Fall 2009 Recital

My guitar instructor is one of the few that actually holds recitals (twice a year). And from what I’ve seen so far I don’t think anyone plays to their full potential at a recital. Between the nerves and having to perform with basically no warm up its a recipe for failure. But I endure because I know it will ultimately make me more confident in my playing.

Today was the 2009 Fall Recital for Combia Guitar Studio and since I recently purchased a Zoom Q3 video camera I decided it would be the perfect place to test it out. As if the recital itself isn’t nerve racking enough on its own.

This was also Shay’s first recital and she participated in the classical portion which took place early in the day.
I was suckered into accompanying her on 1 piece. She’s mic’ed and I’m not so you really can’t hear me but my guitar sure looks nice.

Next Shay did La Malaguena. Unfortunately she seems to have moved herself away from the mic and the gain on the camera wasn’t set high enough to pick it up clearly so you’ll have to really crank the volume to hear it.

Overall Shay did really well for her first recital. Much better than I did on my first.

After that we went off to kill time at the mall since my portion of the recital didn’t start until 7:30. During this time the temperature dropped quite a bit and the recital was held in an old carriage house turned church which gets rather chilly.
Like always I was one of the last people to perform in my group so I got to sit around for an hour. By the time I got up to perform I was completely cold. Both figuratively and literally as my hands had basically become fleshcicles by this point.
I actually played a bit plugged into the bass amp and had to start over. This was a bit of a blessing as it gave me a chance to warm up a little bit and shake out some of the nerves. Although there were still plenty of nerves that would prevent me from playing anywhere near flawless but considering the circumstances I’m basically pleased with how I did.

Both my pieces were from the Blues You Can Use book (great book by the way). In both cases I had some pretty major foibles but this time I didn’t stress over it too much and was able to keep going without getting too flustered.

First up was Getting Funky

Followed by Lazy Day Blues