In FL, at my parents place tonight. Last 2 nights I spent in a nice hotel with a private pool side patio. I played a concert last for a good crowd. We donated the ticket sales to a guitar scholarship fund, raised $800. Concert went OK. They thought I was just brilliant, but I had some gremlins and brief memory slips. Overall it was OK, best of the 3 I've done. It's crunch time. The big one is next, a week away.
On my morning walks, I've done a few short hill sprints, about 30-40m and they felt ok, no pain. It reminded me that there is nothing but nothing that quickly pushes the body and HR like sprinting. Before the end of the month, I'm going to try to start doing a running workout of some type, just brief, probably up a hill or turf with the offloader brace. We'll see how the body adapts.
Last night I hopped the fence and did some water running and swimming in the pool about 1am. It was still about 80º outside. It was great. I did 15x split squats with just 20lbs in the fitness center. My glutes were actually sore next day.
This week, I'm not teaching private instruction and going to Murfreesboro for a short day on Thurs. 6-8ish. I'm really going to be practicing guitar more than I ever have in decades this week. I hope my hand health holds out. It did pretty well in the concert, no significant numbness, just the usual fatigue. Playing the Rameau variations reminds me how actually athletic music is. If you don't have the physical part, you can't be expressive and nothing else works. When playing music of this difficulty, not even hours of practice can prevent mental mistakes due to stress, doubt, etc... So, that's another element. And of course, it's not good enough to just play the notes, it has to be expressive, varied, creative.
Work starts tomorrow when I get home, should be mid-late afternoon. I have 3 days in a row, Sunday 10:30 playing the entire service at All Saints - this could be a big crowd. Monday, All Saints concert; Tues, MTSU concert. Then it's over for a while. Planning a hiking boat trip to Fontana the following weekend. Looks like sunny and beautiful weather all week, mid 80s, then turning cooler on the weekend, lows hitting the 40s. No rain.
At my concert, I met Pamela Bauer, the daughter of a swing era guitarist Billy Bauer, who played with the most famous and influential jazz musicians of the era. I had never heard of Bauer, and he wasn't as influential as other swing era guitar players (like Django R. and Charlie Christian). She gave me a card with this photo. She must have been at least 85 yrs old, which would have made her ~ 8 when this photo was taken of her dad (N.Y. 1949)... sitting with the single greatest jazz musician of all time. (In terms of instrumental brilliance, innovation, and influence, his work is studied by jazz players as much as Bach is studied by classical players). Pretty cool.
If you don't know who the guy is with the sax and the cig, you're culturally deprived.
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Billy Bauer with Bird, NY 1949
Can't believe I actually bought a seat for my lute.
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