there is a Strings by Mail "lessonette" by Gohar Vardanian.   For performances though, there are a lot of great options, my current favorite being by Kevin Gallagher, not to mention   Julian Bream...  Now if only there were a way to download those versions into my guitar....

Less well-known pieces (like another piece I will be learning for a while - Pagina de Radio by Maximo Diego Pujol) are less easy to come by.  The version I'm listening to currently is on Delcamp  Even though I don't know who is playing it...- has a lot of good feedback (from people I know who can play) so it works for me 😊

How does "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" relate to learning guitar?

I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" decades ago (ugh) but I still remember the take-home message, which is that anything (even the art of motorcycle repair) can be understood and conquered if you look at it patiently, carefully, and in sufficient detail (I guess that's where the 'Zen' comes in). Which is something I might have done well to remember and apply to learning guitar___But did I mention I'm impatient?  Like to get things finished? Preferably yesterday?  Strange to say, this attitude doesn't seem to be working right now.   Time for a little introspection - there are a lot of skills (from sports to fly fishing) where initially you can charge right ahead and make good progress, and then you reach a plateau where however much you practice it doesn't seem to get any better.  I think I've reached this stage.  Although I can kind of play my pieces, they often fall apart in the same places and suffer from being 'hit or miss'. Often it takes 3 or 4 run-throughs before I finally make it. That's not 3 or 4 run throughs once.  It's each and every time I pick up the guitar.   

The solution, my long-suffering guitar teacher has told me (maybe a couple thousand times) is to work on small parts slowly.  I understand this.  And I do start slowly, walking through challenging sections  before speeding them up again.  Sometimes this works (especially if I don't charge right ahead with the 'fast' until I've done a LOT of 'slow'), but sometimes it doesn't.  Currently it seems more often than not.  What gives?

Perhaps I'm not looking at things in sufficient detail and the slow version is a 'fudge' that doesn't work when sped up.  It seems it's time for the 'Zen' approach.  In other words SUPER SLOW - so slow it doesn't resemble music any more. So slow that each individual finger movement (on both hands) can be analyzed in detail.  Does that finger need to hold on? Can it be released? When? Which finger(s) need to be prepared first for a difficult shift?  What sequence should the fingers go down in?

Oh man, this is tedious!  But wait - going super slow I just figured out how to stop that squeak (turns out I can release that single finger a little early, pick it up and place it back on the squeaky string while another finger holds an instant then slides on the nylon string.    And the gymnastics required for preparing that next note while holding the previous one? I can actually release a finger I had been needlessly holding, which gives me a little more freedom of movement.  And for that interval I keep missing, it turns out my hand is not moving back into position fast enough so I'm trying to fret it from an awkward position.  Far from being tedious, this super-slow stuff is engaging  -  a series of little puzzles to solve, and best of all, resulting in solutions!    Having figured out the solutions of course, the next step is to do lots of (regular) slow practice until the new movements stick in muscle memory. Only then do I get to see if I will actually start improving again.  I can't wait! (but I will.... 😉 )

Is it good to get feedback from more than one source?

 Been a while since I posted because I've been in the UK. This is the 8th time I got to pre-board on British Airways courtesy of my guitar....  I've almost, but not quite, forgiven them for the 23 hours and 20 minute delay on the outbound flight, on account of their excellent treatment of people traveling with musical instruments. Doesn't help much with the 8 hour plane ride though.  After I’ve exhausted the possibility of the on-board meal (is it always chicken or pasta?), a movie and am sick and tired of reading my phone, I got to thinking about the value of having more than one guitar teacher in the quest to become a better musician. It’s common to hear from those who have been learning for many years that they have had a number of teachers and learned different things from each of them. Of course I haven't been at it long enough to have had multiple teachers, in fact (except for a few lessons during the summer break), I’ve only had one teacher ( In case he’s reading this, he’s the best!)😁  And what I'm really talking about is getting feedback from more than one (knowledgeable) source.

 In my case I subscribe to the online lesson site (classicalguitarcorner.com) and have received occasional feedback from an online teacher on pieces I’m learning. What’s surprising to me is how teachers seem to unerringly pick on the same thing.  How can that possibly be that they all hear the same 'something'  which totally escapes my ears?    (I guess that's a good thing, because if they all heard different things the potential for things to be corrected would be enormous!)  Apparently I can happily ignore an excellent piece of advice from my guitar teacher until a second person tells me exactly the same thing.  It's not that I don't hear it the first (second, third) time I'm told, it just doesn't get prioritized until there is reinforcement from another source. I mean there are so many other things I need to work on that I have trouble figuring out what is most important.  In some respects this reminds me of my students - they know a phenomenal amount but often are not able to figure out what's the key thing that matters, and which stuff can safely be ignored.   So that's reason #1.  Prioritizing things to work on. (Especially as my guitar teacher has developed an annoying habit recently of asking me to decide what's needed instead of straight-out telling me.  I mean, what does he think I am, a musician???)

As for reason #2 - seeing personal preferences as to what's important to learn at each stage is useful.   I first learned about analyzing music for different "voices" from the online site, and was also introduced to bass stopping,  adding vibrato and playing in different positions for musical reasons.  No substitute for a real teacher though....

However that's about it for my reasons... - feel free to comment!   Before jet lag gets the better of me, I'll post the latest version of this mini piece that got almost identical feedback on things that need fixing.  (feel free to do your own critique... but keep it to yourself - I've already heard it twice!!!) 

Some weeks I need the reset button...

Anyone who has soldiered their way through a few of my posts probably already knows that I need some tangible evidence that I'm making progress ( and we will not discuss here the difference between 'need' and 'want').  So over the last few months I've wavered between wanting to take community college music courses (somehow fitting them in with my actual salary-paying job), getting my guitar teacher to be more demanding so that I work on pieces that will move me forward (even if I don't particularly like them), and taking an unofficial "certificate" course offered through Simon Powis' online Classical Guitar Corner site.    Or a combination.   I finally resolved this issue a few weeks ago with the help of my guitar teacher, deciding that I will work towards a certificate at a fairly sedate pace, while my guitar teacher will help with priorities (and obligingly be demanding too😂) It's been a few weeks... does this need tweaking? In other words, why am I exhibiting classic "displacement behavior"? (In this case watching reruns of this months' La Vuelta, the Spanish 3-week bicycle race. No I don't cycle, but watching cycle-racing is addictive. You should try it!)

Analysis is called for:
So here's what I have on my list to practice...

• Learn 3 new pieces for the certificate - I started on Carcassi 7.
• Performance practice (run through) Maria Luisa and Prelude
• 5 sets of exercises. Each has multiple new skills to learn.  
• Sight reading
• Rhythm reading (this was an added bonus from my guitar teacher - I suspect it's impossible but I've been wrong before)
• My 'want to learn' piece (Promise by Yvonne Bloor)
• Duet stuff
• Trio stuff

Aha!   I'm spending most of my time on the exercises (which are challenging), the Carcassi (and La Vuelta 😉 ).  Everything else I only fit in occasionally. As a result I feel like I'm falling short, particularly with the sight/rhythm reading, one of my goals for this year. Plus the "want to learn' piece I chose may be a bit much on top of everything else.    Fortunately the cycling will be done tomorrow.... 

(New plan.  Triage! (at least until priorities change).  Use the timer!

• Carcassi 7 (15 min increments)
• Exercises. (<45 min)
• Sight reading (15 min)
• Rhythm reading  (15 min)
• Performance practice (run through) Maria Luisa and Prelude (once)
• Fun! (unlimited...)

Just an update - been working on my shifts - honestly!   Trying to  make sure my elbow leads (it really does work) - and in Maria Luisa interestingly It helps if I have my thumb lead on the I-V shift. Weird. Still trying not to tense up when those shifts are coming though. If only there was some  mantra I could think of  that would make me relax (unfortunately as soon as I think about relaxing I tense up - go figure!). Anyway the De Visee prelude is benefiting from working on it slowly - it's definitely getting closer to where I want it.  Soon it will be time to  think of a new piece to learn though I will be working on this and Maria Luisa for a while yet.

I decided to spend a couple of weeks relearning a few of the things I forgot while I was resting my arm. So that's it for the time being☺️

Ask the Teacher! What are the most important things to think about when shifting?

I have a guest expert this week!  (Peabody faculty, Zane Forshee)

I've been thinking a lot about relaxation recently, partly because my tennis elbow is finally on the mend and I don't want it to happen again, but mostly because I'm finding that my usual methods of moving around the fretboard, i.e. take a deep breath and go for it! are not working too well any more.

I just started working on my new piece  - De Visee's Prelude in D minor.  It's short, it's pretty, what's the problem? Fact is, I've discovered it poses some interesting challenges, such as separating the different voices while maintaining the legato lines, and doing clean shifts (with barres 😱 ).  Unfortunately those shifts are where, yet again, I am coming unstuck.  How to get from one position to another without losing the continuity in those flowing musical lines? How not to "grab" the next position in desperation?

Here is what the De Visee sounded like after a couple of weeks practice...  I thought I was making progress in keeping the lines connected, but when it got to the shifts, not so much.  So I asked my guitar teacher, Zane Forshee:

Me> "What are the most important things to concentrate on to get those shifts smooth and connected?

Zane> Hi Julie (AKA Creamburmese)!   It’s an honor to visit and share my thoughts with your readers. With regard to left hand shifting, I’ve put together a short video (well, it’s about 12 minutes, so not “internet short”) where I demonstrate the main points to consider.

I find (both as a player and as a teacher) that it helps if I organize my thoughts about technique into categories. With shifting on the guitar, there are, to me, three possible movements:

· Horizontal: towards the body or the head of the guitar on a string(s).

· Vertical: stays within a position but moves from the lower strings to the higher (6th string up to 1st) or vice versa.

· Combination: Brings a change of position (shifting up or down the neck) with a change of register giving a diagonal path for the hand to travel.

Breaking that down a bit further, we get into the elements of the shift:

· Targeting: Identify where you are going before you shift, and focus your eyes on that particular fret/string (i.e. aim for your target). Whatever you do, don’t watch your fingers—they have no idea what they’re doing! You are the boss, so lead them to their collective destination.

· Setup/Launch: Prepare the left hand to move. This means having proper left hand position (which could be a whole post in itself!) The main points to watch for are to keep your fingers on their fingertips and avoid hitting any adjacent strings with your left hand fingers.

· Shift/Elbow: Once you know where you’re going (targeting) and your hand is ready to shift (set up) you’re ready to go, but don’t forget to lead with your elbow! I’m underlining this because it’s that important. The elbow leads the charge and the hand follows the arm–try it out! It makes a huge difference.

· Landing: This is all about left hand finger placement. Avoid blindly “grabbing” at your target. Instead, think about placing the fingers once you arrive. The analogy that helps me is to imagine setting a plate of food down on a table. There’s a sense of grace in this act (well, at least I like to think that there is) that sets the whole tone of the meal. That moment of placement allows the guest an opportunity to appreciate the meal before they begin. Your hand and the music want the same thing—a moment of grace before moving on to the next step within the piece. If you tense up, you’ll inadvertently accent the note and the melodic line will become disjointed (to continue with our metaphor, you slammed the plate down on the table!)

One thing I will also mention: you should be configuring your hand for the next position as you shift—yep, you’re multitasking—it’s happening everywhere, why not with your guitar, too? This allows you to arrive prepared and ready to execute the next passage.

With these ideas in mind, let’s zoom in a bit closer to details that can really help improve your consistency and confidence with left hand shifts:

· Guide Shift: This is taking advantage of a finger that is already on a string as part of your setup and is used, on that same string, in a new position on the neck. You can see several examples of this in the video. This is an incredibly helpful tool to use in your playing and will boost your accuracy. Say goodbye to the “leap of faith” (where you take all your fingers off the strings and hope for the best) and say hello to the guide shift.

· Sequential Shift: This is a biggie! As in life, you can’t do everything at once. You can try but often you end up with a whole lot of “not so great” (or downright awful). The same can be said for shifting. Guitarists often find themselves having to making substantial changes to their left hand configuration from one position to the next. Here’s an opportunity to explore the sequence of fingers needed for moving between figures within a piece. Do you really need to have all the fingers down at once in the next position, or is there an opportunity to place them one at a time? By studying your score (you do look at the music when you practice, right?) you can determine with incredible precision the order in which notes are needed and when—work smarter, not harder.

· Open Strings: This is the fluent guitarist’s secret weapon: we’re always looking to find an open string when we need to change positions. This creates a sense of legato for our musical gesture and allows just enough time to get to our next destination. Think of it as taking an airline flight with a connection, and upon arrival discovering that your next flight is only a few steps away—you’d have time to get that much needed cup of coffee from the kiosk in the corner and take a moment to look out the window, too. So, get that sheet music back out and look for those open strings!

Hope this is of some help. This is a big topic, and while I can’t touch on every detail in a single post, I do hope this information is helpful. If you have questions, concerns, or simply want to say hello, you can reach me at my website, find me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Good luck, GO SLOW, and practice with a purpose!

Zane

Be careful what you ask for... you might get it

Recently I became convinced I'm not really moving forward with the guitar - the graph on left refers to how new technology gets adopted, but it serves my purpose quite well.  Yes, I made great progress for a while  (making me think I would be playing ~Asturias in a few short years), but now I think I'm in the "trough of disillusionment", where it seems quite likely this is as good as it's going to get.   Yes I am learning new pieces, and maybe they are getting a mite more difficult, but to my ears they don't really sound any better than those I learned last year.   I know this isn't for want of being told what to do (I am fortunate in having an amazing guitar teacher), but perhaps I've been selectively ignoring the advice that I need to become a better player.  So I asked my guitar teacher - what was preventing me from moving forward?...What do I need to do? It's not like I don't practice...

His response was something to the effect that I wasn't going to like the answer!  I think I have probably added my own interpretation, but this is what I took away from that conversation...

1. Significant improvement involves a lot of hard work, not just reaching a stage where I could play a piece through without too many mistakes, and then moving on.  I would probably have to work on something for many months to "finish" a piece.
2. I needed to learn pieces I didn't particularly like so as to teach me specific skills rather than - or in addition to -  pieces I just liked the sound of.
3. I was trying to do too many things to make significant progress in any one area.
4. Did I mention it was going to be hard work?

Phew!   Well I did ask...

As a result I'm trying to pay attention to what I'm being told rather than doing just enough to  'kinda' get it. I'm spending less time just "playing through"  piece and more time working on small parts and individual skills. This might involve working on one measure slowly for days or weeks, perhaps to master a a tricky fingering, stop the bass, add dynamics or separate out the melody.  It may even be starting to change the way I practice...  It's going to take me a few more helpful hints from my guitar teacher before I truly start thinking about this differently, but I like to imagine I might soon embark upon the "slope of enlightenment"

Did you know?  A bunch of flamingoes is a "flamboyance"

Learning to relax: why is it so hard?

I have absolutely no problem relaxing - just sit me down on the sofa with a glass of wine and I guarantee I'll be so relaxed I might even fall asleep.   However put me in charge of a guitar and ask me to play it, while remaining relaxed, and I have absolutely no idea how to do it.  We all get tense when we are doing something unfamiliar, but you would think after a few thousand tries I might have figured this out by now.  No such luck.

I’ve got lots of excuses – lack of flexibility so I need pressure required to keep my fingers in place, unfamiliar hand/arm positions, and of course, how much does it matter anyway?
But maybe the biggest reason is I don’t know what it feels like to truly relax, I pretty much always play tense. However recently while working on some Carlevaro octave shifting exercises I managed to relax on my way up the fretboard (aided and abetted by gravity).  I actually experienced what relaxing my left hand feels like. Wow! My arm/hand movement was much easier and more fluid.  

However incorporating this into general playing is still not easy.  Perhaps it's because I have always assumed that relaxing was an absence... ie "don't tense up"!   Then while reading Daniel Nistico's email newsletter, I noticed that he talks about actively relaxing - in other words it's something you actually have to make an effort to do! This may seem like semantics, but there seems to be a big difference between trying NOT to tense up vs. trying TO relax  - in fact it was my guitar teacher telling me to actively relax various fingers that resulted in me experiencing 'that relaxing feeling'.  As a first step to incorporating this into my playing, whenever I'm having difficulty I'm stopping what I'm doing to see if I have too much tension and can manage to relax something. Perhaps not surprisingly it often works.

How can failing possibly be good for you?

In common with many others, I hate screwing up.  In fact I go out of my way to avoid it at all costs, even if it involves a bunch of hard work to ensure I'm thoroughly prepared.   Seems to work well enough for most things, but not, apparently, for classical guitar.  One of the things I'm repeatedly told is that to get more confidence when performing, you have to practice performing - even if it's just for your teacher, your mom, or your friends: do lots of performances!  So I've been trying.   At one time I used to play for the Alzheimer's unit at a local nursing home and it really seemed to help,  but I had to give that up when my arm got injured. Since then, it seems I'm right back to square one on performance nerves.   So in an attempt to get more performance practice, this week I tried to play the piece I've been working on at an online masterclass.  Quel disaster!   Took me 3 attempts to get started,  and once I did, I fumbled my way through a mixture of wrong and missed notes that bore only the slightest resemblance to the piece I was trying to play.  What happened? The piece was by no means finished, but it should have been presentable enough to allow suggestions for improvement.  Not exactly an encouraging start to my resolution to practice performing 😟

 I came away from that with the usual negative self-talk -  everything from "What a complete fool I looked!"  to   "I'll never be able to do this - what was I thinking?"   Also tried to forget it, fast.   But maybe there's another way at looking at these apparent disasters. I recently read about an ivy league college offering advice on how to fail successfully because so many of the super-smart students have never actually had the experience of failing and they need to be taught how to cope. Then there's research on what makes kids more resilient  (AKA how do they bounce back from failures? - a mix of intrinsic and learned traits).  Turns out the way we respond to failure is all-important. The question is, can adults who are used to being competent and successful learn to bounce back better when things implode? I certainly hope so!   Of course, it's not exactly a disaster for me if I fail to play the guitar successfully for someone - and honestly, it probably makes not a bit of difference to my life in general.   So perhaps that's the first thing to take away - put it in context!  And when I didn't play well there's a fair chance that others waiting their turn to play were not thinking how foolish I was, but instead breathing a sigh of relief that they didn't have to follow a great performance...   (And if they were thinking how foolish I was, shame on them!)   But really the best way to follow up this episode was suggested by my guitar teacher.  What could I learn from this experience?  What set me on the wrong track to start with?  What should I do differently? What do I need to practice?

So instead of trying to blank out the bad performance, I tried to figure out what happened. Looking back I can see I did a bunch of things wrong.  Right from the beginning I got on the wrong track - First, my short scale guitar was temporarily out of action with new strings so I switched to my 650 - a guitar I haven't played for a couple of months - and proceeded to miss notes left right and center.  Take away?  Obviously I need more time to adapt if I'm going to switch between the 2.   Then I only got to warm up for about 2 minutes because I was watching other people play.  Duh.  I know I can't play when I'm not warmed up, so I need to make sure I allow time to do that before I'm called on to play.  Finally I got rattled when things went wrong right at the beginning. This I need to work on - a strategy for calming down and resetting when I get stressed out.  I don't think I can take anything away from the performance apart from that - the weak areas were no weaker than usual, it was simply I was struggling through in a state of increasing panic because nothing was working.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that practicing failing is a good idea 😉  but maybe when it happens we can look upon the experience more positively.  For more ideas, check out these strategies for coping with adversity from the American Psychological Association.

On NOT speeding up, immediately after you can play it slowly... Maria Luisa in progress

I have to admit it.  I'm not a patient person.  Despite my best intentions, I'm always speeding up a piece before I can really play it.  Not to mention running the whole thing instead of just practicing the difficult bits.  I know this is not the way to do it, and indeed for the last few pieces I've made a definite attempt to get more focused, stop, and slowly concentrate on the bits that are eluding me.  I'm still only partially successful though. I practice it slowly until I get it, then speed it up and sometimes it works at tempo, sometimes it doesn't.  Last week my guitar teacher pointed out a part I had practiced slowly but it was still hit or miss on the play-through. He gave me the instruction to practice it slowly and NOT to speed it up for the whole week.  Well, a whole week is a long time (!) but I did manage not to speed it up for several days, and lo and behold, I can now play it quite reliably.    So this was something of a revelation - (Duh, you might say).  I actually needed to continue to play it slowly for many more repetitions before speeding it up.   Hmmmm.  So maybe that's why my slow practice isn't working so well.  So to test this theory I'm going to go back to some of the problem parts in Maria Luisa by Sagreras (as evidenced in the video - there are quite a few of those!) and run them slowly until they are thoroughly ingrained... and when I can finally play the notes reliably I will be able to start adding the dynamic variations - I know,  experts say they should be there at the beginning, but I'm still at a stage where one thing at a time works best.

My new favorite guitar-oriented objects...

These may not look much like guitar accoutrements, but nevertheless they are on my list of necessities.  Having alternately ignored, nursed, therapized (is that a word?) and even stopped playing in the hope of defeating tennis elbow, I had been prepared to consider anything!  It turns out yet  another benefit of classical guitar summer school was meeting with other amateur guitarists and swapping stories.  One of those came from MC, who told me the incredible story of having cured a painful case of tennis elbow in 6 weeks by diligently exercising with these rubber tubes.  I was somewhat skeptical, having been trying to conquer it (admittedly mostly while still playing the guitar) for the last 9 months, but as I said, as needs must, I'll try anything.  Accordingly I purchased the 2 easiest tubes (yellow is the softest) and started to follow instructions, which involve gripping the tube so it is twisted then slowly releasing the twist with the affected arm.  More instructions  here.

One of my concerns was that when I first started to do the exercise, even though the tennis elbow had settled at lot, doing the exercise was painful, and in the aftermath my arm was definitely aggravated.  And at the physical therapist I had been instructed to protect the arm - in fact, I was told not to reach out for things or put extra strain on it in any way.  Yet here I was doing the exact motion that stressed that common extensor tendon.   I checked with MC and with one of the professional guitarists at the summer school (how common is this injury, anyway?) and they both said - "yep, it hurts to start with, but persevere".  So I did.  It's now been 2 weeks, and surprisingly, things have started to improve.   My arm is not yet healed - it is still stiff when I take it off the guitar after holding it in one position for a while, so I make sure I stop every 10 minutes or so and stretch it out (using active stretches, as instructed by the PT).  But now I can grip and use my arm in ways I haven't done since before I damaged it with very little pain.  And I've graduated from the yellow tube to the red tube.  Yes it still hurts when I do the exercise (probably 2 or 3 on 10-point scale) but after stretching the soreness settles down quickly, and in fact it usually feels better after exercising.

Not that I'm just doing the exercise - it's a no-holds-barred effort to get totally healed before orchestra season starts again.  In addition to doing the tube-twists,  I make sure my arm is well warmed up before I start practicing the morning  (literally- I either dunk it in the hot wax bath and wrap it or use a microwaveable heat pad while I eat breakfast), I take frequent breaks to do active stretches (dorsal and ventral flexion), I don't practice for more than 45 minutes at a stretch, and I ultrasound it with a cheap but effective unit before retiring for the night.   So if all continues well, in another month or so....I'll be done.  wish me luck!

Classical Guitar Summer School for Adults: a Review

I've now recovered (and more or less got over withdrawal symptoms) from attending my first Classical Guitar "camp" (so named Summer School) organized by Simon Powis of ClassicalGuitarCorner.com

What a fantastic experience!  I've spent vacations at folk camps, acoustic guitar camps, and even a catchall crafts/social conscience/arts camp in pursuit of my guitar hobby before, but this was my first classical guitar camp.   Actually that's not surprising - I'm not sure there are many are available for adults as opposed to summer camps for kids.   Other folk camps are arranged around workshops or seminars that are either on a one-off basis or repeated daily with the same teacher over the course of the camp;  in some ways classical guitar camp was the same, and in others entirely different.

What was the same?  It took place at a college (the picturesque Endicott College)  during summer recess, and the accommodation was in the dorms.  However in this case we had the choice of a private bath, which was nice even though the dorms were the usual variety of basic. Meals in the college cafeteria were included - and the food was actually pretty good, with lots of options that included real vegetables not cooked for hours and choices that didn't include "fast food" franchises. Another similarity was great concerts given by faculty in the evenings, and it was especially nice for early risers because they started at 7pm allowing time afterwards to socialize without burning the midnight oil. There were also a daily seminar - topics appeared to be largely determined  by the teaching faculty  - for instance there was a great presentation on guitar music written by contemporary Australian composers (including excerpts of the pieces) given by one of the teachers, Janet Agostino.   Speaking of teachers,  there was an outstanding line-up of teachers including Raphaele and Janet Agostino from Oz, Ben Verdery and Gohar Vardanyan from New York, Dave Belcher from N. Carolina and of course, Simon Powis from New York.  They expended an enormous amount of effort coaching us in our ensemble pieces and working with us in our individual lessons, in addition to giving us great concert performances.

What was different?  Well it was classical guitar after all - not so much jamming, more sight reading.😳   We were all assigned to ensembles at one of 5 different levels on the first day,  and spent the 5 days learning 3 ensemble pieces and 2 pieces for the entire orchestra, none of which we had seen before, for a performance on the last night.  In other words, over 3 hours of rehearsals a day plus a lot of practicing (!)  We also got 2 private lessons with the teachers where we could present a piece we were working on.  All in all we were playing or practicing many many hours every day - (perhaps not the best thing for a recovering tennis elbow - but you only live once...).   And did I mention the student "open mic" night?   What a blast!  This was not a 'seriously let's present a classical piece'  such as you might find at your local classical guitar society open mic night.  Indeed, people not only played classical pieces, but also presented their other guitar lives,  and my were there some great performances!  There were original compositions, singing, duets,  other guitar genres...  you just didn't know what to expect but it was all good!  About half the attendees presented something, and I think it might have been my favorite evening except I was on edge all night because I was almost the last to present.  (Of that, we will say little, except that I didn't collapse and it was a very very long way from perfect.) Despite the stress,  many of us were talking about getting together to play duets so we could perform them at camp next year... I've already got a piece picked out and a new guitar-buddy to practice with.    Other great things?  We had a guitar-oriented stretching seminar given by Simon's wife, the Lindy Hop dancer, Evita.  To be honest, we would have liked that every day given the amount of practicing we did! And Simon arranged a special BBQ next to the beach right after the final performance. Simon also arranged a Q and A session - from the students to the teachers - that everyone can hear in a podcast.

What did I like most?
When I got back, I was asked by my guitar teacher what I liked most about the camp.  The short answer is that I really liked meeting, interacting with and working together with other classical guitar learners towards a common goal.  Most of us are not so young, and maybe the last time we had such an experience was way back when in college.  Learning classical guitar is after all so often a solitary hobby.  However none of that would have been possible without a wonderful camp framework and committed teachers recruited by Simon, and the mutual support and encouragement of a camp attendees - we see it on Simon's ClassicalGuitarCorner.com website and it was amply demonstrated when we met in person.

What, if anything, would I change?
I will sign up again in heartbeat if it's exactly the same as this year.  Personally I would prefer fewer ensemble pieces to learn, and maybe more technique-oriented workshops.  Although there was no scheduled down-time, I wouldn't change that - I personally skipped one of the talks to take a break, but that was when it fit my schedule and interests.

Goals for next year?
If I wasn't convinced before, I'm convinced now.  I need to learn to sight read.  I'm on a mission. Also this year wasn't the best for me for presenting a piece either for a lesson or a performance - my enforced rest beforehand meant I really hadn't prepared, and of course the stage fright was there in force.  I'm determined next year will be different.  I'm definitely going to start taking opportunities to perform in addition to practicing in my room.

BTW if you want to see what we managed to make of 5 pieces in 5 days - Simon has posted them, plus many pictures,  on his CGC facebook page.  And if this kind of experience appeals to you, I couldn't recommend it highly enough...  already can't wait for next year!

Classical guitar camp coming up - I can't wait!

Pic from CGC Summer School

To say I'm excited is an understatement!   In a week's time I'll be in Massachusetts at the start of my first classical guitar camp organized by Simon Powis from NYC.   This is not his first camp, though I believe it will be his first in the US (he hails from Australia).  I've attended Folk camps and larger craft/music/social camps with my guitar before - and they are a great deal of fun (where else can you play along with everything from lap dulcimers to washboards?)  However this is a totally new animal, and something of a challenge to boot -  all week we get to practice in ensembles ( a small one geared to our playing ability and a large ensemble consisting of everyone) for a performance at the end of the week.  Yikes!  I'm used to having a couple of months to get proficient in ensemble music.  I can only hope that everyone else is much better at sight reading than I am and will cover for my lapses.  In addition, of course, concerts by the faculty (Simon Powis, Gohar Vardanyan, Ben Verdery, Raphaele and Janet Agostino and David Belcher), plus workshops and the opportunity to do an open stage performance.   What a treat! [Except for participation in the open stage performance, which will not include me, although I am intending to be ready to do it next year, honestly...]

Pic from CGC summer school

Naturally I'm a bit worried that I haven't been able to practice the orchestra music because of my arm,  (we don't know which parts we are playing in any case). I'm even more worried that we are supposed to have prepared 2 pieces for a private lesson.    When I signed up for this, I obviously didn't know I'd be out of action for a couple of months right beforehand.  I can only marvel at the amount I forgot in 2 short months of not playing.  It remains to be seen whether I manage to claw something back (without stressing my arm) or plead incompetence and sit that one out.

Visesnut with cover

What I am going to do is take my new guitar ...  I'm not even thinking about what a Southwest commuter hop might possibly do to it - though I do expect it will be well protected in my spiffy Christmas-present Visesnut case.  I now have guitars in 3 different sizes so it's good that the case adjusts to fit the guitar - I would most definitely not want to cart it around in the very solid but exceptionally heavy case it came in!

Endicott college dorms

I probably should be more worried about the accommodations - dorm style beds might well be great for teenagers, but I'm not so sure about those of us who have advanced quite a few years since!  And I don't even have the option of packing a foam mattress, like I did last time I did the dorm thing.   Assuming I survive the experience,  I will definitely be reporting on the accommodations as well as everything else when I get back!

In the meantime I have a couple of lectures to prepare.  Stay tuned...