played my first gig!

It went very well. The day before i was nervous, but then when i actually performed i was not nervous at all. My hands shook slightly, but that was it. I played 2 songs, Sapphiric Lightning and The Gold Falls, both went very well. I dont think most of the audience understood the songs,but thats ok, i had an amazingly fun time playing.

I played at an open mic night up in Beacon ny. Its a very nice place, great crowd and musicians with great acoustics.

Needless to say, afterwards, (today) I felt motivated to begin writing again. It took me a while to jam out some ideas but now i have got them. I am writing music, distorted and clean, to be played along with a female singer. The idea is for me to perform duets, just guitar and vocals. I was also inspired to begin practicing vocals, yet again. I think this time im going to be sticking with it. I would also like to start writing about voice technique, at least from the little that i understand of it. The other music I am going to be exploring, learning, and writing will be derived from middle eastern music. I just started working with the harmonic minor and the phrygian with a raised 5th. They are both basically the same, just constructed differently. A Bphrygian#5 is the same as the E harmonic minor. I have found a very useful sight with a lot of different middle eastern pieces, and i will be printing them out and studying them and playing through them. I will also be eucating myself about the culture/music.

This may seem rather random of me, but I assure you it isnt. I was very attached to the middle easter sound after hearing John McLaughlin play with Shakti. Hes one of my favorite guitar players. Also, last night, there was a middle eastern couple who played. It sounded great. I have taking much liking to the middle eastern scale a bit more than the normal major and minor thus far. Just from improvising in it, it feels easier to move around within the scale and its just really fucking fun.

I think thats enough for this update :)