Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Stealth Concert

I played a 30 minute concert for a noon recital series in Pasadena. I've played there twice before, and I usually don't really tell anyone about it. It's more just for me to have a goal to practice towards. Seemed like a good idea at the time I booked it during the summer. But not taking my guitar on our recent trip to NJ made it pretty hard to be in good shape for this one! I found myself dreading it in the past few days, kicking myself for being such a goal-oriented hard worker (although if I were really one, I would have forced myself to bring my guitar to NJ with us. But it just seemed like too much trouble with the kids and all, much less the freezing temperatures! Not worth a potential crack.)

Well, a little cramming went a long way and although it took a lot to psych myself up for this emotionally, I have to say that I did my best and it went pretty well. Despite very short thumb and middle finger nails, which didn't bother me during practice, but did bother me during performance. I was regretting that I hadn't put a fake nail on beforehand, not liking the sound I was producing. I also wasn't crazy about the acoustics of the church - it was boomy and bright and not that forgiving. But I got lots of nice comments from the very ancient audience that attended (who else can attend a noon concert on a weekday besides retired folks?) and gave away a CD to a woman who said she didn't have a lot of money. So I guess I made my mark on the world today.

After the concert, Paul and I had planned to meet up for a lunch date at Din Tai Fung, which made me very happy. I then took the afternoon off to do some shopping and run errands, and when I got home it was already time to make dinner. So there was my day. Not a bad one!

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