Jun 7, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning |
Two things stick with me from Mark Twain’s “Diary of Adam and Eve”: that God created death to cure Adam’s existential depression and that Eve’s job was to name the animals. One of the biggest challenges in my rehearsals with Steve Vai is not knowing the names of the...
Jun 6, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning |
Rehearsal started late today, which gave me a chance to work on some of my parts in the hotel. I still only have playable parts for a few of the tunes, but the list is growing. The way this works, Steve’s figuring out what I’ll play as we go along, I try to...
Jun 5, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning |
Monday June 4, 2012 It’s 10:30 pm. I just got back from rehearsal. Today we practiced Vai’s “I Would Love To” and “Ultra Zone.” In the 10-plus hours I was in the practice hall, there were 2 moments — two things — I was...
Jun 5, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning |
Rock Harp Diaries … Sunday, June 4, 2012 10AM -I emailed Larry Luddecke last night for an emergency Skype Hammond B3 lesson for one of the tunes I’m playing on tour with Steve Vai. I can play keyboard – but know nothing about various...
May 23, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning |
The adventure begins!!!! This Sunday at 7AM I take off from Boston’s Logan airport and land in L.A. where even though I have no idea if how I’m preparing actually will prepare me. In fact, I’m sure it won’t, but for me, rehearsal preparation...
May 23, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, People I Meet |
Since people keep asking me – here’s how I met Steve Vai and ended up joining his band for this Fall’s tour. If you don’t know me, I play electric harp – in fact, I’ve worked with the French harp-builders CAMAC for the last 15 years...
May 22, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning, Instrument (My Instrument), People I Meet |
‘I can’t believe that!’ said Alice. ‘Can’t you?’ the Queen said in a pitying tone. ‘Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.’ Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said ‘one...
May 22, 2012 | Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning, People I Meet |
I had coffee last week with Rachael Solem, who’s hosting an exhibit of artist Tucker Stilley’s works at the Harding House in Cambridge, MA. I’d gotten the postcard, an image of human eyes looking out of a page of colors, but I didn’t really...
May 12, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning, Projects |
I posted a new YouTube video, told my Facebook tribe and the video got a bunch of views, so of course I got greedy. I asked everyone to “like” it, share it and comment — and they’d say “OK, but how??” (Yes, we are mostly over 30...
May 10, 2012 | *RockHarp Diaries*, Coaching, Teaching, Students & Learning, Instrument (My Instrument) |
To explain how this video came about from the beginning, I’d have to go back to my near-disastrous debut with the Boston Pops which was saved by emergency musical intervention — and that’s a story I’ll tell you sometime — but in short,...
