okay so a little more about last weekend

[solarbird]

Okay, so, on Friday, I went down to Rustycon, which is a local half relaxicon/half actual SF convention - it has programming and an art show, but it's small, with a relaxicon-style con suite - mostly because they had an open filk, which is to say, open music performance environment for SF-related music. And my stuff isn't actually filk, really, but they're tolerant and friendly, which is awesome, and I managed to do ... everything except Let Me Help in front of a small number of people, which was really good as I hadn't played in front of anyone else since the first week of December, and it really showed.

Then I went back down to Rustycon to see some people on Sunday, and was hanging out in the consuite practising for Sunday night at the Wayward, and one of the con staff said, half jokingly, "hey, can we book you back for here next year?" and I was all serious and said "Yes. I have a card." And he was all "...oh! Okay!" and there was data exchange and so maybe something might come of it, assuming that guy doesn't forget in the business of load-out. (I've done this, it's easy to do.)

Sunday night's open mic at Wayward really kind of rubbed in how much I need to figure out how to learn my own damn songs so I don't need the goddamn music stand. I talked with a professional musician I know some over the weekend and he said sometimes, particularly with the kind of stuff I write (high chord complexity, low repetition), it just takes a long time. But I really, really, really need to get away from the sheet music, because when I have to look at the *@#&($&**! music folder, my performance quality drops and I lose some people and I will not have that. I won't. So I have to figure out how to make this work. (Easier said than done, ha.)

Looking forward, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Caffe Ladro open mic conflicting with Conflikt (see above "filk" and add "convention") on the last Saturday of the month. annathepiper and I want to at least one-day the con, and maybe it's a play opportunity, I dunno. We'd have pre-registered, but we didn't know whether Anna would have a job now. But she does! Yay!

Regardless, though, I'll do the Wayward again on the 25th, and the Soul Food Books open mic on February 7th. I think I'm figuring out this newest song (the one I'm currently calling BrakaBrakaBraka for reasons OFD&A and possibly Paul) and maybe I'll even have it written by then. That'd be a good goal.

Comments

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

Memorize it in sections, repeating them until yer sick to death of them and then sorta glue the parts together in your head?

Always worked for me!

[solarbird]

Not as functional for me, sadly. (My memory is broken, I take meds for it.)

[maellenkleth]

Practice time hint: play as far as you can not looking at the music. Stop. Flag that point, look at it hard. Then restart from the beginning not looking at the music again.

Works for me with Bach and Bohm, which are high-engagement pieces where I do not have the free hand to turn pages of the score. A trick from the classics: there are common breakpoints, sub-movement points more accurately, where one has to 'shift gears' and commonly hits troubles in learning. Look for those in your music and flag them at the outset -- those are the maybe 4 or 6 bars to really work on, almost like building a patch over a potholed road.

Anyway, given freely for what it's worth, would love to see you ditch the music stand and be able to really get into your stuff, because it is good.

And the part about not accepting the loss of audience attention, grokked in abundance, although perhaps for quite different reasons.

[solarbird]

Regarding the hint; I'm familiar with the technique, but it's not effective as yet in real life.

how to get to Carnegie Hall.....

[maellenkleth]

I practice about half an hour after slugging back my daily dose of nootropics. That particular timing seems to help. Either it's the pills at work, or I am just a very talented geriatric quail (you've heard the recordings, can most quail play Bach and Bohm from memory?)

Anyway, good luck. ^_^