Guitar

What is Your Ideal Listener Profile?

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.

=-=-=-=-=-=-

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! 🙂

Insert Image

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

Guitar Spotlight: Soenke Meinen

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

On my last tour in Germany I made it over to the Frankfurt Musik Messe and hung out in the Acoustic Guitar “Section” of the fair. Maton Guitars, Lakewood Guitars and Acoustic Music were all within walking distance of each other.

It was a blast!!! Since I play Maton guitars as my primary instrument, I spent quite a lot of time over by them.

Then I stumbled upon this fellow, Soenke Meinen who blew me away.

Many of his old videos are no longer on YouTube, but here’s one of his most famous current tunes:

Soenke and I chatted. He knew me from youtube, so we took turns playing at the booth. What a nice kid! And he’s young. Uh oh, us semi-old farts had better keep practicing! 🙂

As legend has it, Soenke was a devoted classical guitar student and at precisely the time that his teacher fell ill and announced he could no longer teach him, Soenke just happened to go to a Tommy Emmanuel concert for the first time.

The rest is history, or at least the beginning of it!

What struck me about Soenke was the calm, relaxed, poise with which he plays. His technique was “poetry in motion” – which is something I strive for. I could hear a depth and a knowledge of music.

A lot of young players these days start out by playing “Tommy” – which really is fine. We all climb the musical mountain in different ways. In Soenke’s case I was really excited to hear a kid with great technique and a solid grasp of harmony and proper voice leading – and a lyricism that touched my heart.

He played a bunch of original songs when I heard him. They were very Tommy Emmanuel “inspired”. Maybe a voicing here and there, a strum here and there were reminiscent of the great Tommy…but the “compositions” were his and there is a serious composer here!

Sonke has a great sense of song form and melody. The phrasing makes sense…in fact – I truly would love to learn some of the kid’s songs! He’s the real thing.

Soenke surprised me the just other day, via Youtube. He smashed a bunch of my licks and ideas together, then added his own magic…and created a tune called “Adam’s Groove”. Here is a live version of it. (Dang, he’s gigging with this tune…that deserves a 2nd thank you)

Thanks Soenke!

Guitar Practice Techniques to Program Your Subconcious Mind

By Adam Rafferty 14 Comments

Greets friends! I am back in the oven known as August in New York after a very nice 14 days on the west coast.

An interesting thing happened at a guitar class/lecture/performance and I’d like to share it with you. My good friend Frank teaches an evening guitar class at a college in the Bay Area, and I got to do a Q&A and playing session for one of his classes.

I find it hard to speak and perform in the same setting. It’s like I don’t know whether I am in the left brain or right brain zone. When I finally got down to performing that night, I had what I consider to be an unacceptable memory slip on a tune that I have played a million times – “Billie Jean”. Partially because of the mental zone, but also due to preparation.

Recently I upgraded the chorus to fit the phrasing of the original song better, and the newer different fingering was new enough that it still required conscious control. I had yet to get the new fingering into the subconscious so that the fingers just “go there”.

I don’t think anyone else except Frank knew. My mind went blank for a split second for the fingering of the chorus of the song due to the newness of the fingering. I played the melody with chord forms under it and got right back on…but I thought to myself “I gotta drive this down even deeper into my subconscious – first thing tomorrow!”

I wasn’t angry, did not beat myself up, and the performance was just fine from the audiences point of view. However, this flaw was to be addressed in my next practice sessions.

(There’s nothing like performing to show you what you need to practice 🙂

I decided to use some of the techniques I’ve learned from success coach Brian Tracy to drive this tune deep to the level of never ever botching it ever again. These motivational techniques are nice to “hear” but I decided to use them and see if they worked any differently from standard “practicing”.

Here’s a recent video of Billie Jean live where I am in performance mode! No problems here….just a lot of heat that day:

1) Make it the #1 Priority

Sounds simple, but I made this the #1 priority in my life for a few days. It’s one of my most requested tunes, so it deserves this attention. How often do we know we need to make something a priority and then allow small things to get in the way? This was (and is still) priority #1 until it is bulletproof.

2) Use Positive Self Talk

I carefully guarded my speech and said over and over “I play Billie Jean perfectly. I nail it to the wall. My version of Billie Jean is flawless.”

I gave energy to the positive vision, not the negative. You dig?

3) Visualization

I went to sleep visualizing the right left hand fingering. This was hard!!! Every time I woke up out of sleep, I tossed and turned and only visualized the right fingering! I flooded my mind with the right visual.

4) Practice in 15 Minute Time Chunks

Brian Tracy says somewhere that our minds pick up the most at the beginning and end of practice sessions. I practiced for a few days, and for each 15 minute chunk of practice I played the chorus to Billie Jean. 15 minute chunks do more for your mind than an hour straight he says.

That’s it. Practice makes perfect…now get to work!!!! As soon as I hit the post button it’s practice time.

– Adam