Well then. I didn't mean for this week's posting to consist of accounts of people I like a lot GIVING me stuff, but that's what happens and by gawd I'm ok with it.
Y'all know I work at Red Leaf School of Music - which is, might I say humbly, the best music school in Austin with the coolest teachers on staff. I teach some guitar and office manage. It's a great thing that keeps my lights on and lets me laugh a lot because Dan and Geno are fun dudes to work for and with and I will not end this sentence with a preposition.
Anyway, in true music school style, Geno and Dan presented me with a banjo yesterday. Apparently they want me around. Apparently I like them a lot because I have been stalking the Craigslist ads for months waiting for a banjo to come my way. How did they know? Nifty.
Oh Sunday evening. I just did laundry with my neighbor and we ate Chinese food on his tailgate while we waited for the clothes to dry. See, it's November in Austin and it feels like June and you can do things like that while you wait at the laundromat. Anyway, it was nice to chill for a minute because it was a heck of a weekend. Lots of playing music and watching music...I can't complain.
Thursday was Jo's Coffee downtown with Kimbo, who is always a joy to share the stage with because her songs are so good and so is she. We didn't freeze too much, and our new buddy Ted from Canada came by and took photos. I met Ted at Artz last week when I played there and he is visiting Austin to soak in the music because...he loves music. How awesome is that? He also takes great photos and much of what you will see below is courtesy of Ted.
Jana+Kimbo...yep, Ted.
Friday I opened for Susan and Shelley King in Tomball, TX at a great venue called Main Street Crossing. Lovely people and our hosts made us FRENCH TOAST for breakfast and I about fainted from delicious overload. It's the little things, folks.
Saturday we jetted back from Tomball and I ran over to Ruta Maya for Red Leaf School of Music's Fall show. I performed a few and watched all of our adult and youth bands do GREAT jobs. So cool to work for Red Leaf with a community of such awesome people!
Melissa took this photo and I hope she doesn't mind I stole it. ;)
Today was the Empty Bowl Benefit at the Mexican American Cultural Center. I went to help Susan with carrying stuff (because that's what I do), but she was cool enough to get me up for a couple of songs. And I ate soup. Nifty.
Who left the red shoes with the sound board?
Photo from Ted!
All the dogs came on the Susan bus for the soup party.
a) I got a cold. No one wants to hear the extent of that whining. b) I am getting ready for THIS:
I'll be catching a train to Fort Worth next week to meet up with the Susan Gibson tour van so I can merch girl my little heart out across the Southeastern U.S. So excited! I've never been to that part of the country before, aside from a weekend in Atlanta in college, so I will be soaking in every bit of Southern culture I can. Plus my buddy from Georgia tells me I have to try the phenomenon that is boiled peanuts from a roadside stand. I like peanuts. I like boiled things. What's not to try?
In the meantime I'm having fun at Red Leaf and with Folk Music Grad School. Dan gave me homework...my first reaction paper since college. He said he hoped I didn't mind and I said, "Dude, my degree was built on reaction papers to chapters in random books...it's cool." I enjoyed using proper citation of sources in my writing again (Dan didn't require that, of course, I just threw it in for good measure).
We are reading "An Actor Prepares" by Constantin Stanislavski...I'm only on chapter 2 but so far it's discussing the ways in which an actor presents material to the audience, how he approaches his role, and how he turns what he does into real art instead of just mechanical motions. All of it applies to the performing songwriter, too...we have to re-live the little one-act plays of all our songs over and over again and truly live them every time. Otherwise, the audience gets gypped. And perhaps throws tomatoes.
Which ties in nicely to my work with my stage performance teacher, Jess, who had me on a yoga mat inhaling and exhaling while singing with my knees pointing one way and my head the other. My assignment this week is to study two of my songs and play them for her with every emotion and intention examined and displayed. Very excited.
...And then comes the suSANG tour, which is kind of like the Folk Music Grad School Field Experience course. Or something. Many cans of Starbucks will be consumed.
I have that happy tired feeling when you know you did your job well but it took a bunch out of you. I spent a lot of the morning rehearsing a new tune because it's a co-write (my first "real" one, I think) and I know the parts I wrote really well, and am having to internalize the other lines a little more. Fascinating.
Cheat sheet.
I also have a wild hair on a new chord and picking pattern, and today brought some workable words...so there's something new in a holding pattern. I spent a chunk of the afternoon trying to flag it in. We're still circling the airport on that one, but I like where it's headed. Who knows.
Then I had a voice lesson. We sang "hee hee hee" over and over again and I learned about where your "hee's" should come from. Not your throat. Stop that.
Then there was the gig, which was very fun. And since Year 2 of Folk Music Grad School is shifting into focusing on "outer" stuff...like performing...Red Leaf's new Stage Performance teacher came to see my gig. She took notes. That was a little nerve-wrecking, but she's way cool and we meet tomorrow to go over her notes. It's perhaps best we are meeting right before my next gig so I can apply her thoughts to the show. (Her name is Jess Klein and she is awesome and you should totally check out her music, and I hope she does not mind me blogging about her because I just did!)
I don't know if part of the outer training will be how to haul a PA around without breaking a sweat, but I could use that class, too. Yay summers in Austin! I'm so ready for fall. And thus ends my random day.
The next phase of folk music grad school begins this week. Almost a year ago (next month, actually), I started a curriculum at Red Leaf with Dan to up my musicianship levels. In some respects it seems like 5 years ago and in some it seems like last week. But anyway...there's a Zen saying:
"Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."
The point is no matter where you are in your development, little things matter. How attentive you are to your tasks each day. What you take from seemingly mundane things that are actually propelling your learning. Being present and appreciating the process. These are the keys to longevity.
I feel like I have spent the past year arranging and re-arranging my schedule in the efforts to get it to a place where my wood chopping and water carrying can focus the most on my musical growth. Working at Red Leaf and the flexibility that offers seems to be the ticket.
Today at 8 AM (feels luxurious compared to my government job 7:30 start time!) I will meet with Dan and we will begin a course of morning studies including writing, singing, theory, and guitar. Every morning, every day. Not that I haven't been learning and doing all these things a bunch this past year...but it's time to ramp it up.
Phase II of Folk Music graduate school really means, as Dan says, that tomorrow we will chop MUCH wood and carry MUCH water.
There's my fun and fabulous Monday Night Women's Group (Ladies of The Night...or whatever we call ourselves) playing U2's "Running to Stand Still" at the Red Leaf anniversary show. I got to play my Telecaster in public. Happy. Emily is in the middle, singing like awesomeness, and Amanda is on the right holding down the rhythm section. Such fun to play with those two.
Anyway, there's tons more photos of all the bands and my Red Leaf family up on the Red Leaf Flickr site. Yo.
"It's been two long years now since the top of the world came crashing down. And I'm getting it back on the road now, but I'm taking the long way around." - Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks)
So...the news is that I gave my two weeks notice at my county day job last week. I will be working at Red Leaf School of Music as their office manager. (I kind of want a laminated badge that says “MANAGER” hehheh!) I’ll also be helping with their new retail and repair store as needed. The school is growing and I'm honored to be a part of it.
Also...I will be finishing my EP, starting the next one (it's perpetual from here on out, this recording thing), practicing intensively, writing daily, and I will be around music. All the time. I can't stand it. There's a lot of stuff floating around about "lifestyle design" these days and I kind of feel like I am getting what it means. You find what you like and your surround yourself with the circumstances to grow in it.
I've listened to this Chicks song about a million times already. It's personal to them, but it fits pretty well.
Thanks for reading along...who knows what Year 3 will bring?
We interrupt this five part series (c'mon I know you all are chomping on your fingernails, dying to know if perhaps there is a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT on Friday, eh? Or maybe you just have time to kill between American Idol episodes. That works, too)...
Anyway...this interruption is brought to you by:
MUSIC LESSONS. Things smart people take to get smarter while having fun at the same time.
I want to wish Red Leaf School of Music a Happy One Year Anniversary! They opened their doors on April 2, 2007. I hadn't met Dan and Geno yet, but I got myself over there as fast as I could. You won't find a better business duo in the city...they work hard and their students and staff love them. And the one-liners fly. I think between them they have every line of every movie ever memorized and catalogued for appropriate usage when needed.
Geno looks ready to play but he's really just thinking up his next movie quote line.
Dan gets the kids from FBR (Federal Bureau of Rock) tuned up and ready for a performance.
You can come check out sets from all the Red Leaf bands (and moi) at Red Leaf Rocks - an anniversary party on Saturday, April 5th at the United States Art Authority next to Spider House. (I hear there's cake, too!) Get the specs here.
I'm reading a book by Mark Baxter, Dan's former voice guru, and it's quite the good read. He approaches singing like we're approaching this whole folk music grad school thing...on a holistic level. Chapter one is all about general care-taking...it could probably stand to be the first chapter in a lot of "how-to" books. Basically, you sing what you are, so you should take good care of yourself. Points Baxter makes...
- I should quit smoking. Oh wait. I don't smoke, hehheh. But the description of burning your throat is enough of a permanent deterrent for me, I think.
- No dairy, not much meat, very little red meat. Well that's handy, too. I have had a year full of indecision, but I haven't eaten meat since I don't know when and I take extra care to be vegan in my food choices (still cannot turn down Mom's rhubarb pie, though!) It does make a difference, I think. So far, knock on wood, I have not gotten my usual winter cold (which could just have to do with the fact that it's not really winter in Austin, just mildly cloudy and 55 degrees. Brr.) But I also don't get phlegm in my throat anymore. Dairy makes phlegm. Veganism and throat health seem to co-exist in harmony.
- Stress. We all know stress takes a toll on your body. It takes a toll on your voice, too. Handling it makes for good singing, which I think makes for less stress. When I figure that one out, I'll let you know. If I ever let you know, it'll probably be from a small island and a beach chair.
The most interesting point is that most musicians are really obsessive about their instruments and the environments they live in. I won't leave my guitar in a car, I hate playing outdoors when it's reallyreally hot or reallyreally cold, I humidify if it's dry, I keep it in the case when I'm not using it (hanging your guitar on the wall is bad for it! Stop that!). But your voice IS an instrument, and the throat gets some pretty bad treatment sometimes. Even just standing near a street and inhaling a big cloud of smog will knock you out for a while. Would you stick your guitar in a BBQ grill?
I type this as I drink a Coke, which is...well, nothing natural. Clearly I've not mastered the treatment of my voice, but it's good to be thinking about these things.
Yesterday at my guitar lesson Kevin handed me a notebook and told me to write my guitar-playing goals in it for 2008. That was cool, and while I have many scattered goals that pop up in my head at random times ("I should really learn another Zeppelin song"), listing them was challenging but fun. It didn't take long to get the juices flowing.
One of them is to understand where major, minor, and dominant 7th chords are coming from. Kevin mapped it out and small bits of light were seen, but I am still trudging through fog on that. I think in another few weeks I might begin to get it.
Another goal is to learn an instrumental piece -- to work on fingerstyle, and also just to have a song that I can play that I don't have to sing on, haha. We'll see how that evolves.
So -- interestingly enough, Kevin's got new videos up on Youtube and one of them is a way cool instrumental. There you go. Trends happen. Instrumental is the new black. Put that on a t-shirt and sell it.
...though today I don't think I could prepare enough. Here's how it all went down:
- work le day job from 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM. Lots going on this week in my day job life...nonstop action all day. Left a little late, making me late for...
- picking up my guitar and bass (loathe to leave them in the car all day)...off to...
- a meeting to learn how to use Quickbooks because I am an ACCOUNTING FIEND (ok maybe one day I will be)
- immediately after came a bass lesson, to work on parts for the album
- followed by my songwriters' group lesson, where we started a U2 tune (be still my beating heart I love The Edge. Dan knows how to pick 'em).
Between that there was a couple of conversations with Josh about a new venture for 2008. Sorry to be vague but there's no use in announcing a venture that hasn't ventured yet. We'll launch soon enough.
Oh everybody's doing it, so I guess I will, too. All the blogs I read are doing their "best of" posts of 2007, and I have officially, as of January 1st (TOMORROW!) been blogging for a year, so I have a whole 12 months to pick from. What a year it's been. I guess it'll also serve as a little "2007 Year in Review" because life looks considerably different now except the whole point hasn't really changed at all. Let's make that make sense:
I launched the re-design of jpo.com which is what you're looking at now. Yes, before there was NO BLOG ON THE FRONT PAGE! Gasp! Now it would seem weird to have anything different.
Still a little slow at blogging.
March:
Jana Susana Banana Rama happened, and it was my first time playing with Susan Gibson and it was SO COOL. Plus, I got to meet Jana Losey and Melanie Peters (who of course, added the Jana and the Rama to the Susana and the...I guess that makes me the Banana. Hrm.) Jana L. is releasing a new album called "Blocks" and you should probably own it.
Rama. Susana. Jana. Banana?
My first SXSW left me in a dizzying realization that Austin pretty much rocks. I saw a bunch of killer music, and interestingly enough a little band I like to call porterdavis (well, actually...that's what they like to call themselves) with some dude named Dan in it who I had never met before. And I didn't meet him then, either, haha. Shy Jana.
My blog exploded thanks to a week of touring around New Mexico with Susan and hanging out with business partner Josh, who logged and filmed and took notes the whole time. The video blog (vlog) became a fixture. I like having business partners who know things. Well, just one, because he knows it all.
Now it's December and you're reading this post. Are you exhausted yet? I'm not. My point is...I did not have a clue most of this stuff was going to happen. In January I knew I was taking steps to build a business with Josh and start working toward the path of being a self-supporting singer/songwriter/entrepreneur/freelancer. That happened...but 2 tours to New Mexico with one of my very favorite songwriters ever, folk music grad school, a producer for my EP, and lots of new people and mentors in my life were pretty much all...surprises.
All I can say is, chart your path with purpose and then let your chart get re-written as you go, but keep the purpose. That makes things go smoothly, I think.
2008 is going to be fun. Thanks for hanging in there! Have a SAFE and HAPPY New Year, kids!
Yesterday I had a very enlightening guitar lesson. We talked about our feet.
No, I don't plan on becoming the world's best toe guitarist (that sounds kind of cool, though...I bet someone already does it on Youtube. Yep, there it is).
Kevin the Guitar Prof is very knowledgeable about the practice of feldenkrais, and the thought of using the natural movement and flow of the whole body to play your instrument well. It makes sense. Many of us spend our days hunched over our guitars or our computers or our steering wheels. We are trained as a society to hunch and fold into ourselves. When you are conscious of this, you can start to adjust your posture and body position to make your movements, whether it is simple like reaching behind you or something like playing a Bbdim7 chord, more fluid and therefore...do them with less effort. It's not a way to cheat, it's a way to maximize the movement our skeletons have. Yay bones!
So where do we start? The feet. Some days I have good posture and they are flat on the floor, some days one foot rests on top of the other or one is kind of skewing off to the side. A firm foundation and a connection to the ground gives you confidence and the ability to move with the music, instead of have to balance awkwardly in spite of it. There is energy in the ground and it's best to be in contact with it as much as possible.
Not like this. Bad Jana.
I am not very aware, and I am slouching right now as I type this. I will correct my spine and in 5 minutes I will be slouching again. Perhaps guitar lessons will finally correct my posture.
Just now, in my Mom's brain, the clouds parted and angels started singing. All those music lessons as a kid might actually lead to me having correct posture. Hallelujah.
Over at Red Leaf School of Music, we're working hard to document the awesome things the students are learning and doing...so check out our Youtube channel for videos from July's Red Leaf Rocks concert. Video from last week's show is coming soon, too!
Yes, folks...there is a Red Leaf School of Music Myspace page. And you should be our friend. Being as we are a multi-faceted music school with lots of interesting teachers and students, think of the sheer amount of friends you get for just one click! Bang for your buck. Red Leaf Myspace
Oh, and don't forget the Red Leaf Rocks Winter Show next week...should be a time!
I play in Houston this weekend and New Mexico next week, and I am preparing for these gigs with some allergies that I've never dealt with before and the general nit-picky setlist/gear stuff. Normally a cause for freaking out, because the logical voice-in-my-head says:
"Dude, you can't help it. You have allergies. Your throat is gonna die."
"Duuuude. Winging it is cool. It's spontaneous and exciting!"
"Dude. Buy extra batteries in New Mexico if you need them. Walgreens are EVERYWHERE."
But no (and yes I call myself "dude" and when we hang out I'll call you "dude," too). You don't walk into a test without having read the book (well, mostly...if you're in grad school you're probably past being an academic slacker). And you don't just accept that fact that you don't "get" a certain part of your field. You study it, you dissect it, and you take it in, and you own it. You see how many facets there are in your field and you address each one until you master it at the level you need to.
So this week Dan and I worked on a little teeny tiny bit of "outward" because I will be playing a bunch of gigs next week and that is very outward. A little stagecraft study helps a LOT, and we are going to go indepth with it more next year (these next few months are still all about "inward").
At the Life's A Song workshop I talked with Terri about good and bad things for your throat when you're sick, and she recommended some mucous-clearing natural remedies. Pineapple is good. Most of those sprays and stuff on the market contain alcohol which...guess what? Just dries you out. Bad alcoholic spray. You taste like candy but you are oh so dangerous.
Also, I had to ponder long and hard about setlist order, flow, and how my wacked out tunings relate to each other for maximum ease of switching song to song. It's like building a short story every night. It's kinda cool.
So folk music grad school involves a little bit of acting and stagecraft study, a little bit of anatomy and medicine, and a little bit of storyboarding.
And a LOT of practice and experimentation. Excuse me while I go wrap a tambourine in a towel and step on it.
Dan's band Porterdavis hits the road a LOT, because they are pretty much burning up with awesomeness. I'm kind of a little proud. :)
I know I posted about mentors a couple of days ago, but I must say Dan is pretty much my musical mentor. Maybe meeting him was the closest I have come to actually seeking out a mentor, except I still wasn't really. I was seeking voice lessons and some guitar advice, maybe a little inspiration to go with. What I have ended up with is someone who is, like I said earlier...endlessly supportive, believes in what I have to say, honest with what I need to work on, constructive about it, and totally in my corner. That's kind of a big deal when you're in your 20's and you think you want to be a musician.
It's a weird road. People think you're gunning for poverty, drug addiction, living in your car, lacking health insurance, aimlessness, selling out...all those bad things that get lumped into "the music business."
Dan's shown a path of independence, self-sufficiency, responsibility, gratitude, growth, and intention. Being a musician, when you approach it the right way, is just as rewarding and responsible as being a doctor or a lawyer.
And this is just me speaking because I don't like bodily fluids or Latin words, but it sounds a lot more fun. ;) * * Props to all you docs and lawyers, though...
I've been jonesing for a looping pedal for a while because of what KT Tunstall does with it in her live version of Black Horse and a Cherry Tree.
I mentioned this to Professor Dan, who happened to share the same jonesing...so we did some research this week (Dan did his from the VAN on TOUR with his iPHONE, because he's more technologically advanced than Steve Jobs. I bet Steve doesn't loop things). It was down to a couple of models, and then out of nowhere comes the Boss Loop Station. Look at it. It's a thing of beauty.
So now I'm a proud owner and have read the manual (it's the RC-20XL if you want to be precise)...and it's going to take a bit to turn into KT. Ok, maybe like 7 years, if I forego bathing and sleep. But...I am excited because I think when I do get proficient at looping, it'll up my live show in terms of musicality and variety. I'm not shooting for a canned one-girl-band kinda thing, but being able to riff over a nice chunka-chunka beat is going to be cool.
My weekly Girlz' Songwriting Group. I'm the only one who uses the term "girlz." Actually it's really annoying, I'll stop. We learned some Fleetwood Mac to kick off the show...
Geek with a banjo.
