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