Hello fellow guitarists, I hope all is well! The topic today is about the pressure I certainly felt while recording for Md. Public TV . The airing will be on Jan.10 at 7:30 pm. It is no joke. I experienced something that reminded me of much earlier times. I was simply thrown by the fact that I had to force myself to smile before playing or while someone else was solong at times. I tried to smile during part's of my solo. This must be what actor's have to do all the time. Sure I had encountered stupid acting people or situations as a school teacher very recently . Fortunately, no significant personal problems were added on the previous statement.

I'm saying all this to say that my main concern was the music and not my ego. I noticed that I played my own signature approach throughout my solos, which is what is suppose to be happening, and didn't want to invoke feelings of others like Benson or whomever (probably happened anyway at times). I wanted to be very honest playing-wise, which can be very challenging, but true art demands honesty.

I saw a late Joe Farrell tape on youtube.com and marveled at how well he could play like Trane. Man, the cat was on stage with Elvin Jones, but I wondered if he was truly happy to be hired because he could play like all the "bad" brothers who invented the stuff. Wonder what pressure he was feeling. During those days ('60s), copying wasn't cool at all. Now, you get rewarded more than those who try not to!

I have decided to really be as honest as possible musically and non musically and really don't care what people think as long as I play honestly. That is really based on much research of various musical and non musical endeavors as well as performing on trombone, electric bass and vocals in various situations.

It's easy for me to feel the 'pressure" to have to practice at least vocals seriously everyday since re-starting over two years ago. I feel "pressure" overall is a good thing. Think about the consequences if one doesn't apply enough pressure to be at the top of their game in all areas. That's real pressure. We see humans playing games with other's lives frequently in our country who really are very selfish and ego oriented. It's a shame how they would rather avoid the "pressure" of being a sane good human consistently and instead help to propel this planet to a "cleanup" period due to arrogance and ignorance of lessons learned from history.