So it's been a good amount of time since I've lasted updated this thing. I could spend all my time looking back and trying to remember all the little details but as I'm learning, it's best to leave the past where it is and focus on the present. What I can share details on is the band is going very well. We had two performances this week: one at Headhunters in Austin and anther one Friday at the Warehouse Live in downtown Houston. The focus with Headhunters was to get me more stage time with the band and help me break out of my shell a little bit. I do have a tendency to get tunnel vision when I'm on stage and focus on just my playing and not reaching out to the crowd. That has good and bad effects... more "not good." What it does is get me solely focused on hitting the right notes that the pressure of that combined with me knowing that "people are watching" make me a nervous wreck on stage, thus making miss notes. Lately I've been reading a book called "The Music Lesson" by Victor Wooten (a bass virtuoso). I don't remember buying this book but apparently I did... that or the universe manifested a copy just laying around my house to catch my eye. The main points I've picked up so far is to practice concentration and un-concentrating when performing, thus helping not putting too much pressure on yourself when playing alone or live. This has apparently worked because I had gotten notes from some of my bandmate's and potential manager that my stage presence has picked up a bit. I have definitively noticed as well, mainly noticing that I'm seeing a lot more of the audience than just the guy to my left. This book has also helped a bit more with me opening my mind to music a bit more; acknowledging that music isn't in my head, it's in the air all around us and it up to me and my technique to be able to take it and bring it to life. Having a better understanding of how to work around my fret board has been a big help as well. I have a little scales book that I got to help me understand scales a bit better but all this time I had been having to refer to it a lot and not remembering anything from it. One day it something it my head just clicked and now, even though I couldn't tell you what scales I am playing, I understand how to work my way up my bass neck playing a scale a lot better.
I know that last line is going to confuse a lot of readers, so let me put it in an understandable analogy. Music is a language. In fact it's a multicultural language. Even though I can't speak many different languages, I can listen to a group based out of Africa (Tinarawen), and even though I can't understand the lyrical content I can understand the groove and feeling that they are expressing. So when it came to me how to better connect the dots on my fret board rather than just guessing most of the time while playing, it was like learning how to talk. When you're a baby you don't know how to form language, so you just mumble a lot, learning from the people around you who are talking all the time. Eventually you start to get it, and you learn to communicate with the people around you. At that time/age (let's say 3) you don't know how to spell or write, but you sure can speak it. That's me and music at this point in time. I couldn't tell you right off the bat what scale I'm rocking, but I can play up and down and all over. I am the musical equivalent of 3, I guess is what you can take away from this. By the way, that talking analogy is strait out of "The Music Lesson," eye opening book.
So other than that there's not much else I can touch on. We're really busy recording an album right now to send off to some perspective end's that I can't really talk too much about just yet, in time I can but for now I don't want to curse it. Last night's show was good for, again, a lot of other big reason's that at this time I can't enlighten on. I can say that we have a lot of momentum behind us at the moment and appreciate all well wishes sent our way as we approach the cusp of Done Deal becoming super busy. We're also getting to know one another a lot better which leads to a whole band maturing as better musician's.
Big things are on the horizon and I'll do my best to give you all the inside perspective as we go along our path. Thanks for reading and do your best to make everyday the best foot forward in your world that you can... there's no time like the present.
"Change starts with just one foot forward." - Me
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