Adam Rafferty

What You Can Learn from the Joshua Bell Story

There’s an urban legend about a world class violinist named Joshua Bell who played his solo violin concert program of J.S. Bach on a 3.5 million dollar instrument in the Washington Metro at rush hour.

Riders walked past, no one “listened” except for snippets – and he earned about 32 bucks.

The writer’s slant on the story is this:

“If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”

I disagree COMPLETELY with is idea.

Joshua Bell demonstrated an “unsuccessful gig” in the midst of his “successful gigs” and showed all musicians that presentation counts – since the music was a “constant” in the equation. Do’h!!!

It’s NOT on the audience to learn how to be appreciative.
It’s UP to US musicians to learn how to present ourselves properly. (Joshua of course knows how – and was doing an experiment.)

Holding the public accountable for “not noticing us” is a victim mentality, and is very disempowering for musicians.

Whether we see ourselves as concert hall worthy, restaurant gig worthy or street worthy – we will end up playing places that are in accordance with our beliefs.

We are 100% responsible for our vision of where we want to be – even if it is not yet manifest. That starts inside, not outside.

How can I say this utterly blunt stuff?

For years I saw myself as the restaurant guitar guy – which is fine, and not a criticism of anyone playing gigs like that. My self image kept me there, but I realized I wanted more.

Only when I changed the self image (not easy) to being a concert and festival player….life changed around me – as if by magic.

If I did it, you can do it too.

Let me ask you….

Have you ever noticed GREAT musicians who seem to be unappreciated?
Have you ever seen “bla” musicians who have GREAT performance opportunities?

To the victim this seems really unfair, as if evil is winning over good.

To the empowered musician, it makes 100% perfect sense and is totally fair.

It’s all obeying the Law of Attraction.

We all create our worlds in accordance with our beliefs.

The Empowered Take Away Idea:

Even if your music is absolutely world class…you now know, from the subway story, that the “public” needs more than your music alone.

If you want to reach your audience, then this matters too:

How You Dress
How Your Materials Look
Your Punctuality
Where You Choose To Play
Under What Conditions You Choose To Play

I’m making a new moral of the story:

“If we do not have a moment to think about how we present ourselves and our best musical efforts, how many gig opportunities are we missing?”

I’m not posting this to add to the lump of online “how to get gigs” articles.

I am posting this because the victim mentality is poisionous to musicians, and the “take 100% responsibility” mentality is healthy, empowering and leads to greater happiness.

What’s in it For Them?

By Adam Rafferty 5 Comments

You’re a stone cold musician. You love playing your instrument, (or singing) practicing, writing, doing gigs…it fills your soul and it’s your life’s purpose.

(That’s kind of how I have felt since I was a kid…)

Maybe you even go to music school and get a degree. You work hard and make a CD and now you are ready to tackle the world.

After that, the “great scroll of your life’s plan” does NOT come down from the heavens to present you with a step by step fairty tale of a music career. Now what?

The work starts…the “hustle” – finding gigs, making contacts, paying the rent, maybe teaching a little, playing gigs here and there – restaurants, maybe a wedding…who knows…

I’ve been there.

As musicians, we all need to ask ourselves “what’s in it for them?” Answering this simple question changes everything.

We all want to do “our thing” but to get paid and have a happy, joyous musical existence – we must provide value. Someone must benefit from what we do.

If you are trying to “make it” (I love putting that in quotes) you can’t just indulge in “your thing” and hope that things will magically work out….you have to:

Give your listeners a great experience (musically, visually, socially)
Give the venue / club / promoter a reason to hire you – i.e. they need to sell something like tickets, drinks, food, merchandise – in order to justify paying you.

I always find it funny how musicians balk at the idea of playing weddings, parties, and also giving music lessons.

In both of those cases – it’s so clear! You are providing value and getting paid for it. It is worth noting that when you provide value, you get paid! That’s worthy of a celebration in my book.

Remember – even much of Bach’s music served a purpose (church gigs, weddings and teaching.)

I see so many musicians out there struggling because they completely overlook how they can “give value” to their customers.

For example:

Joe Music Man spends 99% of his time down the rabbit hole of musical study and expression, writing, recording & cd pressing (which is great). It costs money and time…

Then when the rent is due, Joe Music Man spends 1% of the time dealing with his business model – and says “it’s hard, unfair and criminal that I have no gigs – and furthermore that musical retard Ms. So-and-So does…”

Chances are that if Ms. So-and-So is “making it” – she is providing value with their music to the person paying them, moreso that Joe Music Man. Like it or not, it’s probably true.

This is not to say she’s more talented. She’s providing more value (probably by getting more people down to her gigs.)

Czech it out! It’s GOT to be an exchange – you give value and get something in return.

Always ask yourself “what’s in it for them?”

Which Free Bonuses Would You Want with the Upcoming “How To Play Stevie Wonder Fingerstyle Guitar Volume II” DVD?

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Hey Guitar Picker!

What free bonuses YOU would like to get with the new upcoming “How to Play Stevie Wonder for Fingerstyle Guitar – Volume II” DVD?

I need ideas as to what YOU want. Not what I think you want 🙂

Here are just a few cool ideas – and you can leave an idea too!

This is a SHORT survey, with a few checkbox options – will take you less than 2 minutes!

Thanks a MILLION!

Here is the link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZDZ5YXY

All the best

Adam

The “Tweezer Technique” for Fingerstyle Guitar

By Adam Rafferty 3 Comments

Hi Gang!

Wow, it’s been a helluva travel time here…I am now back in NYC after 9 weeks on the road in Germany, Austria Belgium and Holland – and Niagra Falls.

Many loyal fans took video at gigs. When I saw this, I thought I’d finally share this “secret” technique with you.

I call it the Tweezer Technique.

Normally I don’t show this kind of stuff casually, as it took years and years to develop. But, I’ve decided it’s time to make this public – and spread the knowledge and joy to all players, and not keep this a secret any longer.

Enjoy! The Tweezer Technique can be seen at about 3:04 – but it can only be appreciated if you watch from the beginning and see “musical context” that it is in.

Feel free to use it in your own guitar playing.

[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbDENaqJY-0″]

Thanks again! keep on picking….

Adam

P.S. The Stevie Wonder Vol II Arrangements for Fingerstyle Guitar DVD will launch in about a month…so stay tuned! 🙂

How to Improve Your Guitar Sound – Mentally!

By Adam Rafferty 6 Comments

The other night while sound checking for a gig at the Vienna Mozarthaus, I found soundcheck to be very easy. Then I found the gig to be very relaxed and easy.

It’s not always been like this. What did I do right?

I’ve had nights where I’ve fought the guitar, overpowered it, beat it into submission and make it do what I want it to do, even if I am drowned in sweat.

Why was it easy 2 nights ago? Hey maybe after 5 years of heavy touring – I’m finally learning something!

This may sound trite – but it’s quite profound: I offered no “resistance” to what I was hearing. I didn’t allow a “mental concept” to disagree with “what was happening in the moment.”

This meant not worrying about what anyone thought, not feeling that I was “required” to do a tune I wasn’t in the mood for, and also meant not “planning the next tune” during the current tune.

It meant “being present.”

My warm up was groovy and easy going. I didn’t flex all my chops back stage but got playing in a groove so I could dance along, like a well greased machine. Almost as you’d expect a tennis player to warm up.

The “sound” on the gig was perfect….I simply worked with what I had and listened closely, at each moment and accepted what I heard. The more I listened and allowed, the better the sound got.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that I meditated 30 minutes in the afternoon. My daily meditation sometimes gets thrown off when I travel a lot. But, after seeing how it affected my last gig, I am determined to stay on it for the rest of the tour.

Tuning my mind to pay attention to “what’s in front of me” (i.e. the present moment), rather wanting “something else” gave me peace. No energy was wasted in “pushing against” the present moment. I could hear and feel the difference.

30 minutes of silence…try it, you’ll like it!