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.
No comments:
Post a Comment