When it goes out of shape…

Just remember, never show your hand. So if you didn’t feel 100% about your performance, and we never do, don’t let the audience know. Let them decide how you played and how much they enjoyed it. I think you’ll be surprised in their version of events compared to yours as a player.

Matt Warnock

The dog charity gig was interesting……..
We set up under the lovely shelter they had erected for us. Then there was a downpour and we were flooded out! We moved to higher ground and set up again. It wasn’t ideal, I couldn’t hear the other guys very well, and I wasn’t happy with my sound. However, I resolved to play like I meant it, and look like I was enjoying the best concert ever. The bass player and the drummer didn’t really know the set that well so we were a bit ropey to say the least. But we tried, and it was fun.
At the end of the afternoon, the woman who booked us came over and said……get this….”So you’re Serge Bardot! You are bloody fantastic!”…..She went on to tell us how much she had enjoyed it. How much better we were than any other band she’d booked, and, booked us again (with a fee) for another gig at a private party. We also had a geezer who runs an internet radio station asking us if we had any recordings as he would love to do a feature on us on his show! On top of that a string of people complimented us and thanked us.
So there you go. I have no idea how that works……but it does.

Solo Guitar philosophy by Joe Pass…

“A lot of people think that your’e playing like bass notes at the same time your’e playing chords at the same time your’e playing melody, and it’s not like that. It’s an illusion. Your’e playing a bass note sometimes your’e playing a chord sometimes your’e playing the melody most of the time and your’e filling. So it’s all done by doing something with motion. If you try to play a bass note on the chord on every beat, you’d be working for 8 months on one song and then once you learn it, thats the only way your’e gonna play it.” Joe Pass

I had to let that sink in a while…..