Richard's Page

Now that more than a month has gone by, I reflect upon my first-ever solo recital that I gave for friends and family last June.  I played for about 50 minutes in front of about 17 friends and quite a few members of my family in the outdoor covered patio of my in-law's home. 

 

It was quite an undertaking for me because I suffer from debilitating performance-anxiety that has interfered with my playing for many years now.  I decided to take a short-cut...propolnolol.  I asked the…

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Strings are strings, right?  After spending an entire year having fun trying different brands, styles and tensions when I first bought my guitar, I settled on good old D'Addario or, sometimes, Savarez Corum/Alliance.  Well, I splurged on a set of LaBella Argento (silver-plated) strings for my upcoming recital.  I'm hooked.  They're the best strings (at least for this guitar) that I've ever heard.  The basses on my Kenny HIll double-top are very powerful and they often overwhelm.  But, the… Continue

I've been playing around with Adobe Audition and Magix Film Editor Pro (HD).  Although I can process the audio through the film editor, obviously the H2 Zoom stereo mike is better.  I've learned to synch them well and lately I've had a little fun editing.  On one piece, I made three serious errors on one take.  I was able to take the corrected errors on other takes and splice them in.  I was a little sloppy and ended up unsyching the video towards the end.  However, I just about got it right on… Continue

Last weekend I was hired to play for a family on the beach.  The husband set it up so that I would be playing my guitar sitting in a chair at the waterline (formally dressed but with bare feet).  He would be walking along the beach with his wife and 9-year-old daughter and point me out and come over to talk.  As they were a little bit late, I became somewhat of an odd distraction to people passing by including a squad of Marines jogging on the beach who high-fived me as they came by.  The… Continue