Meet Me By The River's Edge

Don't be afraid to take a challenge. Earlier this year, I told Larry that I would play Muerte Del Angel over the Brouwer Sonata because I wasn't sure if I have what it takes to play it. Well, me, Caleb, Eric and Julian took a journey to GSP. I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but GSP is THE place for guitar. It's where most people order their music and it's got an amazing amount of guitars. I asked one of the workers to try out a guitar and he watched me play. He seemed to be impressed and MADE me try out multiple guitars because he wanted my opinion on them. A couple of them were ok, but there was one that I played that just made my entire body have an orgasm. I loved it. Caleb tried out the guitar and started playing a piece by Brouwer and it just made me head spin. Not only because Caleb has great sound, but because I miss playing Brouwer so much. So I decided that day that I would stop being such a wuss and play Brouwer. I got so excited when I made the decision that I e-mailed Larry asking for his opinion. He said to me "Raziel, there is nothing technically that you can't do, but you will need to understand the piece to it's fullest. And that's where I will help you." That was about a week or so ago. And I had my lesson with Larry the following Wednesday. Well something happened after that lesson. I went into a funk all of a sudden. The serious lack of sleep I put myself through. The awful Cowboys loss. My practices were terrible. I was trying to adjust my right hand to how Larry told me to and it was so hit or miss. I was being lazy with learning the Segovia scales. I didn't spend enough time practicing. I was hardly getting any sleep. I just felt super down on myself and these expectations seemed to be overwhelming me. It was Wednesday, which is my lesson day. I also have guitar literature from 3-4:50 with a lesson at 5:30. Every class, we go until at least till 5:15 which leaves me only 15 minutes to warm up. Well I asked my teacher if I could leave at 5 so I could warm up. He said no problem. Well 5 came around and I gathered my stuff and he said "Can you wait just 5 mintues?" So I said sure, 5 minutes isn't a big big deal, right? Well that 5 minutes turns into 27 minutes and I was furious. I wanted to just walk out on him but I didn't want to be disrespectful to him. I stormed out of the class and I didn't even want to show up to my lesson. I just wanted to go home and fall asleep. But I went to my lesson and of course, Larry being the super positive, happy guy he is, completely turned my week around. We talked about different things and he just boosted my confidence so high saying how great of a player I am and how well I'm progressing. We got on topic of my Juilliard audition and being the goof ball he is, he literally kicked his legs up in the air and screamed "WHAT?!" at the fact that I didn't get accepted. Then we worked on my Turina. Never have I been more excited for a piece. What they said about Larry is true, he spends entire lessons on just one phrase. Every single note in the piece is thought out thus far and it sounds great. I'm going to potentially be the first guitarist to play this piece other than Rafael Andia so I'd love for this to be one of my identity pieces. We also worked on tone. Tone is a very delicate thing for me. One thing that is certain is that I have left hand ability. I haven't encountered anything that is simply too much for my left hand. My right hand? It's pretty good I think. I still need some work on apreggio's. I still need a never ending amount of work on both but I'm content with my ability in both for now. But tone. Tone is something that I've never had down super well. Why? I was never taught a proper way. All the players here that have great tone here were properly taught from the time they started. Well me and Larry have been working on it and I'm definitely seeing the improvements. I haven't mastered it yet but I can feel that it's coming. Could this be the last piece? Could I FINALLY after all these years of hearing "Raziel, you have so much potential, but you are not in complete form yet." Potential potential potential. If I can develop great tone with all of my left and right hand abilities, I'd be very very excited to see where my playing went.

About that Cowboys loss. I tried thinking of a not lame way to say this for a while but I don't think it's possible. I'm an active member on Punknews.org and me and a friend both moved here to SF at the same time. Thus we've hung out a couple times. Probably the most enjoyable bro hang out to be honest. I can't talk about punk music to anyone at the school or at Golden Gate Hall. Anyway, enough gay talk. He dropped by right at the end of the Cowboys game because we were headed to the Gaslight Anthem show right after at the Filmore. The Filmore is huge and was packed. Gaslight's popularity is still kind of just weird to me. And it was actually kind of cool in temperature. We missed Frank Turner due to the Cowboys game but that's not big deal. Saw the Loved Ones who were really entertaining. Murder By Death was awful. Gaslight was Gaslight. Great as always. Brian was very talkative which is always kind of a weird experience. They did some weird story telling in the middle to where he's talking and talking and talking and then in comes the music mid sentence. They played nearly all of The 59 Sound with a couple select songs from Sink Or Swim. I listened to the album an incredible amount last September-October and I haven't really listened to it more than 2 or 3 times since then so it brought back a lot of memories. But fuck those memories, I was loving being at a show again. Loving live punk music once again. It was a great feeling.

You know what else is a great feeling? When a record comes out that you have such high expectations for and it 100% goes beyond the expectations. Both the Swellers and Thrice came out with new records and I've just been listening to them non stop. I can't go into great detail because I haven't been listening to them long enough, but The Swellers is probably the most satisfying. I made a post a while back on how scared I was for them once they signed to Fueled By Ramen. I knew they had made the record before signing, but I was still a little scared of what could be. Right from the first listen it was just instant love. They still have their speedy songs. Nick's vocals are better than ever. There aren't as many leads and riffs but I'll take great melody over awesome solo's any day. "The Iron" is pretty much a B-side from A Wilhelm Scream's Ruiner album. "Watch It Go" has the awesome part where they flatten the root of the vi(6) chord. It always builds so much tension when used. But the it's followed by a high vocal which I haven't decided if I like or not. Then the last song is the By A Thread/Skoots attempt that they're always due for. I love it, but it didn't nearly make me cry in greatness like By A Thread and Skoots did. I'm really just in a golden age for music right now. Heartsounds is a band I should probably talk about for a moment. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I'm a humungous fan of skate punk and that fast punk beat. I've said numerous times how I just want a drummer to play that beat the whole time through my funeral. Well when Heartsounds formed just this past summer and they put out a record, I knew that it was a band formed specifically for me. They had to have been thinking of me while making this record. I'm almost positive 10 of the 12 songs have the beat I love so much and while yeah, admittedly it does kind of get old if there's too much(Straighten Things Out), they manage not to bore me with a single song. Duo vocals involving a guy that sounds just like Nick from The Swellers and a girl that is just awesome. Speedy guitar riffs that remind me a bit of Rufio/Near Miss/NUFAN. It's skate punk. Fantastic fantastic skate punk.

Look at that face. That frown. That upperclassman in high school "oh no what happened?" face. The 13th. For the past 4 years of my life, the 13th of a month has been something I have lived for. Why? Oh man. This is going to get cheesy. Well, back in the young days of 2005, I got with my girlfriend on the 13th(August if you're wondering). Well, being young and not very experienced, we thought that it was necessary to celebrate every month of our lovely relationship. I had gotten a job at the same time so every month, I would request the 13th off. That liefest ended after 7 or 8 months and kind of had it's after effects for a month after that. Well, even though I wasn't with the girl, I still felt it necessary to request the 13th off for whatever reason. Then, still bitter, I got with another girl the next year on the same exact date(August 13th. What a great to way to get revenge, huh?). While we were more mature, this girlfriend was just so needy and clingy that it was near mandatory that something be done on the 13th of every month. That lasted 2 AND A HALF YEARS, which still blows my mind sometimes. Thus the importance and eventfullness of the 13th was still very alive. Well, after the break-up, I saw it as near tradition that the 13th be a day to where I have off. Any reason? Answer to that could vary. OK I KNOW. What does this have to do with music? Well, I know that the 13th of every month thus far has been great but I can't tell you the specific events. But I can tell you the past 2 months and the future. August 13th, I SHOULD have gone to see Polar Bear Club in Austin but I didn't. But I did however, get sheet music to a really amazing piece and that's an incredible feeling. September 13th? Well first off, the Dallas Cowboys season opener was held. Second, it doesn't matter if that has nothing to do with music. Cowboys and music are on the same level. October 13th? I'm going to be seeing A Wilhelm Scream(ohmyGUH) and Heartsounds at Three Parkside. November 13th? One of my favorite guitarist, Xuefei Yang is giving a concert and I get in for free. December 13th? Oh man this one takes the cake. Pepe Romero is having his "Guitarrada V" with Richard Brune in the concert hall. It's where a few guys just sit in a circle and check out old guitars and talk about guitars and wow that sounds horribly boring to you but it's going to be a non stop jaw dropping experience for me. Some people have a phobia of the number 13, ya know? I embrace the number. And it's probably how pointless this entire paragraph was on a scale of 1-10.

I'm in an absolute golden age of music. I've been listening to Broadway Calls' latest record. Been listening to Polar Bear Club latest record which as mentioned last post has a few nice moments. Then I finally started getting heavily into Hot Water Music and have been listening to Caution. Then I got Heartsounds, Thrice and The Swellers. I don't know if I've ever had a better rotation going. I mentioned Gaslight Anthem earlier. You know, most girls I've ever been involved with haven't listened to punk music. But damn, if I could find one that listened to at least the Gaslight Anthem or Bad Astronaut, I'd be so happy. Here is a song by them that doesn't really show everything that makes them who they are but the whole 50's guitar sound/story telling lyrics/great vocals which now reading it sounds like the perfect description to the album but if you've heard Great Expectations or The Backseat you'd know what I was talking about. Enjoy!


The Gaslight Anthem-Here's Looking At You, Kid

You can tell Gail, if she calls,
that I'm famous now for all of these rock and roll songs.
And even if that's a lie, she should've given me a try.
When were kids on the field of the first day of school.
I would've been her fool.
And I would've sang out your name in those old high school halls.
You tell that to Gail, if she calls.

And you can tell Jane, if she writes,
that I'm drunk off all these stars and all these crazy Hollywood nights.
And that's total deceit, but she should've married me.
And tell her I spent every night of my youth on the floor,
bleeding out from all these wounds.
I would've gotten her a ride out of that town she despised.
You tell that to Janie, if she writes.

But boys will be boys and girls have those eyes
that can cut you to ribbons sometimes.
And all you can do is just wait by the moon
and bleed if it's what she says you ought a do.

You remind Anna, if she asks why,
that a thief stole my heart while she was making up her mind.
I heard she lives in Brooklyn with the cool,
goes crazy over that New York scene on 7th Avenue.
But I used to wait at the diner, a million nights without her,
praying she won't cancel again tonight.
And the waiter served my coffee with a consolation sigh.
You remind Anna, if she asks why.

Tell her it's alright.

And though it's hard to tell you this.
Oh it's hard to tell you this.
Here's looking at you, Kid.

"This Gun Is Pointed Right At Your Heart." "That Is My Least Vulnerable Spot!"

You're a damn liar if you don't want to go to the grocery store and buy this right now. I hate most ice cream but even I think that looks delicious. This is going to be one of many, many bitch fits about my aural skills and music theory class and I will most likely repeat myself each time. Back story? I nearly tested out of aural skills but since I don't know fixed-do which is a system of solfeg only taught at certain schools, I had to start all over in first year aural skills. And because of that, they put me in first year theory as well. At first I was just like ok, whatever. Easy semester, right? No. This is too easy. My harmonic dictation this past friday was I V I V I V I. Can I get an inversion? Can I get a neapolitan chord? Maybe a borrowed chord? Maybe some inverted 7th chords? Maybe some modulation? Maybe a chord progression that didn't make sense? Then we had rhythmic dictation and melodic dictation that I would get in the first run through. Look. I am a bonafied bad ass when it comes to aural skills. Theory? I'm OK. But aural skills? I'm great. Give me an interval to sing I can do it. Give me a melody or rhythm to take down, I'll do it. Give me all the melodies we have to sing these upcoming 2 semesters and I can sight read them. Give me all the melodies that I have to do the next 2 semesters after that, and I can figure them out with a couple of minutes. Me and aural skills are one. I didn't really realize how good I was in theory until I started looking at new music and just knowing what was going on all over it. I was in my lesson and me and Larry were analyzing my Grand Overture and I was naming all the chords and the voice leadings and why I'm playing I'm playing the V chord louder and the theme, recapitulation, all that good stuff. I didn't maintain a 3.5 GPA for no reason. I'm a smart guy when it comes to music. I hate going to class. It's painful. Then I have a bad habit of showing it. But I can't help it. Call it me being to stubborn and I need to get over it, but when all this freshman level information is being thrown at me, it brings me down. And I don't like my teacher nearly as much as my old. Dr. Flory was and will always one of the best teachers I've ever had in my life. He was serious, to the point, cared about us understanding, and was such a geek that he would throw in his little jokes that were so awful that it made us laugh so much. My new teacher is a great pianist. A Peabody grad and a really energetic and happy dude. But those first two things I said? We get reminded every day when he says "I mean it's like a mozart sonata..." Then goes and shreds Mozart or Brahms or Chopin. Then he always brings up his times at Peabody and it gets a little annoying. Because I feel that just him teaching at the school got everyone's never ending respect. There's no need to flaunt it. Am I wrong for feeling like this? Do you think this is all me being cocky? Look I came to this school not only for guitar, but to expand my musical knowledge. Being in these classes makes me feel so trapped. It's kind of like being in a prison. I just want to struggle. Struggle makes you care and learn more. I want to get that struggling bond with my classmates. I want to walk out the door and look at them with this same horrified/shocked look as to what we just learned. But I can't get that with this. If someone asked "hey! Do you want to make all A's with easy classes or struggle to make a B in a hard class?" My answer would easily be the hard class. I just want to move forward.


Lessons with Larry are going great. We really focus on musicality and overall interpretation. And we're both very vocal. I know what I want in the piece and he knows what I can do to make it better. We'll be reading/analyzing the piece and we try different things to see what sounds good. It's not like how with Hii, he would tell me one way to play it and never question himself. Any time Larry suggests something, I play through it and he decides if it sounds right. It's like we're just two people working to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I really enjoy it. I've just got so much on my plate and I'm always busy. It's gotten to the point to where 4 hour practice sessions are just barely enough to get through everything I need. With all the technique exercises and all my solo pieces, I need at least 5 or 6 hours to spend a sufficient amount of time on everything. Me and my friend Andreas plan on playing all the Bach two part inventions which would be a dream come true for me. I love listening to those. Glenn Gould plays them like no one to ever walk the planet. I might actually be playing Introduction and Fandango by Luigi Bocherrini AGAIN with 3 other guys for guitar literature. I've been playing that piece since I was a junior in high school. But I'm always down to play great music with a quartet.

Want to hear something really geeky? I was at a party and one of the piano majors started playing ballroom dance music for entertainment. Well after a while it turned into an hour long session of us naming our favorite concertos, sonatas, etc etc and he was just able to play them by ear. It was really amazing. We somehow got to Coldplay and Journey after a while. But at one point someone said, "Play Chopin's Nocturne in Eb Op. 9 No. 2!" And as soon as he started playing it felt like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Just the first 2 notes make my head spin. That piece takes me back to such a transition period in my life. It was the summer of 06 where in the month of June, my life was awful due to one person and then in the month of July, my month was immediately great due to another person. It's what I consider one of the top 3 most beautiful pieces ever written and I would feel awful if I didn't post it on here at some point.



The past week or so I was in shock of two bands. A Wilhelm Scream/Explosions In The Sky. Why? I've been listening to AWS since I was 15 and EITS since I was about 17 but for some reason when my ipod was on shuffle and I heard a couple of songs by each of them I was just in awe. Unbelievable music. More so AWS than EITS but still. It's been a while since AWS has released anything so I haven't exactly been in touch with them. I listened to We Built This City(On Debts and Booze) and it felt like the first time again. Since I can't really practice in my room past 11pm, I have a bit of free time since I continue to deprive myself of sleep. Who cares if I have an 8am class? Everybody Loves Ramon is on 1-2am and that shit is hilarious. Anyway, what I do is just try to make songs that would work perfectly for bands I really dig. I used to make instrumentals quite often back in my electric guitar days so I wanted to start up again. Figured Explosions In The Sky would be a nice inspiratation so instead of getting up from my chair to turn on my ipod, I youtubed them and found an amazing video of my favorite song by them. It's pretty intense. So turn off the lights, listen to the music, and think about all the dramatic as hell moments in your life.


Explosions In The Sky-The Birth and Death of the Day

Growing Up Isn't Moving On

Can I say something? I don't know if you know, but I go to the absolute best guitar school in the country. I know I know I know. It probably sounds biased. But look, you know I am and always have been a very realistic person. I always considered this to be one of the top 2 or 3 but I'm 100% convinced it's the best now. Why? Well down the hall lives a guitar player and we ran into each other one night and just started talking music. Our guitar staff consists of Sergio Assad, David Tannenbaum, Larry Ferrara and Mark Teicholz. Growing up, I always saw Sergio, David and Larry as gods of guitar but never really heard Teisholz. Well I asked the guitar player I was talking to about him and he was in shock that I hadn't heard him. People around here argue that Teisholz is the best player of all the guitarist here. I found it hard to believe. But then he showed me a recording of Teicholz's Grand Solo and was nearly convinced. My jaw was dropped in amazement. His playing is flawless. His interpretations, technique, feeling, everything is outstanding. Then he went on to say how last year he was at a dinner with LAGQ(teachers at USC, the school I usually put above mine) and they themselves said SFCM is a better school. And sure, Peabody has Barrueco, but that is one teacher and he only teaches so many students. It was like this huge epiphany and I could hardly fathom it. I go to the best guitar school in the country. Another thing he told me was that my class was the absolute best incoming class San Francisco Conservatory of Music has ever seen. WHAT?! It's hard for anyone to actually understand all this. Fuck, it's hard for ME to understand this. It must be known that I'm having the time of my life here. I'm loving every second and have really just never been happier. The music, the lifestyle, the friends, the parties. EVERYTHING. I love what I do. And while yeah, I miss Corpus and Del Mar(my music major friends) at times, you couldn't pay me a thousand dollars a week to move back there.

Ohhh back to school. It all started with Western Civilization at 8am. 8am. Eight ayy em. So I wake up, eat some cinnamon toast crunch, then take off. The class was intense. The teacher is like a performer. We talked about all sorts of things. A lot about the earth and how it was once all together then separated then about how there are 10,000 foot mountains in the ocean and all this stuff that just tripped me out. Then whenever it would get really intense, he would speak very quietly. Then talked about the evolution of man. Now imagine all that with Stravinsky playing in the back ground. It was just so interesting. My jaw was dropped at some of the things said. My only issue with the class is A) it's at 8am monday-thursday, and B) I hate thinking about things like this. Things that mostly don't have concrete evidence. It's why I hate thinking about religion. It's why I hate talking about space. I don't have any proven facts about these issues. And the famous quote, "The more we know, the less we understand" is just spot on. Then I went on to music theory which isn't an issue since I'm re-taking it. Then I hate sight singing which, sorry, is a big issue for me. I nearly tested out of sight singing but since I was never taught fixed-do, I have to re-take everything. For right now, we're singing 1 2 3 instead of solfeg and it's bullshit. We had an assignment and I asked him if I could do solfeg because it's what's easier and he replied "Well...technically we don't know solfeg yet so no." So pissed. Then no matter what, in every sight singing class in the fucking world, you have that ONE person who tries to out shine the whole class. But the thing about this person is that they are in first year sight singing for a reason. THEY AREN'T VERY GOOD. Ok, you can sing, but can you hit the intervals in front of you? No. And because they have issues from time to time, they bring down the entire class. Say a melody is going Do Fa Sol La Ti Do Ti La Sol Fa RE Do but instead of the Re they sing Mi and because of that, since he/she is so loud, they make the entire class sing the wrong note. Why? Because naturally, if you hear a someone singing so over the top loud, you'll follow the tune. It's like if you were listening to the radio really loud and singing along. Being in both these beginner classes really sucks. I feel like I'm not moving forward at all. It's really annoying at times. I'm not going to class tomorrow because we start solfeg next week and we have assignments using that number system so it's a big waste of time in my opinion.

Then I had the Alexander Technique which was interesting. We did exercises where we put our hand on our head then had to touch our hand with our head. Then a few more things like that. Hopefully I can get good at it. Then I had ensemble. There are 3 groups. One advanced. One not advanced. Then the rest of us that will be put into separate groups. I was in the rest of us category. Most the grad students were in the advanced. Before I get to that, Guitar Lit got canceled for the day and guitar performance was cool. Lots of good players. Anyway, I've been hanging out with a bunch of guitarist. We all get along very well. But there is this one grad student in-particular that I hate/love talking with. He is 100% the most knowledgeable guitarist I have ever met. He just throws out different composers and different pieces and says things that I've never even thought about. It's really a great time but at the same time, it upsets me that I'm not as knowledgeable as him. I want that. I want to be that good. I want to be that smart. And it pisses me off to no end that I'm not like that. But at the same, I have to understand that he is a grad student and has just been in the whole deal much longer than me. But I believe it's this self competitiveness within me that will push me to be a great guitar player. I'm not there yet.

And for me to get there, I will need Larry's help. I had my first lesson with him yesterday. It's weird. He'll send me e-mails just to see how my week is going or send me videos of great Dallas Cowboys moments. It's really nice to have a teacher who you can get along with. We talked about repertoire. I have to have a piece from all 5 era's. He asked if I knew any Renaissance. Well, like every other beginner, I learned that one fantasia by Mudarra. Other than that, no. We will be working on something by either Narvaez or Dowland. Not stoked. Never been a fan of the Renaissance era. He asked if I knew any Bach. HA! Of course! I told him I knew 3 of the 4 movements in BWV 1001 and all of BWV 996. He said I can only play one for the juries so, after 3 years, I am going to retire BWV 1001. It was a weird feeling. It was like breaking up with a girlfriend that you actually liked. But it was time I put my Del Mar College hit single to rest. We will meet again some day. He asked if I knew any Classical and of course I said I knew Grand Overture so we will continue to work on that. Then we get to the romantic. He was really impressed with the amount of Tarrega I know/knew at one point. I said I could do the Barrios prelude I learned over the summer but then I finally grew some balls and said that I needed help with tremelo so I am playing...Un Sueno En La Floresta. In my opinion, it is one of the top 10 most beautiful pieces ever written for the guitar. I'm excited to finally get this beast of a technique down. Then for my modern piece I'm learning what I always wanted to learn,(but couldn't because my old teacher didn't allow it) La Muerte Del Angel by Astor Piazzolla. Probably Leo Brouwers version. And then I will always be playing Etude #2 and of course that monster of a piece by Turnia, Generalife. So that's what my program will be looking like. So we got right to work on the 996 and Grand Overture. We also worked on tone which was a first. Working on using my knuckles. A really great lesson. Larry is a great guy and I'm excited to see what kind of player he turns me into.

I've been practicing so much technique lately. So many scales. So many hammer ons and pull offs with the uncomfortable fingers. So many exercises. It's helping. And my rasgueado is very good now. Let's get this straight. I am an undergraduate. I'm here to develop to a complete guitar player. Not to win competitions. Not to put on monster recitals. Not to record an album. That comes when I'm a master student. I love how this blog was about nothing but punk music during the summer and now it's non stop guitar and classical music. But never doubt me, I up the punx no matter what. The new Polar Bear Club album leaked. Such a disappointment. If anything, I thought they'd get heavier but they got poppier and really just lost a lot of their identity. The Redder The Better was a flawless EP because each song had it's own identity yet still had the same sound. The LP was fantastic as well. But this album lacks so much. Like Vivek said, no athems, no sing alongs, no hooks. It's missing. There is only about 3 songs that I particularly like. I love Polar Bear Club. Everyone knows that. And this is really a huge disappointment. They were one of those bands(like A Wilhelm Scream, Thrice, Lagwagon, The Swellers) who I saw as incapable of writing a bad album. But I'm afraid they did. I'm going to let this grow on me hopefully, but I'm not sure it's going to happen. Here is the first Polar Bear Club song I ever heard and it probably means the most to me. Hearing that guitar melody in the beginning gives such a flashback of Summer of 08. I take music in such high fucking regard.


Polar Bear Club-Hollow Place

It's hard to know where we should go
When home's too far away and "here" is a hollow place
Where people come to softly hum
The songs that scare you most, believe me I'm scared enough