Welcome to my office! :-) March 4, 2008 10:01pm
It's 10:24am on Wednesday as I type these words. It's my day off, yay! Well, I do have stuff to do that I neglect the rest of the week--stuff like laundry etc, ugh. Plus I promised a friend I'd feed his cats while he's out of town and today's my designated catsitting day. Also I'm giving a guitar lesson this afternoon. Oh yeah, let's not forget: I have to practice guitar--but that's fun though. Allright, so much for a day off right?
So last night (Tuesday) at Las Tapas was a good night: artistically satisfying and fun. I had the pleasure of performing with dancers Sara Jerez and Emily Mazzotti. And while the dining room wasn't quite full, we did have a decent number of people actually paying attention to the show. However, there was one group of very rude people with whom I dealt with very effectively, but I'll talk about that in minute.
So as a flamenco guitarist who performs on stage several nights a week (and in dance classes on the weekends), I do notice the subtle ups and downs of my technique from day to day. When it comes down to it, yeah, I can put on a decent performance night after night. But there are times, when I'm doing my rasgueados (flamenco-style strums on the guitar) or picado (single-note passages) and I'm thinking to myself, "Something's a bit off tonight." It might be passably good but artistically I wish my rasgueados or picado could be cleaner. Not that flamenco revolves around technique. Technique is not the goal--although it is still pretty cool to do some amazing acrobatics with my hands. :-) Nope, for me, good technique is simply a means for more effectively communicating my musical ideas.
March 4, 2008 10:02pm
So one might think that the key here is to practice, practice and more practice. True. But let's not forget that playing a falseta perfectly in the practice room is one thing and playing it onstage in front of an audience is something completely different. Unless you're a natural born performer, which I'm not, the only way to becoming good at playing onstage is simply to get out there and do it...a lot!
The key point in mind in the long run is that while we should strive for perfection, it's more important that we should be prepared for effectively dealing with the situation when things aren't so perfect.
Think about for a second. For people who've never performed, it seems that there really isn't that much difference between being in the practice room and being onstage. It's still just you, your hands and the guitar, right? Well that's assuming you can focus to the point that you can shut out all the distractions like dancers (haha, just kidding) and the stage lights, audience etc.
But onstage, there are no do-overs. You can't stop and start again. You can't control all the distractions. There will be days when everything is going wrong but you can't stop and fix it all. Thing is that experienced performers don't necessarily perform perfectly every time. They're just better at smoothly recovering from mistakes to the point that no one notices that a mistake occurred!
Years ago, I blogged about methods of "getting out of your own way" so that you can simply perform at your best. One good book that explains this method is The Inner Game of Music
. I first read this when I was majoring in classical guitar in college and was preparing for my junior year guitar recital.
During that time, between classes I made it a habit of practicing guitar outside where lots of fellow students would be walking by. Occasionally one would stand nearby and listen or sit on the bench next to me. I found that my weakness was when a pretty girl would show up and I would lose my concentration. I think the reason was that in the presence of a hot girl, I shifted my concentration from making beautiful music to trying to impress her and I lost it. It took some time to realize what was going on and eventually I overcame it using the methods explained in "The Inner Game of Music."
Anywayz, it's just one of those things that makes total sense when you think about it, but is something completely different when you actually have to do it. Kinda like performing on stage. You just do it, learn from your mistakes and get better. The reality though is: do it, learn from your mistakes, make those same mistakes again, learn from them and get better.
So fast forward to present day. Besides practicing and banking on extensive stage experience, there's still the subtle ups and downs in technique. This is where you have to learn about yourself and figure out what works for your physique, strengths, weaknesses, mental state etc.
One thing that I do is get to the gig at least an hour early, setup the sound system and lights, warm-up my hands briefly, and chill out for a while. It's very important to be relaxed physically and mentally. I know people who go as far as doing some tai chi before a performance--that's not me. Some might even take a few sips of an alcoholic beverage to loosen up a bit which I do sometimes but not too much, or else I lose the necessary muscular control. Moderation! On the other hand, there was a time years ago, when I would intentionally drink a triple espresso before my shows with dancer Edwin Aparicio. Having my heart rate up just right before going onstage sort of prepared me for when he would go off on his rapid-fire footwork solos, seriously!
During the second set last night there was this large group of customers seated stage right. There were having a conversation which is fine (c'mon this isn't a concert hall after hall) but they were especially loud to the point it was distracting to the show. At first I played especially softly so that the entire room would realize how loud these people were but it didn't have much effect. Then at the end of another section, one of the dancers whispered to me, "You know what a certain dancer would when this happens." And so I brought the microphone to my mouth, looked in their direction and went "SHHHHHHHHH!!!!" and it worked, yay!
After the show, the dancers left and I was about to leave myself, but I it was pouring rain and I didn't have an umbrella. It happened for a reason. I waited it out but finally asked the manager if I could "borrow" an umbrella from the lost and found, which I did. When I returned to the bar, the timing was perfect and I ran into an old friend and we ended up going across the street to Bistro Europa since Las Tapas was already on last call for alcohol.
Guitarist "E.J." at Bistro Europa. March 4, 2008 11:33pm
A friend of the Las Tapas bartender was performing at Europa and we ended up staying for two shows and went our separate ways sometime after midnight. The metro was closed by then, but thank God I was near a major intersection and caught a cab home. The fare was $17.
Miguelito, Diana (bartender from Las Tapas), Matt, Marylin and Ryan at Bistro Europa. March 4, 2008 11:54pm
Just about every day is a good day when you're doing what you love for a living. But last night was especially good and today's my day off, yay! Ciao for now and if you see guitarist Behzad Habibzai this week, wish him a happy birthday.
