New Year's Night in Georgetown. January 1, 2007
Bell tower of Healy Hall on the Georgetown University campus. January 1, 2007 9:58pm
It's 2:11pm on Tuesday as I type these words. Got up a little after noon, took a shower and got some lunch across the street: Salvadorean style beef soup, yum!
So last night, the first night of 2007, there weren't too many places open for business, but we had to do something. I had been in bed all day catching up sleep from the past weekend and very much needed some fresh air and exercise. So I met up with Michael Long and Geno and went to a mostly deserted Georgetown University campus for a late night tour courtesy of Michael, a Georgetown alum!
Over the years, I had been here many times of course. A number of my flamenco friends have studied here and some are currently still studying , so I have an excuse to visit them on campus, usually during the warmer months and hang out in Red Square.
I do have many fond memories of my college experience. Of course being a music major, I spent a huge amount of time isolated in the practice rooms on the third floor of the performing arts building at Cal State Fullerton. I'm not complaining, mind you. But it was kind of lonely playing guitar for hours and hours by yourself--and sometimes I stayed very late at night! Ocassionally I'd run into my fellow music majors in the hallway and we'd chat for a few moments before going back to practicing.
But I had do something about this cuz it wasn't healthy to be by myself all the time, so without really trying I hit upon a solution that worked. The technical progress was coming along just fine--I was putting in the time and applying the techniques and practice methods that my teacher gave me each week. But one thing I needed serious help in was stage fright. One thing I did notice when I got nervous was that my fingertips would go cold and my finger muscles would tighten up. So I figured, OK, I'll practice in the early mornings outside when it's cooler and learn how to deal with the coldness.
Path from Healy Hall to Red Square on the Georgetown University campus. January 1, 2007 9:59pm
I know it's not exactly the healthiest to do. Looking back now I realize it was more of a psychological problem and that the cold fingertips were just a symptom of my nervousness. So I should've focused on the nervousness instead. Anywayz, I got into the routine of practicing outdoors early each day. Of course, going to school in Southern California, a cold day was in the 50's so it wasn't that cold. But on most days it was rather pleasant with temperatures in the 60's and 70's typically. So I actually started enjoying playing outdoors although there were quite a few distractions: namely pretty girls. Hehe. But it worked out to my advantage in a number of ways. For one thing, I found that when I played in for pretty girls I focused on trying to impress them with my guitar playing, but I found that I lost my concentration and couldn't play as well as I wanted.
Thing was that I had no problem playing for large audiences such as in an auditorium or concert hall, but ask me to play for one person, then I would freeze up. 
So over the course of a month or so, I continued my self-assigned personal project of learning to play in front of an audience of one. There was a concrete bench in front of the performing arts building where'd I'd sit and practice pretty much every morning around 7:00am but I'd come back to this particular bench throughout the day between classes and started developing a small group of regular listeners. Hehe.
Usually, in the middle of a piece someone would sit down on the bench next to me and watch me play. I wouldn't look up to acknowledge them because I wanted to avoid eye contact which would derail my performance. When I finished playing I was back to my normal non-nervous self and started a conversation with my one-person audience. I met lots of people (and a number of pretty girls) one of whom later became my first flamenco guitar teacher, Isabel Montes.
With time I overcame my stage fright nervousness. It also helped that I read a number of performance psychology books including The Inner Game of Music
January 1, 2007 10:01pm
Seems I went off on a long-winded tangent, so sue me! 
After Michael gave us our tour of Georgetown University, we headed over to the Tombs, the popular off campus hangout, got some beers, fish and chips and talked about music and life. Good times.
As for tonight, Tuesday, I'll be performing at Las Tapas. See you there!
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