The Spot Of Art
Published: Fri, 11/11/22
Which is how I came to find myself sunk in a camping chair in the parking lot out behind the very promisingly-named Dadalab last Friday night, along with the rest of the Fretboard menage, eyeballing a couple of regulation-sized dumpsters from about fifty feet away, waiting for the action to commence. The piece we were there for, "Dumpster Fire," was first performed in November of 2020, and its revival version did not disappoint. About ten percussionists gradually emerged from the back of the audience and, over the next hour, beat on the dumpsters with sledgehammers, chains and other metal implements to create all manner of polyrhythmic and call-and-response grooves.
I would be misleading my public if I did not point out that smoke machines, welding tools, stage lighting and skull puppets were also involved.
Over the following couple of days, Ms. Fretboard was moderating a couple of panels at the Texas Book Festival, so on Sunday the Dauphin and I ankled round to the Kirkus Review tent to watch graphic novelist Nathan Hale, of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales renown, deliver an illustrated presentation on the 20th president of the United States which, amazingly, managed to keep a tentful of elementary school-aged kids both riveted and in occasional stitches for close to forty-five minutes.
At first I wasn't sure Mr. Hale's bait-and-switch would work – armed with a tablet, a microphone and a pair of 50-inch screens projecting everything as he drew it, he started out talking about Garfield the comics character, still in astonishingly wide circulation in 2022. Then, through a bit of etymological sleight-of-hand, Hale swung the discussion around to the origin story of James A. Garfield, and proceeded to tell, in lightning-quick doodles and a witty, fast-paced narrative laced with contemporary cultural references, the entire arc of the 19th-century president's life, from his hard-scrabble roots in Ohio farm country through his job as a bargeman, career in education, role in the Civil War, years as a Congressman and finally, his reluctant and short-lived experience as the American head of state least famous for being assassinated. Best of all, the whole time, he drew J.A. Garfield as a human in 19th-century clothing with the head of an iconic 20th-century cartoon cat.
It was a highly cultural weekend, any way you look at it.
–––––
When I taught live workshops, I would start each session by going around the room and having each person explain why they had signed up and what they hoped to get out of the class. Over time I noticed that one answer seemed to come up more than any other: some version of "I'm here to learn how to stop sucking at guitar." A worthy cause, and one we're all working on in one way or another for as long as we play the instrument. What is practicing, anyway, but the timeless struggle to suck less? As a teacher, it's my job to try and provide a more codified, streamlined path to do the things you want to do, so for today's Youtube lesson, I've made a short video on something just a little more specific – the three things you need to play solos that don't suck. You can find it at the link below:
The Three Things You Need To Play Solos That Don't Suck
More soon,
David
For organized, ongoing weekly lessons that help you learn tunes, turn them into complete songs, and start improvising, register for the Fingerstyle Five membership at www.fretboardconfidential.com