A lot of my focus these days has been on my examination pieces, which i feel is good and even though I am not spending as much time on more contemporary stuff I believe (and i can only speak from experience) that without even really playing other genres much, once i've completed my exam my playing will have improved across all styles. You might be thinking that it is just in my head and that having a certificate has a psychological effect on me and therefore I feel i have improved when I haven't really. Well of course the piece of paper with my Grade on it in reality means nothing, but the process whereby I have gone to obtain this piece of paper is where the real progress is. And somehow this art of practising and playing classical guitar is universally beneficial to all other styles of guitar. Now the link to acoustic finger/chicken picking wouldn't seem unreasonable as classical guitar is always with the fingers and thus fine motor skills are developed and improved. But in terms of using a pick and playing chords and melodies common to jazz and more contemporary styles and often contrary to classical - now thats where I am confused as to how I am able to improve without playing much of it.

I am not trying to label the classical guitar as the superior style, but I am somehow intrinsically convinced that it is by far the best grounding one could have in terms of a guitar background. I mentioned in an earlier blog that one should try to learn both classical and jazz guitar, I am not going back on that but still the classical discipline has this solid foundation that I can't ignore, that i don't see (or haven't yet seen) in any other style.

Anyway, I've got a few things due for uni so fitting in time for guitar won't be easy, but I should have another video up in two weeks so check back soon :)

Jesse

http://www.jesseguitar.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07

Winery Gig

So as I said last week I had my gig at the winery with my old guitar teacher and a couple of other guys. It went really well I must say. There was a great response and a possibility of even another one in a couple of months so I really can’t complain. 

Even though it went well, there are always parts that I wish could have sounded better. In the practice just before the show I felt the pieces were sounding great, the dynamic, tone, speed, but then as I started i began to think to much. I was thinking, how it was sounding out in the audience, how my positioning was, what other people were thinking and so on. All of this obviously detracted from my concentration of the actual music and naturally I became a little nervous and consequently fumbled here and there. Guess that all comes with experience. I also found my guitar was too quiet in the mix and I got a little feedback here and there because of my positioning. Sound and mixing is another art all in itself and one I am yet to perfect. You might have the song down back to front, inside out, left right and center but if you don’t mix it right people aren’t going to appreciate it the same way you do.

When i rocked up to the venue, the chair they gave me was a little high and quite uncomfortable and I think bothered my playing a little. Of course I am not going to blame the chair for any mistakes, but it is just something that can distract you every now and then and add a little bit more to that uneasiness. I reckon i’m going to bring my own from now on as I think there is enough to worry about already.

All in all it was a great night, great food, didn’t get to try the wine but apparently that was great too. I’m looking forward to the next one and to start working on some new material. 

I am in the process of getting the video off my mates camera so keep checking back here for when I get it up in the next couple of days. Hopefully tomorrow!

Thanks for reading

Jesse 
http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07 
http://www.jesseguitar.com 

play live on an Italian radio station

Had the great chance to play live on an Italian radio station with my old guitar teacher last Monday. We played 3 duet pieces. A Scarlatti Sonata, a Piazzola Tango, and The Millers Dance. These are the same duos that I’ll be playing this Saturday and that I’ll hopefully be able to video. Playing live in the studio was a great experience and although you still get nervous, it is a different kind of pressure to that of playing in a concert on a stage. The environment is more enclosed and you don’t have the sense of hundreds of eyes fixed on you but the pressure to play perfectly is still there and is still something I am yet to overcome. It seems to me any experience is good experience, and that one should try to play in as many different environments to try and be conditioned to the point where anywhere feels as comfortable as their own bedroom.

I guess I want to get to the point where I can sit and play in front of an audience and feel like I am sitting in my favorite chair at home. Where nothing is distracting me, where my surroundings are but mere images, where I can simply enjoy what I’m playing and nothing else. I’ll be honest, yeah sure it is great having people watch you and complementing you on your playing but the place where I get most satisfaction, the place where I truly play for the soul (or whatever you want to call it) is at home. And if I could bring that mentality everywhere with me, to make any place feel like home with my guitar - I would consider that a main goal of my playing career. I think once you’ve reached that level, the audience starts to realise too and that’s when you become one of the greats. That’s when it is no longer about technical side of things, not about the scales, not about sharps and flats, but that’s when it is all about music and the transcendental. 

In the mean time I guess I am to push my self to get involved in all kinds of performances, ones I want to do, ones I don’t want to do. Solo ones, ensemble ones etc.. You can never get enough practice as they say.

Jesse L 

http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07

http://www.jesseguitar.com

started with the jazz stuff.

Sorry i didn’t manage to get a blog up last week everything has just suddenly started to pile up. Got a gig at a winery doing a duo and quartet thing which should be pretty sweet although it means i’ve got to learn about 14 new pieces in two weeks.. I’m getting there. Slowly. We’re doing a bit of classical, spanish and flamenco and hopefully i’ll be able to get a good live recording of it up on my page once we’ve done the gig.

I’ve been looking into a few things lately concerning music, trying to get out some tabs but its taking longer than I thought. Got a lot of ideas for music as usual but its just hard turning these concepts into actual music. I find using the loop pedal is a great way to get ideas down and refine them but then again it all changes once you add drums bass and synth into it. Still working on jazz guitar a bit, i find its pretty useful in writing and everything, go a lot more dynamic and variation since i started with the jazz stuff.

Been looking into the lute vihuela as well. Considering getting into some of that repertoire but i don't know if that's gonna hinder my current stuff. It's good to know a bit of everything but as soon as you start too much in one area your taking away time from another. So its probably good to go everything in something and then only something in everything. I would try everything in everything but I doubt that is humanly possible. The only problem is to figure out which style i should invest the most in. Ah well something to consider.

Jesse  

  PS: I just updated my website and i put up more pictures  :)  Photography by Ben Mulligan  here is link for you!
http://031cae9.namesecurehost.com/jcpic.htm 

Stolen Strat

So this weeks had it’s ups and down. The biggest down obviously was my 1998 Deluxe Stratocaster which was nicked from my car in the middle of the night last saturday. I admit it was my fault. i thought i locked my car but the remote on the keys isn’t always acurate and the next morning i wake and my boot is open and the strat gone. However they managed to leave my amp and wallet for me which was nice of them..... So yeah i’ve been to the cops, local pawn shops, and there is pretty much nothing i can do because i don;t have the serial. Some of you probably thinking ‘what an idiot’ for not keeping the serial number but i guess its one of those things you don;t think you’ll need until something like this happens. I contacted the store i got it from, but since it was a traded guitar they don’t keep the serial number so not a great result to say the least. 

At the same time it’s not that I don’t have enough guitars to use, it was more the fact that this was my favorite electric guitar and any guitarist can sympathize with me in that when you find the right guitar, it grows on you and you grow on it. Not that I am a very materialistic person but it was a valuable possession of mine as most of my guitars are and one I will surely miss. 

The truth is I am annoyed, as most people would be, but as I look around at the events going on in world today my frustration tends to cease. I might have lost my guitar. But people in Japan and New Zealand have lost even more. Some have lost everything. And people lose their lives friends and family everyday in all places around the world. And it is not only Japan and New Zealand that are suffering, it is people everywhere!. Murder, slavery, sex slavery, child labour, sweat shops, poverty, famine, the list goes on and on. Yes I know you’ve all heard it before but sometimes we can forget the things we don’t hear about and sometimes it is as if they don’t matter. I know this is not the usual stuff I rant on about, but I guess this week has just been a bit different so hopefully I haven’t lost most of you. 

I’ve the learnt the very simple lesson of double checking my car is locked since last saturday, but I think there is a lot more to learn from people around the world. In December last year I visited an orphanage in Myanmar to really experience the conditions of a third world country and hopefully be able to help out the kids there in some way. The irony was, more than anything the children there actually helped me. They helped me see that they don’t need computers, cars, games, technology, luxuries. Some of these kids were the happiest kids I have ever seen in my life, and their appreciation for anything you did was purely honest and genuine. It was extremely challenging as well as amazing. These kids value everything they have, which materially is close to nothing compared to 1st world country standards. But they, from what I could see had everything immaterially, spiritually, morally, whatever you want to call it. They were content. And if they could be, then I have no excuse. This is not to say the same goes for Japan and New Zealand where I cannot even fathom what the are experiencing but I guess if your reading this you are pretty lucky, you have the internet, you are connected to the world, you have a home and a place to sleep and eat. It’s not that we should be carefree and disregard things that are taken from us and not learn from stupid mistakes (like myself), I guess it’s more of... in your grief or discontent it’s always good to gain a little bit of perspective.

It was a long one but thanks for reading.

Jesse   

here is my guitar:( luck i got this on the video:)

Same Old

Been quite busy with Uni these days, assignments here and there, extra readings that are not compulsory (but they pretty much are if you wanna do well) and whenever I'm not concentrating on uni I'm trying to find time to practise. I was always told uni was extremely laid back and that you have all the time in the world only to realise when entering that it was quite the opposite. Well maybe if all you had was uni then yeah i agree. But I mean mixing in 3000 word essays, with hours of guitar practice, work, and just having a life is not all that easy.

Anyway I plan to upload another video at the start of April, and another hopefully in the same month. I do get a mid semester break over easter so that will be a long awaited one. I could have uploaded this video earlier but there are just a few things I wanna touch up. With anything, if your gonna rush it it is gonna come out in the final product. Whether it be a photograph, a drawing, a song, a video etc.. I've always thought i could gloss over something and patch it up, but often others can tell do, so I've been disciplining myself not to get into that habit. I'm also taking some photos with one of my mates this weekend, so i'll be able to update my graphics and all on my website and youtube.

Not much going on in terms of music this week, but hopefully that will change with more playing and practise.

Keep an eye on my channel for the new video in the next couple of weeks. 

Jesse 

 http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07

Truthful Music

So in my second week of university we've been looking at cities, (you know the history/origins and their emergence etc...) and if there is one thing I have taken out of these past two weeks it's that; cities are in many ways a reflection of their societies values and cultural truths. At least that's how it was in ancient times, and arguably it still is a trait fo many places today. Now before I bore you all talking about Urban history I think it has become more apparent to me that the same 'reflection of truth' is mirrored in the art of creating music.

Now this might seem obvious to a lot of you because of the basic fact that well.. Different cultures have different music and therefore they are reflections of their own different and respective ideals. And the difference is clear, You listen to some traditional Chinese music and some Jamaican and your gonna see a big difference. But the truth I am talking about is kind of hard to define. If we go to modern day western music I am talking of the truth in terms of the song/piece's 'honestness'. I think the 'honestness' (which from here I will call 'truth') of a song greatly affects it's quality. (Excuse my arbitrary use of words here, I havent the best vocabulary). If we take a song by Metallica. Sure it is metal, and yes a lot of people aren't fans of metal music, but in my opinion they are respected (even by non metal fans) because of their song's message/truth. They aren't cheap pop songs just made for the commercial world that are off the radio as soon as they are on it. And again, I think it is this very 'truth' in a song that adds to how good it is. Metal music will a lot of the time will reveal the song writers angry/frustrated side and when it is produced in the form of music you get this distinct 'metal' sound or 'metal' theme. I wouldn't dare say that metal is limited to the emotions of anger and frustration but it is a good general way to look at it I think.

I'm feeling some people might say: 'but can't music just be an end in itself? Does it really have to be a reflection of some truth?'. I think this would more apply to instrumental music, but even instrumental music can portray a particular reality, but then again I am forced to admit it doesn't always, or at least we don't always know what the artist had in mind. And there's the beauty in music. It can conjure any emotion to anyone person. Sometimes the same song will speak to people in different ways, and I think that's just amazing.

A lot of the time I can't really conclude in my blogs, basically because the things I end up talking about can sometimes be a tad circular and a little confusing. But in the end, I more value music that is created with some kind of intent, and even though it is not always obvious what that truth is, it is definitely there somewhere between the notes and the sound. The whole is greater than the some of its parts.
But hey that's just me
What about you guys?

Jesse Liang     
http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07