So much to say, so little to talk about

A lot has been happening around the place lately. If anything, there hasn't been time to rest, or blog for that matter. However, I decided to update my small but significant readership (read: fans) with some updates of what's doin'.

Today I went to a friends son birthday party. His 1st one of his life. The strong little guy was born 3 months premature and my friend and his wife spent just about that period of time waiting for the little guy to reach a certain weight before being allowed to leave the hospital.

My friend sent me update photos every now and then. Images of the little mans hand wrapped around my friends finger nail. He was about as small as the palm of your hand. It was amazing how tiny he was and such a survivor, such a trooper.

In other news, the other day I got a call from a real estate agent who I saw about a place for my music school, and we negotiated a rental agreement. However, he went to the owners of the premises and came back to me with the original offer he gave me. In other words, they aren't interested in negotiating.

The thing is, I want to try and get it as cheap as possible. But at the same time, it's pretty reasonably priced to begin with. So I might try to offer another term on the lease of the place and see if they budge.

Better news; I have two more guitar students who have started lessons with me, and one of my existing students has just passed Stage 1 of his tuition. 6 more stages to go with his junior level, then 4 senior levels and he can get a Diploma in Music.

I was approached by a local council to put in an offer for an event that will promote the Fair they plan on holding in a local park, and wanted me out the front with a drum circle to promote peoples interest to the Fair, ask the on-lookers to participate and then head into the Fair to see what other people are showcasing.

I sent them a quote, offering my drum circle at a highly reduced price, in the vein that I will be heavily promoting the music school and making a tremendous amount of contacts.

They contacted me the following day saying YES! and then asked me if there was anything I needed to help with the drum circle. So I asked how many chairs they think I need to bring. They said they'll provide the chairs. I asked if I can set up a marque? They said one will be provided.

In fact the only thing I need to do is turn up, bring my drums, djembes and cajones and make sure I have a ton of business cards, pamphlets and a sign that says who I am so people are aware of Revolution Guitars.

A brilliant opportunity that I can't pass up. Hopefully the discount I offered help get the job, and even more hopeful that it pays off with clientele. Fingers crossed.

On the gig front, Craig and I have played a few more gigs, and we had a chat the other day about really starting to get paid for the gigs we play. That would be nice. The reception we're getting from the gigs we play has been good. So hopefully we can start organising some paid work there. Craig and I enjoy playing music together, so it would be great if we start getting some money for the hard work we've done to make this happen. I'm working on a MySpace page that has nothing on it at the moment. So bare with the sparcity of the site right now, but we will have some more videos and music up on it soon that I think you'll like.

Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing philosophical to say this time around. Nothing special, just life updates and happenings.

My First Lesson

Today marks a new beginning.

Today marks the day I became a guitar teacher. It's been a long time waiting. It's been one of those things you realise one day and keep in the back of your head. It's one of those things you say you'll get around to. Something you'll do later.

Screw that. I did it now. And I had one of the most fulfilling experiences today when I spent 30 minutes with a young kid who wanted to learn how to play guitar.

I won't go into details of how the lesson was conducted. But it was great to be able to relate to a child (being childish myself), and him understanding me. His biggest issue with guitar lessons was how boring they were. So I told him we won't be doing boring stuff. But we will have to cover some key elements on how to play guitar. How to hold it properly. How to strum and pick.

He asked me some great questions, like why does the note go higher when you play closer to the sound hole? And, what are the dots on the fretboard?

The most fascinating part about the lesson was the ending. Instead of me saying "Thanks for today, see you next week" Which is what I usually tell my clients in IT.... who are generally not pleased to see me because me being there means they're spending too much money. I have to say it to them only to hear it back. Otherwise I'll just get a "bye"

Today, this kid said to me "Thanks for the lesson, I learnt a lot. See you next Wednesday at 6PM"

I give him and his mother a "You're welcome, it was my pleasure, see you next week" and I walked to my car..... with the biggest, cheesiest grin. I thought to myself, "Why am I smiling like a dork?" Why shouldn't I? I just enjoyed the best work I've done since, well.... since I can't even remember.

I can't wait for the next lesson.

New Guitar

Well, what an epic journey.

A long, long time ago I started to look for a nice classical guitar but never found it. The main reason is that steel string guitars are very popular in Australia. In fact, so popular, that they outnumber most classical guitars anywhere between 1:100 to 1:500

Sure, you have your miserable student guitars that are about $100, and some of them are really good for that price. However, after playing guitar for 16 years. I think I deserve a little better. :)

So, I have been window shopping for about 7 years. I did stop for a while. There was a point where I found the perfect guitar for me. It was about 4 years ago and the guitar, despite all odds, was and still is a steel string guitar.

You can hear it on my track I've recorded which is on MySpace. I never wanted a steel string though, and as much as I love it, I still wanted to play a classical guitar.

Fast forward to The Now, and I have been playing nothing but my old classical guitar for the last 2 months. The problem with that is that this guitar is old, it's a student guitar. Which means it's cheap and nasty and while it sounds great and plays well thanks to my tweaks. It's still constructed poorly. It's falling apart, literally at the seams.

So, after spending the last few weeks looking for a guitar. I thought I had found one, and I was almost ready to buy it yesterday. Then I got one of those typical gut feelings I get that says "Back away" so I did.

Today I went to this new guitar shop I'd never heard of called Wild Horse guitars. The door was locked, you had to ring a bell to get the staff to open the door for you.

My impression from that was that it wan going to be a shop with guitars out of my price range. And boy was I right.

Their cheapest classical guitar was about $800.

So after playing a few, I narrowed it down to about 4 favourites. Then I eliminated the two that were out of my budget by a large margin. I then played the two left over guitars back to back. And I came out with a winner, got a decent discount and a free hard case.

While I'm pretty happy about all that. I am kinda feeling a bit down. I have been all this week. I'm not sure why.

Though there's nothing like retail therapy to help you get over the blues. I'll be right as rain come Friday.