Dear Subscriber,
Well, that day has finally come….
I have decided to set up my blog on my own website, as I have been outgrowing “wordpress.com.”
But…
I don’t want to lose your readership!
Please click here and re-subscribe on the new blog page:
http://www.adamrafferty.com/blog
All of your comments are there, preserved in digital goodness.
Thanks, and let’s keep rockin’ on fingerstyle guitar it in 2014!
AR
Charlie Chaplin
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is AUTHENTICITY.
As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody as I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it RESPECT.
As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it MATURITY.
As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment, so I could be calm. Today I call it SELF-CONFIDENCE.
I’d like to give you something to think about based on my real life results in terms of getting gigs, magazine coverage, and excellent word-of-mouth promo.
There is zero BS here. Enjoy and please comment!
Concept 1: MUSICIANS HAVE TO MARKET THEMSELVES. THAT MEANS YOU (and me too).
You and I are running businesses, we are not only artists.
A hard pill for many of us musicians to swallow is that we all need to market ourselves.
If this makes you shiver, feel un-artistic, or think I am a fraud – WAKE UP! Any business, no matter what their product or service is, has to market themselves.
Hey Gang!
I have been a little off the internet radar lately, and I must apologize for a lag in posts, emails, youtube videos and all that good stuff.
It has been a VERY busy time for me actually. I will quickly get you up to speed, and I promise to post & blog from the road over the next few months.
Here is the God’s honest transparent news update that I’d give you if you were drinking a coffee with me right now.
This is too weird. Enjoy…
When I attended the High School for the Humanities in NYC I was in the graduating class of 1986.
At the time I was a 17 year old aspiring classical guitarist, practicing hard for my first year of college in the conservatory.
A few of my high school teachers were “guitar aficionados” and one in particular, “Mr. S”, encouraged me very much. I’ll never forget when he said “You’ll be the Pepe Romero of the year 2000!” This was incomprehensible to me.
I recently read an article by a buddy of mine named Rob Cubbon. He describes the state of mind & spirit he was in while creating a few of his e-books in his post “My Rules of Product Creation.”
While creating his first one, he was stressed and it felt like rolling a rock uphill. In contrast, the second one just “happened” by itself. Oddly – the second one which was infused with joy and ease is also preferred by his readers and sells better.
I’ve had the same thing happen when I record CDs under stress, so I know full well what he was describing.
I was starting to feel a similar process regarding the upcoming Guitar Instructional DVD which I plan to shoot later this summer.
I call this an “update” because you may have read my earlier post or seen my videos on recording fingerstyle guitar for Youtube videos.
Here, I will describe my home studio setup with getting a great sound in mind.
Please comment below if you have a suggestion or want to mention your gear – or, especially if anything I am saying is not accurate!
The Attitude
All kinds of gear ail sounds great for fingerstyle guitar. There are many ways to do record it, mine is just one…here goes.
I just had the pleasure of spending some time in my home studio recording a few solo tunes.
During the past few days I have experienced the range of emotions from elation to frustration, mainly with my own guitar playing.
I’d like to share some insights with you. The following applies to do-it-yourself home recordings as well as sessions where you go to a pro studio.
HI Gang!
For those of you who are tech junkies, I’d like to tell of my journey on “the other side.”
The following negative experience had a very profoundly positive effect on my music and concentration.
On March 7, 2013 I was robbed while on tour. My backpack with my laptop and many other personal items was suddenly gone.
2 hours before a concert I had to freeze bank accounts, close credit cards and change passwords to 15 websites in a flash, because like an idiot I had no master password on the machine. The stress was terrible!
Yet…the strangest thing happened about 10 days after the theft.
I’m gonna give you some straight talk about practicing guitar and taking good care of your body and hands.
This is especially relevant today since so many people are self taught from videos and don’t have a real life teacher for feedback.
The “He / She Never Stops Practicing” Myth – Debunked!
One of the favorite “myths” that fans and students hold in mind is that “great musicians practice 24 hours a day, to the exclusion of everything else and that’s why they are so good!”
People always ask me how “many hours a day I practice” and I see that they are living exactly this fantasy of “wow you are a dedicated artist who practices all the time!”
Adam Rafferty - Guitar and Spirit 