Thoughts etc...

[johnny9fingers]

Will get picked up by Nikki and Mark (sax player and bassist) at 5am, that's nine hours. Setting up my No 2 Strat. Trying to get the intonation right. New strings (+1 spare set + spare top and fourth). Bag packed. Hardshell case for the ax. Remember to detune strings to slack for the flight. Euros....Our Leader (Martin, the drummer) has been doing sterling work organising all of this. We don't appreciate him enough. I have to remember that he does all the admin, poor love. We're lucky to have the gigs, apart from the fact that we're damn good given the limited palette of the form: wedding bands are about getting drunk folk dancing their asses off to recognisable tunes. It's all about groove and vibe.

Fifteen years ago I would have spurned ever doing 'covers' of any kind. I'd teach folk how to play songs, but....'covers' was for folk that couldn't write and couldn't compose and couldn't get on with other people enough to collaborate effectively. Not that I'm being snobbish about it now, though I was at the time.

Now, the most superior person I know, about fifteen years ago too (coincidence or what) suggested that I should concentrate on the 'craft' aspect of what I did, which was not to talk of technique, because although not flawless, my technical abilities are.....I'm pretty accomplished, though I'll never make a first-rank classical or flamenco player: but was about repertoire and the craft of learning.

Performing musicians are like actors: vast chunks of information have to be committed to memory to be regurgitated at the appropriate microsecond in the right way.
Sometimes my brain feels full, and I just can't cram that last (probably vital) bit in.....
 

Comments

Have a good journey, and a good gig

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

"Break a leg"

Re: Have a good journey, and a good gig

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Coming from someone who knows....

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Enjoy every moment. Be kind to stewardesses. See you when you return.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

EasyJet don't have stewardesses....warders, perhaps: budget airlines are what they are when you're over six feet tall. The company flying us over didn't spring to first class or even business class, alas.
90 minutes from Gatwick to Nice. Shame about the delays at the airport, but frankly I'd rather not get blown up or hijacked so....some you win, some you lose. It's the old eardrums I worry about. {practises swallowing]
Oh, the joys of travelling.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

I really enjoy reading this kind of entry. It's what I like best about personal blogging, I think.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Thanks, esp as the grammar, spelling, and composition were somewhat defective. But I extemporise anyway with all of this, I rarely craft it. Ah bugger, I wish I hadn't said that....and another area of sponteneity falls beneath the onslaught....buggerblastanddamn.....perhaps not.

In this place I write as I think, unless I'm involved in a semi-serious debate, whereupon I will go fact searching and cross-referencing: because I'm sad like that. But my blog is my domain: and I am prince of this place and do welcome you herein.

It's all of our version of Montaigne: all we have is ourselves, and we write ourselves into the void. The void has yet to answer. Whether there is any meaning in't is another matter.

[e-compass-rosa.livejournal.com]

Have fun!!

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[e-compass-rosa.livejournal.com]

And get some sleep too. : )

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

But it's so much FUN! :)
I may have enough talent to keep folks from running away when I play - but I don't have much more than that. Still, it's enough to enjoy every minute of play whether something old or something new.


incidentally: have fun!

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Some days I do better, some days I do worse.

I will try. Fun ain't really part of the equation any more: if it happens it's incidental, but nice. I'm a bit more driven than previously I feel. Sort of waking up.