Bootique Cork

About three years ago I discovered V-Picks.

Vinni Smith has an acrylic formula which produces one very long wearing pick that is difficult to drop. Two of a guitarists pick related issues.

And then there is the edge of the pick - how the pick makes contact with the string. This'll determine if the pick feels fast or articulate. Sometimes the way you hold the pick will change that aspect - use the rounded corner and you're faster.

The other thing Vinni changed was the thickness of a pick.
For many years I used a Gibson Jazz pick, very thick, small and a teardrop, not a traditional shape at all.

But they wear quickly. And Gibson stopped making them. When I was down to my last few pristine picks from the gross I had purchased, I knew it was time to find something else.
I tried everything - wooden picks, picks made from stone (agate etc), and then I found the V-Picks.

First issue - wear - In three plus years I have yet to wear one out. So the price of $5 a piece is fast becoming reasonable. (Versus $1.25 for a pick that will last five or six months at best)

Second issue - as your hand gets warm the V-Pick tends to stick to your fingers. Hard to drop while onstage.

Okay, I'm in. I ordered what appeared to be the closest thing to the  Gibson I was using and waited for Nancy...Mrs.V to send my picks.
Fast service - usually I get an email from Mrs V. within 24 hours that my picks have shipped. And an ancillary note; they charge $3 to ship.
No silly $7.95 to ship a $5 pick...believe me, many places use S&H charges as revenue streams. (Don't believe me? Order something advertised on tv, and the second item is "free" if you pay the separate S&H fee - watch how high that fee is)

What I learn is the edge of this pick is different. The Gibson is virtually flat, no thickness. The V-Pick had a discernible edge to it that would alter the 'attack' of the pick depending on how I hold the pick.

I began to experiment.
2.75 mm became a default thickness for me. This is thicker than the Gibsons by two and a half times.
Then I found some 4.10 mms ($9.99) that I liked, again, it was the edge that made them more or less usable, by me. 

The thicker I go, the fast, and cleaner my arpeggios become, even some chording steps up, slap back, for instance.

So this week I just ordered my first (gulp) $15 pick. 5.85 mms of nasty.
It has a beveled edge that takes up a good portion of the outer edge.
I am now in the throes of exquisite anticipation...waiting for my Psycho (Yeah, Vinni lays on the rocker jargon a bit thick) to arrive.

Three years later I see all manner of boutique pick makers, attempting to replicate Vinni's aura.
And many seem to have interesting ideas...a twisted tip, an attachable thumb ring to make a thumb pick out of an ordinary one, et cetera. For the most part they seem to be gimmicky. Who knows?
More choices! Or just high priced snob appeal?

Art Takes Vision and Focus

Writing, music or art...they all take an idea.

Many times we have germs (use a kleenex, damnit) and run to slam them down on paper (or whatever medium you subscribe to) when in fact it is time to sit and think them out.

I can write wonderful lyrics one or two lines at a time. But music is not haiku, so I am screwed, so to speak. And then, trying to "stitch" these disparate, fragmentary thoughts into a cohesive whole.
Fogetaboudit.

A bigger picture. A larger vision.
I have a couple of childhood friends that are artists. One is a copier - a human copier. Show him and image and he can reproduce it. He used to have an artistic touch in which he'd twist the copy process with his own vision, but that has disappeared.
Another has vision. His pieces are fierce and visceral.
The difference between talent without a vision and talent consumed by a vision.

As a musician, I need to have that large sense of whole. What is the ep, lp, next grammy winner about?
Once I have that idea and flesh it out a bit...oh look, a song! Now it is prose and needs either editing or translating into poetry. But having that outline is the working beginnings.

It is easy to draw a mood for an story and sculpt a musical piece to bring forth that mood. Sad vision? Violins refrain, minor  feel with a measured pace and the tears will flow.

Musical composition, for me, is simple. Almost formulaic. I know which intervals sound; patriotic or sad or happy or how a beat of 110 bpm to 165 bpm will make the audience dance involuntarily no matter how bad the piece. (Disco anyone?)

I am McCartney - I can write a melody line you will whistle, but for me to string together coherent lyrics used to be the hard aspect.
However, just like singing while playing, it is something easily rectified. Just apply yourself, practice and, voila. It took me a good six months to become comfortable enough to sing and play in public. And ever since then it has been getting easier.

Lets see what I can whip up this summer.

(oOoOooOo - and then writing and playing, each of which is a couple of levels deep, added to singing and playing...also more than one level each...)

A Bad Day Fishing Beats a Good Day At Work

Unless you fish for a living.
A pizza joint, sports bar is not the venue of choice. No one is there to see me play. They want a slice, a beer and atmosphere. That, they got. In spades.

Over the summer I was in a club in Canada. Tiny little place and they had the brass to clear six tables of space for a band that played Herbie Hancock for an opener. A gutsy move by the pub, and I really enjoyed the band, but was it wise?

Venues have to play a particularly delicate balancing act. Licensing agreements which mean dues, or being a scofflaw. A need to fill the place with the right type of clientele. People who buy whatever it is you sell. Beer, pizza or darkness.
Neighbors complaints, parking woes, employees and the band.

As a musician I feel for all involved.It is my art, what I do. So I seek to further it when ever, where ever possible.
If the management thinks it was a good show, then it was.
If the audience thinks it was a good show, then it was.
If I think it was a good show, it doesn't matter.

But I seem to enjoy myself no matter the circumstance.
Today was too early for me to be loading the car...in a drizzle that made me cold. At a place that reeks of anything but music...a sports bar.
On a day when the venue would normally be empty.
But then, it seems the rain drove people inside and rather than stay home they were at a pizza place at noon.
God bless boredom.

The drummer is a "kid" I met at a local jam and has twice now landed a little gig where none had been before. He and I seemed to be alone. I was having fun. He was having fun. The bass player? Not so much. Dunno why the stick up his ass, but it is his issue, not mine.

We wended our way through a 60s vibe that stared with a Cream jam and ended with Blind Faith - 'Can't Find My Way Home'
There was a palpable feel, a decision to follow a path that left us both grinning.

All of this was at 'bedroom' volumes. The music had to be more quiet than the conversation at the tables.

Today, the audience and the management and two thirds of the band thought it was a good show.

When I grow up, the audience will be coming to see me.
I had such a good time fishing, today.

My Prayer

When I look down the neck,
And those things at the end of the neck are my fingertips...all six of them.

And I see nothing but a sound of bliss,
The notes flow.

When a child looks up to me,
When dad looks down to me.

A more confused road, I'll never see.
That's what I am talking about.

This is what I live for,
What I was made for, my reason.
God bless, but what I can play,
Is God speaking to, through me.

Damn, That's What I'm Talking  About.

Amen

The World Sucks And I'm Doin' Fine

Sandy Hook "truthers", the NRA, RWNJs...it's been a weird 2013 so far.
No money, nor prospects.
No gig this week. Although I can jam if I like.

And I am smiling like the Cheshire cat.Did he know something or was he just sharing the hookah with the caterpillar?

What am I doing being satisfied, content, no...much further than that - HAPPY?

I saw Barnaby Bright playing at the Hotel Cafe on Wednesday - the lovely duos name taken from the olde English for the Summer Solstice. Two very engaging singers, lovers, souls entwined  It wasn't any amazing raw talent, but that they shared something and we, the audience got to share it with them; if for only an hour. A passion and devotion, to each other & to music, to living.

I have the passions. And I have an avenue for sharing my soul, my passions...in little snatches and grabs - windows - opportunities to live. And I swim in it, revel in it, use every inch of it that I can.
Recall, I am selfish and proud of it.
Be Selfish
Better put, I understand how we have to nurture within before we can share with others.

So as the year begins, I am "not in a good place,"  as far as money and employment. But I've played three gigs, seen a good show, read a good book, what more should I ask for?

Swerve

I don't do aesthetics. I don't care what a guitar looks like if I can make music with it.
"Beautiful wood/grain," is just not in my vocabulary.

So I bought a Squire Strat.

An almost ugly, gaudy thing. Graham.

The reason I picked this one and not the Daphne blue one was...the neck on the Daphne was pale...aesthetics. (Amrack: phase in, reboot sequence - he likes the way the neck looks?)*
One thing led to another.
A gold neck plate, a gold output jack plate, a gold string tree, a gold bridge plate & gold saddles.

Gold tuners are expensive, or I'd be thinking about that as well.

Hendrix, my idol was a foppish dresser as was many of that time and place. Oh no...here I go. 

*Thank you, Robin Williams.

Thematic Playing, Now?

Some art has an easily discernible theme, other art is so abstract as to only hint at the inspiration.
Musically speaking - am I am abstract artist? A surrealist? Pointillist?

When I sat and thought about it I realized I am a stream of consciousness sort of player. At least when I am doing the "same old thing."
Engage me with other people and the thoughts and colors they introduce, the energy they feed you...and the theme becomes much more clear.
Why?

Okay, I don't know, nor do I really care,; but I realized that to think and focus on a theme was not an impossibility, it's not learning a new language. Just a bit of self discipline - to be aware of forming a theme.

Play a riff
Vary the riff by changing one note, or adding one note, or removing one note et cetera.
Each change is then built one step upon the other until we either arrive at the original riff or the "thought" ends.

Musical thoughts end at points of dynamic change; bridges, movements, choruses, verses et cetera.
By applying a little thought I found it easy to construct a solo in this fashion.
This is easier than hearing intervals on the fly and playing what I heard.

I also realized I have discovered nothing; that others have found this "truth," whether voiced or intuitively understood.

I am a guitarist but it helped me immensely to think of music as art and the style that I employ.

So, I used to be an abstract guitarist, now I paint soft landscapes...or perhaps surreal intricate patterns ala Escher.