Well the day job is taking up a lot more time than it used to, and unfortunately that's not going to go away for quite sometime. The mining boom in Western Australia seems to be boundless, even with a lot of the world on shaky ground. Make hay while the sun shines eh?
I've been chipping away at "Any Colour You Like", it's coming along well but slow progress. Nothing new is happening on the arranging front...just general playing and practise.
In more exciting news, at least for me, I noticed the café down the road was extending out into an alfresco area, which made me wonder if they would be interested in a guitarist. After previously doing a lot of door knocking "We'll call you" I gave up on trying to find a gig, but there was no harm in trying out one more time.
I discovered that the owners were very keen - they had planned for music, ad had even started enquiring at booking agents - I contacted them just in time! I went down for a "sound check" and played for about an hour; the place has a nice feel, acoustics are nice and I was quite comfortable. In previous gigs I'd sometimes get a bit tense, which causes your arms to pump up like rocks, making playing hard. Don't be tense, relax. A glass of red wine or a beer helps. Just one, maybe two, to loosen up :)
My playing was a little rough, no catastrophic failures, but quite a number of fumbles. Some songs I hadn't played in months I struggled with - but casual listeners don't notice, unless you actually outright stop - and perhaps only a serious listener would detect anything, but they generally forgive you. To err is to be human. But it's okay, because now once a week I will have a chance to practise!
Now I doubt if anyone who reads this lives in the Northern suburbs of Western Australia - ha, my own country doesn't even rank in the top ten for readers/viewers - but if you do, I'm playing Thursday nights, 7-9pm at Bbar Café in Gwelup, come down and have one of their rather delicious wood fired pizzas (I recommend the Bbar special), a glass of wine, but most importantly say hello - I'd love to talk to you!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteHave faith, you do have at least one follower in perth!
I too am an engineer making hay whilst the sun shines. I'll try and make it to the Bbar on a Thurday evening sometime soon.
Jeff
Wish I could make it mate, just a bit far from Cairns.
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you ever make it up this way, would love to see your performance and have a chat.
I'll buy the beers/wine
Marc
Sounds great! Wonderful news.
ReplyDeleteHi JAW:
ReplyDeleteI have not posted in a long time, but lurk here all the time to see what you are up to and get inspiration. I almost fell off my chair today, as Naudo appears to have a CD on Itunes! It certainly wasn't there before, listed under his name.
Did I miss something? I know there is a deep appreciation of him with you and your readers, wasn't sure if anyone else was aware of this.
I believe it was dated 2003, it's about time we had a good audio quality of him.
Would you have any idea of the background?
Best wishes,
Rich
Thanks all -
ReplyDeleteJeff - that makes you the third person (since 2006) who has sent me a message who lives in Perth. Definitely say hello if you are ever there.
Marc - I've not been to Cairns, closest I got was Brisbane a few years back on business. It's a bit "tropical" up there...I spent some time living in the Pilbara in the 90's, very humid, and I believe tit has nothing on Cairns :)
Rich - Hey again, I don't think I've been putting much inspirational stuff up recently? I've just checked on itunes and yes, there does appear to be a Naudo CD! I've just looked on Amazon, released Sep 27 2011. MP3 download only. Listening, it sounds like he was in a studio - it's not someone trying to flog youtube rips. He hasn't mentioned it on his blog or anywhere I'm aware of...I'm going to have to have words with him! (and where are the other 10 CDs that he should have recorded by now!) :) Thanks for the tip.
JAW
JAW, you are being critical of yourself, as to me, you represent the guy who's guitar goes with him through life, you may not be a paid perfomer, but your passion runs deep and life, family, work, etc., certainly knocks us all around a bit and at times the music fits in where it can: which is why I like to see how you are doing and read what you are (or are not) working on. It's all good!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I downloaded Naudo's CD off of I-Tunes and it's fun to hear his many runs and techniques without actually watching a video and the sound quality is very good. I find myself smiling as I listen, as if it's an old freind.
One note: I-Tunes lists the release as "2003" I'm not sure what is going on, but I enjoyed it. (he needs a business manager in the worst way)
I thought it was funny, that here I am in the U.S. (MA) writing to a guy "down under" about a guitar player in Brazil!
Best wishes, as always,
Rich
Hi JAW!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you made it, hope you'll record some songs when you settle in! What kind of amplification will you use?
Good luck mate, and be careful with the wine ;)
Lefty
Yeah, set up that H2 one time. I'll play it during dinner and pretend I'm down under tipping a beer to my mate JAW. :)
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about the amplification as well. Do you have an amp for playing out or do you use the one you made for the house?
Yeah L3fty, one glass of red helps me loosen up, let's call it "lubrication", a second small one is usually okay after that, but anymore and your performance drops off :)
ReplyDeleteAmplification? Good question, I don't think I've spoken about that much. Probably because I rarely play amplified. It's worthy of a post, for now I'll tell you it's just a little Ashton Busker amp (BSK158) that I bought a few years back to replace my home brewed amps...because it sounded so much better. It has a 12V battery in it but I'm playing it plugged in. It has a surprisingly clean and crisp sound, it gets muddy if you start to crank it or the acoustics of the area are not nice, but I guess that is the case for all amps.
Ideally I'd like an AER compact 60 acoustic, the best amp I ever tried on nylon. However since I'm only running my little 15W amp at 75% volume tops, I hardly need 60W. And I don't have a lazy $2k to spend on an amp. The sound I can get out of the little Aston is not that far off what I got out of the AER when I was comparing them. It will do for now.
I think the key is a good foundation - I started with a nice sounding classical (Esteve 1GR-11) and I put in what I thought was the nicest pickup for a nylon that I could find (B-band A6T). Amplified I'm only after a "true" sound, that is what the guitar sounds like unplugged. No reverb, no delay, no effects, just some EQ to make up for any environment imbalance. If it's nothing but concrete I sweep out the mids, if it's open and grassy then up the mids. Trebles and basses generally stay flat.
First gig went off well - my playing had moments where I was bringing my A game, but there was C game in there too unfortunately. I had a lot of nice comments and the cafe owners were very pleased. They had done an email bomb and flyers about my gig and managed to pack the joint (70 people) and were turning people away.
I have been invited back for next Thursday :)
JAW
Hi Jaw, will you still be playing this Thursday? I think I may come down and say hi :)
ReplyDeleteHey Christine, yep, every Thursday until they get sick of me. Currently, they still like me a lot!
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to meet you - and you could give me some tips - it's not often that I get to speak to a proper musician guitarist! :)
Make sure you bring your playing hands too - I'll want a demonstration of Teen Spirit/Livin' on a Prayer on my guitar. No pressure of course. It's standard classical dimensions so it shouldn't represent a problem; can you play one without a leg stand/brace? ;)
JAW