Big Day... Yesterday!

Well, I did it. I did my recital of "Taylor". Nobody died. No tears were shed. I made it through alive!

Frank of understandingguitar.org supplied some top tips (see comments from previous posts)... I really wish I'd seen them before performing. In hindsight, they were good ones.

My preview performance for Tim on Friday night didn't even get through the intro. I couldn't hit a note! Incredibly frustrating considering how much practice time I put in this week.

On Saturday morning there were three of us in class: me, G and E. Names commuted to protect the innocent! G jumped in first (smart guy) and did a version of "Before You Accuse Me", taken from Clapton's "Unplugged" DVD. He made it count. Sounded good.

E stepped up to the plate second and put in a rendition of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. After a couple of false starts she picked out the intro then strummed whilst singing. Again, surprisingly good! The girl can sing!

By this time, my hands were shaking and my palm sweaty. My fingers didn't feel like they would do as instructed. Brief pause. 3 -2 - 1... GO!

Once the ball was rolling I gained some confidence... and speed! Too much speed! Slow down! The performance wasn't stellar, but there were no major screw ups. I fluffed one of the chord changes, going to a G instead of a C, but managed to front my way through it. Like I said, my timing was all over the place, but hey, gimme a break.

Afterwards, Teach said I did okay. He felt the groove in the intro, which was good, as I don't think he actually knew the song. Deconstructed my technique a bit, focussing on how I was strumming whilst anchoring my index finger through the changes. With the pressure off I played parts from the song again, getting it out much better than before. Typical, eh?

So that was that, the recital and the end of the WAES course. Teach suggested that the best way for me to continue improving (other than just putting a band together) would be to take private lessons... an hour once or twice a month. He said he'd be willing to take me on as a pupil. I'm actually going to consider it as a) it'll keep me close to 'the music industry', b) He may have other pupils who want to jam and c) it'll keep me focussed and moving forwards. Oh, and d) he's actually a good teacher who can 'do' as well as 'teach'. Finding a good teacher is not easy!

Apart from that, what next? I guess I'll check my action plan and update it this week. One thing I know is that Red can come out of his case. Neighbours, expect some noise!

I also spoke briefly with G after class, who said he might be interested in collaboration, jamming etc. I said I'd email him about it. We'll see how that goes, I guess. He's on another WAES course right now: songwriting. Maybe I'll be able to pump him for top tips.

Anyway, I'm done for now. I never have to play "Taylor" again if I don't want to... though something tells me I will.

Finally, on the what-seems-to-be-weekly celeb-spotting front, we nearly bumped into London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson outside Waterloo station on Saturday! Not exactly rock 'n' roll, but hey... Much shorter than I expected him to be...

Big Day Tomorrow

So, as everyone keeps reminding me, it's the big day tomorrow. In just a few hours I get to perform "Taylor" in front of class. Seeing as how I have no singing voice, whatsoever, I've arranged it to be more of an instrumental piece. We'll see how it goes. Tim wants me to do a preview performance tonight, which strangely I'm more nervous about as I'm geared up for getting it right tomorrow morning, not tonight!

I changed the way I play the song in a couple of ways over the past week. Probably not a good idea, but I think it sounds better when strumming if I a) selectively only play partial chords and b) strum more with my wrist so that I emphasise the first downstroke after each change. That way you get the impression of a descending bassline. I'm also using the same strum on three of the chords but changing it on the last one to build tension leading into the change. Mixing things up in the eleventh hour is never a good idea, though... could be a disaster! What am I thinking?!?!

I decided to add a widget to this page, over on the right, which gives a countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve 2008. That's my deadline for transforming myself into a Rock God. Right now it says I have 292 days, 7 hours etc. Gee, that sounds like a long time, doesn't it? Something tells me it's going to fly by. Pretty soon it'll be Spring, then Summer, and after that I'll be on the home stretch.

After tomorrow I'm on my own again. On the plus side, I'm not going to be restricted to playing acoustic, so Red can come out of his kennel. On the downside, it means that I have to actively do something to get ahead, interact with other musicians and so on. Back into unknown territory.