A Weekend in the Life of Your Humble Guitar Player

I Am Not a Guitar Hero
Ever since I started taking on students last year, I've been hearing a lot about something called "Guitar Hero". I had no idea what it was but soon had heard enough to know that it was: (1) some kind of video game; (2) loved and adored by teenagers near and far, and; (3) something that if my students practiced the real guitar as much as they played it, they would by now all be shredding through real guitar leads at the speed of... well, sound.

Last Friday night I had the opportunity to set aside all presumptions and see, once and for all, Guitar Hero for myself. My friends Bruce and Cara (who is a really, really good cook, and who may very well be terribly embarrassed that I've mentioned their names) invited us over for dinner and GH introduction. After a relaxing dinner, overlooking the Nansemond River, it was time to take on the Guitar Hero pros. I felt like an idiot... although (as often happens) I have to admit there was a lot of fun in my idiocy. Bruce and Cara, neither of whom have ever played the guitar, are established guitar heroes and proved early on they were quite capable of kicking my... uh... backside with riffs and licks that would make Clapton, Santana, et. al., proud.

After zinging along at an uncanny efficiency of near-100%, they turned the instruments over to Dawn and me, who zinged through ZZ Top's "La Grange" (a rock'n roll classic, and probably the easiest song in the game) on what is deceivingly called the "easy level". Dawn, who has never played the guitar either, as you can guess, zinged much better then I did, causing her, in her excitement, to do a Guitar Hero-inspired twirl at the end of the song and smash our hero guitars together, and causing me to start bug-eyed calculations in my head about how much it would cost to replace two Guitar Hero guitars. Fortunately, the guitars remained intact and my calculations were for naught (what's a rock'n roll guitar without a few good dings in it, right?).

Okay, I hereby admit: Guitar Hero is a lot of fun, and I can see why so many people enjoy it. (And NO SCALES REQUIRED!) I'll be ready next time!

A Chance at Guitar Redemption
Saturday was a busy day for me as I had the opportunity to perform two gigs in Olde Towne Portsmouth (the best kept secret in Hampton Roads). The first was an afternoon playing the guitar outdoors for the Olde Towne Business Association's Mid-May Open House. This year's Open House ran simultaneously with the annual Gosport Arts Festival, and later I played for the art show's awards banquet in the Children's Museum (which has a really terrific model train display) and had the opportunity to mingle with some of the best artists around. I met one artist from Brooklyn and another who had traveled here all the way from Washington (state) for the show. A lot of fun and once again, my kinda livin'.

Mother's Day at Westminster Canterbury
On Sunday I played and accompanied the lovely Dawn for the Mother's Day Luncheon at Westminster Canterbury, overlooking the bay in Virginia Beach. The staff couldn't have been more accommodating, and the clientele couldn't have been nicer. It was a real treat to play Gershwin for an audience, some of whom remember when the timeless music of George Gershwin was the popular music of the day.

And now, back to the scales...