Sharing A Failed Experience

     I'm going to be short today cause I haven't much to say about this, but I feel I need to share this with you. This past week for me has been one of extreme frustration. Last week I got a call from a production company to do a new play that they were putting on. As usual per these gigs, the singers have been learning the material for 6 months, but he musicians have never even heard the music. So when we all came in to the room and talked it was clear that everyone had done this sort of thing before. It felt like it was going to be business as usual. A lot of reading and counting and looking for cues. That was not the case. What ensued was a 3 hour headache of missed cues, getting lost in the score and mass confusion as to why this was happening.

     The first thing I asked myself was if I was the problem. Was I really this bad? Is it possible that I had forgotten how to play music correctly? I was extremely frustrated and by the end of the first rehearsal I was ready to quit. I had suffered through some bad rehearsals before, but this one takes the cake as the worst. I take pride as one of the few guitarists in Boston that can sight read at a high level so when faced with this score I thought: "No problem! This is nothing new to me." But it was. The only, and I do mean only, consolation at the end of the night was that everyone in the group felt the same way about themselves. So I guess I can't take all the blame, however; I still felt like I had taken a few steps back. The odd thing about it is that we didn't understand why it was so bad. It was as if someone had flipped a switch in that room and turned off all the talent. 

     Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself and maybe it wasn't as bad as it felt like. Maybe it was all a dream, but I doubt it. Hopefully this doesn't deter you for ever wanting to work with a guitarist. I'm really not as bad as I just made myself sound, but I did feel I needed to share this with you guys. In a time when I've had more success than any point in my career this has been the most unusual of road bumps. A reminder that no matter how good you think you are there will always be something that brings you back down to earth. Hopefully, though, it was just an off night.