Adam Rafferty’s Blog – Guitar and Spirit

Groove is Another Form of Love

I heard a fabulous youtube “satsang” talk the other day by a fellow whom I follow online named Burt Harding. He’s a lovely guy from Canada who teaches people about awareness, love and the effortlessness “being” a human “being”.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awJTBeZfoc]

His talks are full of insights, some of which I myself have experienced, and I am sure you have too. I particularly love seeing how self realizations are similar to musical realizations.

In a day and age where music schools and computers boil music down to concrete elements, we must remember that the silent spirit in between the notes is the true life and soul of music.

Burt was talking about this idea of not really always being able to experience the now moment, even though we talk about the “now” so often. We find ourselves on a road either looking ahead to the future or back to the past. Like driving a car, we look ahead and back constantly.

What then, is the way to be in the present moment? How can we get out of this time-line way of being. Remember – the time line is not “out there” in reality, it’s “in here” – in our heads. That’s how our average waking state is, and that’s how we were created.

Burt presses the question of “how can we be present” and gives an answer.

Love takes us out of this and brings us to an entirely different dimension. Wow. Heavy information! A state of love brings us into a timeless dimension, and busts up this “timeline” paradigm completely.

We’ve all experienced that when we love someone, something, an animal, or what we do – time slips away. I myself forget to eat when I am playing my instrument, so I know this first hand.

And then it came to my mind, how I see the constant error of musicians thinking that music in reality is like it appears paper, and that a metronome with beats spaced apart makes a perfect dribble of equally spaced beats – making so called perfect time. Nothing could be “wronger” 🙂

When you slip deep into musical joy, it is another form of this love – which lifts one up out the timeline completely and effortlessly. A “timeless” dimension is perceived and presence is a glowing effortless now moment.

I then thought about so many experiences I have had – dancing with people (chicks mainly!) at college DJ parties and in an instant feeling a sense of “loving” them spontaneously. The same for musicians…I have been in clubs where I ended up on stage with musicians whom I never met before, and love was present when we played even though we never spoke a word.

Groove is one of the fruits provided by the tree of love!

It’s a “zone” I am talking about which can’t be known by the mind, it must be experienced. If you’ve ever loved anyone or anything fully – a real groove feels just like that. No future, no past….just a warm loving big fat funky “now” moment. Like a downbeat with a gorgeous tone.

What is Your Ideal Listener Profile?

By Adam Rafferty 7 Comments

Disclaimer: This is in no way intended to step on anyone’s toes. I love all styles of music. This blog post is about musicians awareness of “giving value” to their listeners, regardless of style or instrument.

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In case you don’t know it. I was a stone cold, bebopping, jazz guitar player with a big old archtop guitar, running around NYC and playing every show, rehearsal and session I could get to.

It was a hectic and underpaid life for many reasons . But now I am happier and more successful now than every before . I will delve into the shift that changed my life, in this post.

I switched to fingerstyle guitar for many reasons. I felt the urge to entertain people, first and foremost. Entertaining gives me more joy than anything. The entire shift was brought about by asking myself “for whom am I playing?

My life changed…I stopped caring what other musicians thought, and started caring what the audience thought.

These days I see many musicians play and not “keep the audiences attention” for various reasons. The musicians are usually beyond excellent, so what’s the problem here?

I have a question for you . Are people talking through your gig? Are you holding their attention?

In no way am I suggesting that you or anyone change what they are doing to what I do. I am however encouraging you and other musicians to ask themselves why they are doing what they do.

The question each musician must answer – with utter honesty is “For whom am I playing? Who is my ideal listener? Who am I trying to impress? What is my ultimate musical goal?”

Our sense of survival is our deepest fear and psychological button. Back before jazz schools a MUSICIANS SURVIVAL was based on entertaining.

Fortunately, I was in many bands with leaders who came up in the era of entertainment being a MUST, and if I did not rise to the occasion, I lost my gig and did not eat.

I can remember in Harlem a band leader threatening me to stop practicing and entertain the “room” or else I’d be fired. GULP! And I remember bored faces of bar patrons “light up” when I stopped playing a million notes and started playing the blues.

That is called a FIRE under the ASS, as it were. ‘Scuse my French.

If you are trying to impress:

– Other musicians
– Teachers
– Yourself, to see how you stack up
– Other musicians on the internet, Youtube, etc

That means….YOU BLEW IT! You forgot about the most important people – the PUBLIC. Ok, that’s simply my opinion – but check it for yourself!

What’s really confusing though is that when you are in school, you feel like your SURVIVAL depends on the approval of peers and teachers….and impressing them becomes the goal. That’s why music school has nothing to do with preparing you the real world environment of music.

Regular people, not musicians, are your main audience!!!! Make this your mantra.

Regular people need to like what you do. Regular people need to feel good when you play.

Take a Lesson from Marketers

Anyone marketing a product knows that they need their ICP – Ideal Customer Profile. Well, think about your listener as if they were a customer. Who is your listener? What age, gender, financial bracket, etc are they? How much of society do they make up? Where do they hang out? And so on….

The idea of whom one is playing music for is so deeply ingrained in a musicians playing approach, it literally permeates EVERY note that a musician plays. And if you’ve spent years playing for other musicians – everything regarding your tone, time touch and concept are over there.

It can feel downright weird to play music for the “audience” if you are in that other zone. I can “hear” whom a musician is playing for as if they told me in plain English.

I am not talking about the musical skill. I am talking about the breath of life which permeates the musical thought, and intent behind the music.

I showed my girlfriend (who is not a musician) two jazz quartet videos – one old (1960’s) and one new (current) and she said “the new one – they all sound like they are playing their own thing and it is not matching up the way the old one does”.

No one could be further from understanding music than her – but she did hear the main difference!!!! Food for thought, kids.

So let’s close with the questions to ask yourself:

For whom am I playing?
Why am I playing music?
What is my ultimate goal in playing music?
Would I rather be “the best” or see “happiness” in my audience?

Write a full description of your ideal listener – sex, age, eductaion, financial bracket – whatever you want. (This will tune you to thinking about THEM instead of YOU.)

What reaction do you want from them? (Hint – joy is the right answer, thinking YOU are awesome is the wrong answer.)

In Conclusion

Be a giver, not a taker! Wake up this way, go to sleep this way, practice music this way and talk this way. Amen.

A Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson from Drummer Alvin Queen

By Adam Rafferty 14 Comments

Greetings!

I am once again, sitting on a German train, heading east to a town called Magdeburg…only thank goodness this time there is no volcano, and my commute will be 5 hours instead of 15.

“Thanks for the memories…”

But I digress…

I just had the first of 2 train rides and got 2 nice hours of warmup and practice in on the first train. Acoustic guitar is luxurious in that it is quiet enough to practice on a train, and no one else hears it due to all the ambient noise. Not many instruments can be practiced just about anywhere!

Last night’s show was a hit, and I am feeling the repertoire deepen, become more natural, less forced and more groovy. There is a maturing process that repertoire goes through, and the maturing can’t be rushed.

Learning an arrangement is a lot like chopping up veggies for soup. You can throw all the ingredients in, but as the saying goes, “it ain’t soup yet”. Living with your songs and arrangemest is like letting the soup simmer and letting the flavors mix. Night after night you get to investigate new angles, moods, ideas – and fingerings.

As I pracitced today I thought back to a brief but critical music lesson that I’d like to share with you. Not only does it have musical meaning, but philosophical meaning as well, which just tickles me.

Last year I had the honor of playing with jazz master drummer Alvin Queen. He’s the best there is in my opinion. He was Oscar Peterson’s last drummer and there are many good drummers – but I and all the musicians will tell you, “theres only one Queen”.

Alvin and I were having coffee and he started telling me about how he teaches drums to students. Mind you, he is “old school”. Nope you won’t find him on a “school faculty” – you’ll find him schooling you and everybody who plays with him.

Adam Rafferty and Alvin Queen on Tour 2009 – Switzerland

“I tell students to play 3/4 time with their feet. I let them play for a while and then tell them to add their hands. 99.999% of the time, the moment the hands come in, the feet sound weak and fall apart. That’s our starting point. Get the feet solid and never ever leave the groove. The rest is icing on the cake.”

This made me think “how does this apply to guitar?”.

Duh. It didn’t take long for me to realize that in many of my arrangements the “notes” sound great and I have enough technique to play it, but something felt like it was missing. Hmm.

The THUMB!!! If I could treat the thumb like a drummer would treat the feet, allowing that to be the heartbeat, and never, ever, ever, EVER leave or lighten up on the pulse when the fingers enter…well let’s just say a whole new world opened up to me. Easier said than done!

I must emphasize I am not talking about having good “time” – I mean “groove”. Most guitarists can simply alternate their thumb, but to put that right hand thimb – deep, deep in the pocket, and not lose that – is art. Any musician can count…but not every musician can make other people feel a groove, and that – for me, is the goal.

Sure enough, the first time I got to play with Tommy Emmanuel we were backstage and it was 2 minutes before his show was happening. He was in the dressing room with me firing up his version of “Locomotivation” and said “I just gotta get this down in the pocket, that’s all that counts”. Off he ran to open his show and I then hears the same thing blasting from the stage.

Like this:

So, today I practiced my tunes but made sure that heartbeat was there, not just in my imagination but in that thumb. Practicing very slowly also helps this.

This requires honesty with oneself. Can you sing the drum part to what you are playing? Do you know exactly what the groove should be?

Put your arrangements in the pocket, play a ferocious groove and you will be a happy camper! Get that thumb solid and groovy! By paying attention to this your music can deepen greatly.

Now…git to work! 🙂

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Playing Guitar True To Oneself

By Adam Rafferty 8 Comments

We’ve all heard plenty of expressions, axioms and words of wisdom regarding “being true to oneself”. As a solo performer, I am finding this to be extremely important.

A few months ago I took a fascinating course called PSYCH-K. No it’s not a breakfast cereal for mental patients, it’s a method to help change or replace subconscious beliefs. What a cool class it was.

I found many interesting and fascinating similarities to my studies and experiences of playing music in the class teachings. Particularly in regard to what musicians and athletes think of as “the inner game”.

The method used by PSYCH-K to test what your beliefs are is called “muscle testing”. While it may not seem totally scientific, the premise is that your subconscious does in fact, know the truth and that before your conscious mind can BS an answer – your muscles know tell the truth about what you feel deep down.

By muscle testing for a strong or weak response, you get an answer from your subconscious mind. I have shown this test process to many friends and they laugh in amazement when I do it on them and it tests accurately.

After showing the testing technique to us in class, they showed us to install new beliefs in our minds. After the “installation”, we then tested to see if these beliefs were true to our subconscious minds.

What strikes me is this similarity to playing music: if I play music that for some reason I don’t believe in, or question in some way – I play weak, just like a weak muscle test. I may be able to fool some of those around me, but I know internally, the sensation of playing “weak” vs playing “strong”. A variety of factors can make music feel weak or not right.

When you hear someone playing “strong” – it may not be loud and fast, but it is a through and through conviction and honesty. What happens then is that a vehicle for much greater communication is created. The musical communication that the player and audience experience together is one of total “integration”.

The notes become a vehicle for non verbal communication. The communication is beyond the notes of the music. The mind of the performer then connects in a positive, confident, loving way to the minds of the audience.

There are a couple of ways to achieve this. I give this advice to myself as much as to you, dear reader!

1) Play music that moves you, not what you think you should play to be “accepted”, or “cool” or part of some group or “clique” of people. (If you are getting paid to play music you don’t like at least search for the “good feeling place” in the music.) It must ring in you as “true”. I.E. You can’t fool anybody! Truth is apparent for all to see and hear.

2) Practice. The more you practice, the more your subconscious has the images, sensations and sounds of the performance. When you actually move into performance, you will be saying “yes” to the images and sensations and sounds as they come and they will feel “true”.

As well, you will undergo a process of weeding out fingerings and sounds that test weak and arrive at strength and truth.

3) Set list or not? Lately I have performed with no set list and simply trusted that whatever song should come next will reveal itself to me. That’s a question of personal preference.

If I have a song on a list, but have a feeling about the “truth” of what should happen in this moment, I’d rather go with the feeling. I can’t predict moments of inspiration and audience communication, and choosing the right tune is part of being in the moment.

4) Integrating the right and left hemispheres of the brain prior to the gig, and in each practice session. This is kind of a huge topic, but achieving a “whole brain state” is optimal and even required for performing. I am convinced that much of what my mentor Mike Longo taught me in regards to rhythm “activates” a whole brain state.

I try to teach musical techniques in classes to help students achieve this.

5) Some tunes just never feel “right”.

I have had tunes that I “think I should do” or styles I “think” I should play. I have even taken songs and practiced them every day for a year and found that because they were not registered as “the truth” in my mind, they just never seemed to work on a gut level.

A good point to bring up here is “who is the I that thinks this”. This could be the ever insistent ego in disguise! When you are immersed in music so there’s only music and no “you”….you are likely on the right track!

On the other hand, I have discovered music in an instant that rings of “the truth”. That music always feels good to play – and the focus is the music and only the music. And, the music that the audience likes and remembers is the music that feels like “the truth”. What a coincidence 🙂

What is true and right for another performer may not be true and right for you 🙂

A Recap….To Thine Own Self Be True

So – enjoy being true and honest with your music. Your audiences will appreciate it and your work will be play. Even if you can’t yet play a hard piece or arrangement you are working on…if you love it enough and it rings true to you, it will reveal itself to you in time!

Until next time, keep swingin!

Adam

When You Change One Thought You Change Everything

By Adam Rafferty 5 Comments

Yesterday I heard a fascinating message from author and lecturer Gregg Braden as I was looking for interesting quantum-physics type stuff on youtube.

Mr. Braden talks often about the “holgraphic nature” of the universe. Before you start yawning and thinking this is about to be “quantum dribble” read on – this affects you right now and has for your entire life!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ih3RoDASkw]

You may have seen a holograph on a keychain. Due to light inteference patterns a 3D image is created on a 2D surface. Don’t ask me to explain this to you.

By the way they’ve now figured out how to do this with people – this is too much… Princess Leia, watch out!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOxW19vsTg]

What’s fascinating about holographs is that every part of the holograph has the entire image in it….see exceprt from dictionary.com:

‘Appropriately enough, the word hologram comes from the Greek words holos, “whole,” and gramma, “message.” If a hologram is cut into pieces, each piece projects the entire image, but as if viewed from a smaller subset of angles. ‘

Gregg Braden adds:

‘A holograph is whole and complete unto itself, while is part of an even greater pattern. For example, one cell of your body is whole and complete, and has all the info needed to create another body.’

Wow. Reality gets even weirder when you consider the spiritual implications. If we look at consciousness as holographic in nature, then we are truly one, all viewing reality from a different angle. Just like your finger and nose are not separate…neither are all of us.

Braden goes further and says:

“Anyplace in a hologram where one change is made, it is mirrored throughout the rest of the Hologram.”

Okay…actually this is what caught my attention…if all of what has said thus far is true, one can assume that:

Anything You do or think changes everything
Anything You do or think changes your life
Anything You do or think affects everybody else

The old way of thinking about a “separate me” and the idea that you can do something “in secret” gets blown out of the water. Everything affects everything.

It’s also inspiring to know that engaging (or not engaging) in an activity or thought pattern even just a little bit, will change your life…for example these quick little things will change everything your life:

for better…
10 minutes of meditation
30 minutes of exercise
positive self talk
listening to uplifting music
cleaning up the house
reading

for worse…
having one cigarette
watching violent or graphic tv or video
negative self talk
giving into laziness
believing you are separate from others

It’s just amazing to think that itty bitty little things affect our whole lives and everyone around us.

It certainly inspires me to “straight up and fly right” more and more knowing that what I think are my “silent thoughts” could and do affect people all over the globe.

Any little thing you do changes everything.

Anything you do effects everyone.

Your truth is broadcast everywhere.

There is nowhere to hide.

Until next time, keep swingin!!!

Adam