Guitar

Stillness at 7am and Pervading Peace

Greetings Friends.

It’s about 7 am, and I am enjoying my first sips of hot fresh coffee…the streets of Queens are quiet and only half of the street is seeing the first rays of today’s sun….

This past week was fabulous. I had a knockout gig at Acoustic Long Island, spent time with my family, had some “working musician” type gigs, and today I leave for Nashville to hang out at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society yearly gathering.

Life is good. I am at peace. I am fortunate to wake up every day to infinite possibilities. I am blessed to have a worthwhile goal of playing this guitar as good as I can.

It’s really not all about “guitar” though. I am lucky and fortunate in life to see meaningful goals ahead of me, and I get to spend my time and energy every day realizing those goals. I have made decisions and sacrifices to set up that type of lifestyle.

To witness the unfolding of it all is breathtaking. To see that I, as a human, have the ability to visualize something and bring it into being is an awesome feeling.

A few years ago I envisioned playing solo acoustic guitar for people and knocking ’em out. To see that the “vision” has materialized means I can create my reality, I can do it – whether it is a house, car, career – anything – I can do it. And, I’ll never “get there”…it’s all a delicious process.

Success is the “delicious unfolding” of one’s desires. Success is living on purpose, rather than default.

I get to wake up every day and feel this good. That is wealth, abundance and success. I wish this for everyone.

When I talk to friends and family, and I see their confusion, not knowing the career direction they want, or frustration, the comparing to others and feeling like they are falling short, not looking good enough, and all the typical psycho spiritual ailments of common folks, I want to tell them……

Turn the TV off.
Turn the laptop off.
Get quiet.
Be still.
Breathe.
Allow restlessness to arise, but stay there.
Allow the chatter to go on, it is it’s own thing. It’s not you.
Watch what happens when it stops.
Bathe in the silence.
Breathe.
Listen.

Do this twice a day for 30 minutes and watch your life change.

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Time to pack…see you in Nashville!!!

Huh? Licensing & Copyrights On The Web? I thought is was FREE?

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

About two weeks ago I completed guitar tabs for some VERY well known pop tunes that I play that youtubers had requested non-stop. Just check out my youtube channel and take an educated guess as to which tunes 🙂

After painstakingly writing tablature for my own arrangements I figured I’d give out lessons on fragments and sell them.

Whoa…not so fast Buddy! Even though the arrangements are original, the tune is someone else’s, and I’d need licensing rights from the print publisher.

I yanked the stuff immediately, and wondered what the future will bring…

Publishers and record companies are SCRAMBLING to stay afloat!!! In fact, they have even yanked a guitar teacher off youtube for teaching chords to Rolling Stones tunes!

Executives have been screwing musicians so long, it’s great to see that exploiting musicians is no longer a lucrative business for them. What is worrisome though is that the public can also get around paying the musicians for their stuff…

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This got me thinking – how the heck will music, video and any other printed material that is intellectual property be protected? Or is the “stuff”, the material simply now an “advert” to sell a service?

For example, should a musician or band give away mp3’s and videos and lessons online to get their audience down to gigs and workshops? Do the gurus give it away free and get people to the seminars? Are recordings now like TV interviews? The minute you charge even a penny, you are out of the “FREE” fast lane, and viewers / surfers will check out the FREE stuff overr your item that costs a penny.

Here is the BIG problem. An artist, musician, author cannot survive if they can’t sell stuff. If all I can get paid for is the gig or lesson I am on at this moment, that’s no good. I have to be able to sell products too! I deserve to write a book, make a vid, or record a tune and sell it.

It’s a funny little turning point…for someone who is not known, the web is great for “getting out there”…but what about an established band, author, teacher? They are getting robbed if they cannot sell their stuff. Or, is the viral “everyone can share it” approach the best approach?

If you are a user you most likely love the FREE aspect of the web. But, I want you to go do your job for FREE for a week. If you sell products or services, give them away for FREE and see how that makes you feel!

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A POSSIBLE BRAINSTORM, and what do you think of it?

Since computer OS’s upgrade constantly and we need new machines every few years to keep up with the ever incrreasing software needs, I think this issue lies in the hands of the software companies (Apple’s I tunes, Adobe PDF and other companies).

Every document / mp3 / video will need a fingerprint that checks a big database in the sky to see if the computer is licensed to play the file. This will also trickle to ipods, iphones, etc.

(Itunes is attempting this.)

Each inventor/ author / musician / company will be able to log into the database and set prices, track users. Or companies, if they are advertising the artist.

So let’s say I create a new mp3 and post it on my web site for FREE. Go get it, no problem…

I go to my account and register the tune, and say to the database “YEP it is FREE”.

User listens and enjoys.

I go back and say “Hmm. 100,000 downloads? Time to set the price to 99 cents, for the slice of people who really want it .” Or, set a 6 month trial period on the tune so that after 6 months they gotta pay.

The next time the user goes to listen to the tune, they see that it now costs 99 cents. The software does the checking. Depending on artists, services, publishers, promotion the 99 cents gets divided up.

So the onus is on Itunes , Adobe PDF and the host of other reader / player applications to control the copyright infringement I think.

No doubt the spy vs spy element will remain, people will do various “save as” techniques or use text files to pry files open but I see no other way.

The player / viewer application just has to say “nope, I won’t play or show the file”.

I am looking forward to your thoughts and curious to see where this goes…

The Importance of Art and The Excellence of Tommy Emmanuel

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Friends, last night I went to go see Tommy Emanuel perform at NYC’s Highline Ballroom. I feel like I don’t even need to say it – it was awesome, one of the best shows I have ever seen. It had variety, virtuosity, groove, highs & lows in intensity.

He had guest performers, he had stories, and jokes. All bound together with the glue of his unbelievable guitar playing.

In short, he gives you an “experience” and does not just “play the guitar well”.
As you know by now, this man has changed my life – and I am one of many people whom he has affected. As you can see in my videos & hear on the mp3’s I plan on “doing something” with this inspiration.

What needs to be noted I think is this: great art and music shows us how EXCELLENT we are as humans, and points to how excellent we can be. Many things show us our excellence also – athletics, invention, science, writing – to name a few.

But to see someone “take it to the limit” shows us the unbelievable depth of the human mind and spirit is a treat, a joy – and much needed today in the age of ”
too much of digital everything.”

On the “meet & greet” line I was practically in tears. I thanked Tommy for his music. I had overheard him saying to the guy ahead of me how he wanted “people to walk out of the show spiritually uplifted”.

Well he spiritually uplifted my girlfriend so much I told her I’d get his number for her 🙂

Seriously though, this brings a Biblical story to mind. There was a story about how Jesus went nuts and overturned tables at a temple that had become a market place, saying something about what they had done to his “Fathers House”.

When I hear all the crapola music that’s out there it makes me want to overturn tables. But, the over promotion of musicians who have hardly practiced, who offer nothing spiritually in their music does serve a purpose. It is the perfect backdrop for when the “real thing” comes along.

Thank you Universe, God, Source for bringing us real artists and messengers who show us the “excellence” that lies buried deep in all human beings.

Music and Magic

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, boy did I love magic. I practiced sleight of hand card and coin moves for hours in front of a mirror. Many of the most stressful moments in my childhood were the dropping of quarters in the middle of english or social studies class when there’d be a hiccup in a sleight of hand move behind my desk! 🙂

I used to go down to this shop in the city “Lou Tannens” https://www.tannens.com/shop/featured.php and watch the older magicians demo their new tricks and ideas on each other. My mother kept telling me I couldn’t be a magician and it was horrible to hear. In retrospect magicians are much like musicians – they do gigs, sell information products (sometimes buying a routine in booklet form can cost $15) or sometimes a gizmo that is the trick itself (product).

In any case, as a jazz / blues improvising type guitar player, the greater “fabric” of the music is kind of an ongoing “weave” of musical groove and feel. If you are playing in a jazz band, (or any other type of jam situation) the “content” is the 32 bar (give or take) tune, and most of the music you then hear is the “process” of improvising. Many other types of music (classical, rock & roll Broadway, and yes – fingerstyle guitar) are more “set”. The content is completely rehearsed, polished and planned. It is more like “a bag of tricks”, if you will.

Both approaches to music are valid and limitless. Funny, on tour I saw that I have these arrangements – particularly the Stevie Wonder medley, and the improviser voice in my head would say “oh man, not this same old stuff again?”

I used the analogy of David Copperfield to understand why I am playing these set arrangements to explain to myself and other jazz musicians what I am doing. Sure, I am in the moment and present as I play the songs, but it’s like the last big David Copperfield trick of the night – where he vanishes, appears, dies, comes back to life, etc. Think of the rehearsal, the planning, staging, etc. that goes into that! It has to be set, not improvised – in order to work. In fact it is “orchestrated”!

Many fans have asked me for written out versions of my “musical magic tricks”, since posting Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and “I Wish” on youtube. I have just finished the PDFs for all you guitar players to learn, and plan to post them within the week.

More tricks for your guitar bag are coming!

See you soon!

Is the picture out there, or in here?

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Greetings. I am on the plane back from Germany, just having performed with the Bennie Wallace 10 piece band. We did 2 concerts, but last night’s concert was at “Semperoper” – an unbelievably prestigious, beautiful concert hall, very much like Carnegie Hall – only much older and historic! Pics on myspace.

Before I go on (and this is not lip service) it was an honor to play with these 9 very, very excellent musicians. Yes, every one has a spark of genius, and it was a wake up call to never stop in the quest for excellence and musical understanding, ability and humility. I am honored that these guys would have me play with them as a peer.

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I watch my mind during my tours and gigs, and not only try to play great music, but to grow mentally and spiritually. There are always tough moments for me when I travel. They are mostly internal, and they give me the chance for growth.

2 nights ago, I found myself listening to some talks by Alan Watts on my laptop – he’s a well known scholar of Buddhism and eastern philosophy, and he was a key figure in explaining eastern ideas to westerners. He’s got this dry English accent and wit that make him fun to listen to. A night later, I stumbled on a “teachings of the Buddha” alongside the Bible in my hotel night-stand droor. Yeah Germany – you’re getting hip! As always, teachings were appearing before me as I needed them.

The previous tour in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky brought up in me a lot of “aversion”, a feeling of “pushing away”. Please don’t get me wrong if you were there and enjoyed the music – playing the music was a blast. However, I experienced this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was just wrong and dealt with dissatisfaction, fear and doubt more than usual. Bravo – it pushed me out of my comfort zone, and resistance to the present moment arose. Time to grow!

We all do this when we are on line waiting for a slow cashier. It’s a “no”, a push that we feel inside. So I felt “no, I deserve more money, better hotels, more recognition, more publicity, easier travel” and so on. I made myself unhappy for much of it. I was grasping for “something better”.

In contrast, last night I stayed at the Hilton in Dresden, played with stellar musicians, in the most prestigous place I have ever played, got payed well and ate like a king. My feeling was, “wow ,of course this is cool, but it simply is what it is. I am here. So this is what I have been grasping for? It’s still me and my guitar, my mind, my fingers and I have to do my best. This is just as much NOW as Kentucky was NOW. Different, but not really, because I am always here in the NOW!”

It’s very hard to describe, but I saw a MAJOR flaw and built in guaranteed misery for all of us humans in the whole grabby-grasping for the things we want, and the pushing away of the things we don’t want. And magically, a book on Buddhism appeared in front of me.

I want to be serene more than I want anything. I guess I still want the pleasure, but there is a wide-awake delectability when there is calm, peace and acceptance. It’s a joy that is quiet and still – and always there if the tornado of the mind chills out!!! It’s a greater pleasure than a vacation, money, or ego inflation. It is the backdrop of inner peace.

The little Buddhism book from the hotel says many perfect things, but here’s the one closest to what I felt when I looked at this push-pull in my own mind:

“People grasp at things for their own imagined convenience and comfort; They grasp at wealth and treasure and honors; they cling desperately to mortal life.

They make arbitrary distinctions between existence and non-existence, good and bad, right and wrong. For people, life is a succession of graspings and attachments, and then, because of this , they must assume the illusions of pain and suffering.”

Can YOU see that attachment to the “good things” leads to misery when they are not there? Can you see that grasping to re-create a past experience is the hell of grasping, and that the present offers all that you’d need? Can you see that getting a nice big fat ego boost and enjoying it makes you thirst and kill for the next ego boost, which vanishes like a mirage?

Thank you life, for being the greatest teacher of all. See you tomorrow.