JB "Blues Masters" contest, the experience of a finalist (Page 2 of 3)

Jack, nice to meet you.

You're another gracious "winner", at least in my book!

The problem was they didn't trust the contest.  That was the contention.

It's great how you both wrote and shared your experiences.  Something you both will have for a lifetime.  And your friendship that you made.

Hey Jim,
That is some good, great, honest feedback and insight form you as well, and i share many of those same feelings about my performance as you did. And by no means was i trying to exactly "blame" anyone or not take responsibility for my own mistakes and actions. I dont really think that is the right feeling i'm trying to express here. It was more just a stream of thought about exactly how i was feeling at those exact moments, as it all happend in my perspective. I am not questioning the complete professionalism of the band or trying to undermine all thier incredible accomplishments as musicians and people. And i realize sometimes one's feelings towards others in a situation can very much be a subconcious reflection of how one really feels of themself.
  I absolutely by no means at all think i played that great, or was totally on top of my game and insync with the energy of what the band was doing. Ive played in many many situations, with many bands, many jam sessions with random people, thats how i learned. I more so prefer to be in a situation like that, but i think i could have siked myself out a bit by preparing possibly a bit too much for a set arrangeent. More or less because thats what we were told was going to happen by Guitar Center. I thought a lot about the "parts" Instead of just letting it flow. And doing the slide thing is newer to me, but i enjoy it still, and i wanted to try it. Some of those notes i played were incredibly off, and yes not being able to hear yourself hardly at all was absolutely a factor. I really kind of knew my playing was going to be off even before going into this, so i more just tried to just get the energy going as comfortable as i could. And the performance really didnt quite hit the mark of how well i know i can play at my best. Which for me is a personal dissapointment of my own faults.
But i will still stick with that at the time i just genuinely didnt feel the band brought the best energy to the performance, be it because of what i was doing or what they were feeling or for whatever reason. That is still what i felt. I just didnt feel it was 100%. that was my feeling. And anyway i look at it, even if this was more of a jam type of deal, to only play from first note to last hit, for not even 3 minutes, to me was hard to deal with. Especially knowing what we had just practiced was much longer. Even if i played every single note completely worng and i was the worst player ever, i felt like i should of at very least gotten my time to do my thing. The band, whoever did it and for whatever reason did decide to end the tune before it was really supposed to the way we had just practiced it.
And after all there was an extreme ammount of time and energy put into this on my end and all the finalists ends, As well as the band and event staff. Let alone traveling 3,000 miles, for not even 3 minutes of a jam session. And im not even saying if i played for another couple minutes it would have made the performance that much better or "salvaged" anything, but atleast i would have felt i had gotten to do what i was told i would be able to do. And thats what i was looking forward to, and the main reason for feeling so bummed.
Also the spot that the song ended was a "good" spot for it to end if it had to end, it was actually the same type of hit where it would have ended in the same exact style we praticed, but the last chorus was supposed to be an extended jam of that chorus groove, before ending like that. And that section was set up in rehersal for purposes of jamming it out and getting a chance to really try and lay into a lot of the new slide work that i had been practicing so much and was excited to try. I am fairly confident it would have sounded much better than the sloppy, sluggish, and hard to listen to Verse/Chorus patern because of the fact it was going to have space for more of a free formed open groove jam. the sections before i was trying to play "parts" which maybe was not the right kind of approach for this performance. I am actually personally fairly embarrased of my playing, and i felt that very much already when i walked off the stage.
   I do not take offence to any of your comments at all. I very much appreciate your thoughts just as much as my own or anyone elses. This is exactly what i meant by i wish joe had said something more brutally honest to me, like "this was bad, that was bad" or "this could have been better..try this next time" all that stuff gives me an even clearer more well rounded perspective of just what really went down, even if it's not all a "positive" evaluation.
If i would've had the hindsight perspective i do now, i may have chosen a different tune, and maybe not played slide. i'd have been much more comfortabe and maybe a bit more "impressive" if i was trying to go that way and played a more standard style. But slide guitar i feel is something that really is speaking to me and i very much wanted to take the risk of possibly just absolutely sucking big time, and do something different, new, and uncomfortably challenging for me. I believe to get better, good, and great at something you have to start flat out sucking at it first. And what better chance to test myself at than playing along side one of the best of our time.
     I may have not had many years to follow joe yet, i have been for atleast a few years, but i remember being introduced to him when i was in high school only a year or 2 after i started playing, and i always admired him. I have no doubts of his work ethic and talents. And i cant express enough how much of his ideas of "modern blues" playing and more so his philosiphys i completely agree with and am inspired by. Especially recently.
Maybe i ended up "expecting" too much for this contest, instead of just letting happen what needed to happen. Usually that is how i am as a person and player, but you get into contests and start to have expectations of youself and the contest, it can hurt the flow of what should be natural. Contests tend to have an "unnatural" feeling to me, as far as a musical situation, i think. But none the less there's a valuable perception to gain from that kind of situation.
And your right in the end, how freakin cool to just get this time to play with Joe, even if i did flub it all up and the band didnt play exactly what i thought they were going to play. Thats really all i keep thinking about now, how cool was this, for whatever happend however it happend, how freakin cool?!!!
peace!
-steve b

man that Jim Shuler video is amazing too, i love everything about that style. and one of my favorite tunes too. thanks.

Steve I really do understand how you feel. Joe once told me that he learned a valuable lesson after getting to play with Robben Ford at a Leo Fender tribute in the 90's. It was a great opportunity for exposure and he wasn't happy with his performance. It inspired him to work even harder to make sure that never happened again. There is some video on Youtube. Now most people would think he was ripping it up but Joe new he was being repetitive and he was getting away with it because he was 15 years old.  Maybe this will be your Robben Ford moment and you will someday look back on this as a turning point in your career. You don't have to win contests to be successful Joe is proof of that. Still being a semi-finalist in the GC and IBC contests is an impressive feat. Good luck to you I'm sure you have the full support of this forum community. Keep us informed of how things are going.

I already feel this being one of those experiences that is pushing me to work harder. quite an unforgettable experience to say the least. I dont really see any of the contests ive been in as making or breaking me as a "successful" musician, they all have been tests and points of learning and growth for me. Sort of a "benchmark" of where i am as a musician. And i will surley continue to work hard, play hard, strive to learn more, and continue try to find what works for me as a musician and person. And be true to myself, put my heart and soul into everything i do. And always trying to spread good feelings with music from myself to others. I see those things as a much more fulfilling and honest way to true "success" than winning any sort of contest or being awarded any sort of title.
thanks again for all the support and feedback! great group of people here.
-steve b

Oh, I'll always be beyond grateful for this experience. I know many people never get to even meet their big influences, let alone get such affirmation from them. As far as sound goes, the thing is, I'm so used to playing in clubs without monitors (or good sound at all, for that matter) that I almost would have been thrown if we had them. This was more my comfort zone as far as playing live. My only complaint was that the stage didn't reek of stale beer enough ;-)

I also forgot to share a funny story - I, like most people, watched Joe's set as close to the stage as I could. Right after he announced Matt as the winner. While I was happy for Matt who is a deserving and excellent player, and a class act, I'll admit I was disappointed too (hey, we all wanted to win after all). I began to step back, and just as I did, a lady sitting at a table directly behind me began to stand. She was wearing a shawl that was knit, and it got tangled on the button of the seat of my pants. We stood there, quite awkwardly, for about 5 minutes before she managed to untangle it from my derriere. As soon as we were free of each other, I turned to her, gave her a hug and said "Very nice to meet you" - I mean, what else do you say in that situation?

Jack

Yea nathan, ive always felt that about the guitar center contests and how they are set up. Especially when they used to have the in store competitons for the "king of the blues" and " battle of the blues" playing to those backing tracks totally felt like karaoke. I think that is kind of a good way to put it. This contest, even though it sort of had the same idea, i thought was a bit cooler just because the songs were cooler, i mean they were Joes songs. And even if they arent straight "blues songs" i still kind of enjoyed playing over them more than the dull backing tracks of the other GC contests. But i think its just a way of GC getting everything organized and in a nice neat little package for everyone.

But i believe you're right, it is a bit stale of a way to play music. I could easily see any band not be too excited about that musical format. And this wasen't just any ol' band. I would so much rather just get up and give a key, and a groove, and just go for it. With no idea in mind what the heck was going to happen. I would have loved for that kind of freedom and creative opportunity with the band. Would be cool to really see how explosive of a spontaneous jam contestants could come up with rather than just having everyone jam over a "set" backgroud music. Its very hard to really get a connection with another musician that way, let alone an entire band. A big difference of playing "over" a band and really getting to jam "with" the band and feeding off of what everyone else is doing.

But thats how GC does it, and in ways i can see why it makes sence, and in other ways i would think it would be obvious to try and incorporate something like that into the event. But its thier contest, and you gotta play by the contest rules, thats just how they are i guess.

And not for nothing we did get atleast a little time to be with the band at rehersal and share a few thoughts with them about what we would like to do with the song, atleast a little bit. Which maybe had i thought about it a bit more i would have suggested doing more of a open kind of jam with them, and then had it in mind myself to do that. But i didnt, i kind of just wanted to not "bother" the band with asking too much or making too many suggestions and whatnot, maybe i should have.
So i was just stuck on that idea of playing what i had sort of already pre-planned i should play. Over this sort-of "set" song structure/background music, instead of feeling that vibe of an open connection with the band and just going with whatever was going to happen. Thats why i said it felt a bit unnatural to me i guess. On my end as well as how the band must have felt too.
A valid observation though i think, nathan.

-steve b

Hi Tony and a huge welcome!

This is a heartwarming story, and thanks too for sharing some of your personal background.
Wish I were half as accomplished as you, I am impressed!

Thank you for sharing, and we are delighted to have you here on the Forum.  Stick around and join in!  You are surrounded by Bonamaniacs!