Tommy Hits the Carolina's
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I enjoyed having Tommy come stay with me last week in Charlotte, NC. We got to sit around the house and play a lot, and were able to hang out with his friend (former Orange County native now living in Charlotte) Ben Hernandez. I was in nerd heaven. His clinic was a big success, and the band lit it up that night for the after party show that night in Durham. It was good to meet some of Tommy’s students in the area like fellow forum geek Jason Barker. I searched Youtube for anything put up form the clinic and show. I have not found anything from the after party gig, but did find these two clips someone posted of the clinic. One is Tommy and I playing, and the other is Tommy showing a couple of turn around licks someone requested to see. I will post anything else as soon as I come across them.
Yeah, this weekend was awesome. It was good to meet you, Bryan. Everything from the Friday night picking to the Saturday night clinic after party lit a fire under my tail to get back in the woodshed. I had been having a tough time with walking the augmented chord around on the V, but that finally clicked on Saturday afternoon.
I have a video of Tommy doing some whole tone scale stuff over the I and IV then hitting the augmented stuff over the V and then a video of him showing the Tiny Grimes licks from Saturday afternoon. I will try to get that up on youtube tonight. I noticed a couple of guys taking a good bit of video during the clinic, so I was going to see if Lenny could put out a plea to put those videos on youtube when he emails all of the videos and backing tracks. Might be good for him to put a link to this forum in that email too.
The augmented stuff is funny, like the diminished. It kind of twists your mind around for a while and then all of a sudden it clicks. Then it just kind of seems like “why was this so confusing to me.” Everyone goes through that too which also seems funny to me. I knew my buddy Marc would be the one to run that lick at the jam, after we were all joking about everyone coming out and busting that trick later that night. The whole tone is easier than people think it is . Just take any note you are playing in the chord and go up whole steps from that. The tricky part to it is you have to resolve it, and sometimes people get themselves hung out in left field.
There were some really good players that came out to the event. Friday night was a lot of fun. I wish you would have played more than you did. You are a good picker. You just need to get out of your head about it. Tommy and I had a good laugh about you sitting in the corner not wanting to play, then you finally did and we were thinking “man this guy is pretty good.” You have a good touch and nice sense of phrasing. That is stuff you can’t teach, so you are ahead of the curve. The technical jargon just comes with time, but if you do not have the touch you will still sound bad no matter how technical you get.
Holy smokes! I am still thinking about how much fun I had. Really good to get to play with all my buddies. Talked to Lenny today and he wants to do a clinic again in the spring. I’ll keep you all updated. Bill will be in his new place by then. Looking forward to doing it again. Funny how those little licks can get so much momentum. Like you said bryan the whole tone is kind of an acquired taste. for me a little goes a long way.
Bryan, thanks for the positive comments on my playing. Like I said, the whole weekend lit a fire under my tail to pick it up with my practicing. I will be ready next time.
I finally got off my butt and uploaded the videos that I took at the clinic. Unfortunately, the video quality from my phone is far inferior to the quality of the playing, but there is some good stuff.
Tommy, if you do another next year, and want me to try and get you something lined up down my way let me know. Hopefully it will not fall through like the other. As always you are more than welcome to crash at my place again. Though you may rather crash at my parents since they have a coffee maker. LOL.
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