Getting that feeling again.

Imagine being awakened from an unintended sleep by rolling across the zip lines at the side of the freeway.   Looking up into the open desert you see that your motorcycle is headed towards disaster at 100MPH and there is nothing to do but ride it down. Unconsciousness takes hold, again.  Then, there is a blurry moment of awareness that an 800 pound motorcycle is sitting on your chest and you cannot breathe.   The story continues and gets worse before it gets better, but eventually, you do mostly recover.

This preceding scenario happened to me on May 14, 2007 and the lingering physical effects of this accident have become a strong element effecting most aspects of my life.   I was reminded of all this by a comment a friend made the other day, when I announced I was taking up residence in a physical space for much of my music teaching.

This was a very, very bad day...

She said she had always wanted to learn how to play the piano but was concerned about her radial nerve damage.   Since I forgot to go to medical school, I had to look that one up.  Interestingly I have had the same condition in my right hand ever since the accident.   In my case the condition manifests itself as numbness in my thumb and index finger.   

When I first got home from the hospital, it took a while until I had the strength to even sit at the keyboard for very long.  When I was able to finally sit in a playing position for a meaningful period of time, I found myself  unable to play accurately.   Fortunately, I retained full range of motion but have a sensory feedback problem which is to say that the thumb and finger I mentioned are largely numb, particularly the thumb.

Having been a student of Kenny Werner at one time, I knew he believed that playing the piano from the correct "space" or with the correct "intention" can actually be healing.  With this in mind I set forth on a two-prong plan to re-teach my hand how to play.  I started from the beginning of his exercises and worked my way through them. At the same time, writing and performing an album of songs.  Using Werner's techniques, I was able to retrain my hand and even reverse some of the damage.  (And the album was kind of OK, too.)

Now the question is:  will these techniques work with a student whose case is worse than mine?!

I have some more studying to do and some plans to make, but I am extremely interested to find out.

Stay tuned for the results....

First Contact

Taking a few minutes out to write this blog is to preserve a little strange something that I feel should be included in the records of events that was 2011.  I believe it is important to commit a certain amount of material to the historical record.

 

A bit of old-school jazz-speak on the way through the desert.

Spent the latter half or 2011 playing with the Jerry Becker Quartet.   

Among the many interesting adventures I have had with this group of characters during my brief tenure with this "aggregation." our trip to Abiqiui probably takes the cake for weirdness and I learned a valuable lesson.

I guess I should start with the valuable lesson bit.  As much as I have loved getting to know these characters they have not been very aggressive in getting paid for their work.  To be perfectly honest I can not even remember agreeing to do this gig.   So, we are going up to Abiquiu, NM at a really tough financial time.

I decided, with a lot of work, to just go with the flow and let whatever happened be OK.

I was particularly skeptical about what would happen financially on this gig because it had a trifecta of red flags going for it.  1)  Going to the boonies in December  2)  It was an art gallery opening, which has its own special meaning in Santa Fe Speak   3)  It was donation only, not even a partial guarantee.

Nice Sign, but I was still nonplussed at the prospects for a successful gig

at the Rising Moon Gallery

Things got even worse than I thought when we made our final approach.  Not only were we in the boonies and coming up fast on the gig, and the gig appeared to be in a "container?"

(The lovely and perceptive Patti disagrees with me on this whole container bit.)

Ok, it is was a merry looking container, but a container nonetheless.

And it got a bit merrier!

When we got  inside and met our host is when things got really weird.  This cat could have walked onto any Star-Trek set and been a perfect Vulcan ambassador or teacher just exactly the way he was.   Standing, oh maybe five foot ten with a thick head of white hear in a perfect bowl haircut.  Wearing a black turtleneck sweater of some odd luxuriant (alien) quality.  He was decorated also, of course, in large gobs of the ubiquitous turquoise jewelry sported  by those Santa Feans of a certain class and mind set.  He had this one piece of jewelry that really stood out was a  large,dark triangular piece that looked exactly like a Vulcan Idik.

I will have to get to the rest of this writing a bit later....in the meantime....

Meet the Band....

 

Doug Frantz: Drums

Chris McMahon: Fretless Electric Bass

Jerry Becker: Tenor Sax and fearless leader

Cameron Weckerley:  Keyboards

Turning point (and fear), and a serious lack of faith in New Mexico.

Every since we got rear ended by an uninsured motorist coming out of The Canyon Road Teahouse on 12/20/11 I have been in debilitating pain and have lost most of the use of my right hand.,, which for a keyboardist/guitarist/producer this is very bad news.

All seems to have been fine until 12/20/11 when Patti and I were rear-ended on the ice.   Now I have neck pain which has ratched up to at least an 8 and is intolerable.  What is worse is that there seems to be bone spur in my neck pressing against my spine which is rendering my right hand, numb, weak and not very useful for music.

This is a seriously last ditch effort, which has a serious risk associated with it...not tremendously confident in the outcome, but here we go...I wish this was going down at UCLA instead of the backwaters of NM....

Trecking to Tesuque to Teach the Tykes.

One of the most rewarding experiences professionally for this year was my Thursday job at Tesuque Elementary School.  Although Tesuque is truly located only three miles north of Santa Fe proper, it always seems like it is in the middle of nowhere, no matter how many times I go out there.

When I first got the call to hang out with these little troopers on a semi long-term basis I thought. cool, and I immediately began downloading fun music lesson plans from one of my favorite music teaching sites..The Fun Music Company

The first lesson I tried with the 6th graders failed utterly, much to my surprise.  It was an interactive lesson on the history of rock and roll with lots of fun music and handouts and activities and all that drill.  What bewildered me greatly was the sixth graders complete lack of respect for the term "rock and roll."  Whoa, where did that disrespect  for the "holy of holies," come from?

/

Cell Phone Photo 12.15.11, Tesuque, NM

5:30 Snowing and they keep coming and coming!  (Parents that is)

Mr. W. does Kinder...

Mr. Chrisman conducts while Mr. W. Conducts.

Turns out, as much as it hurts, Rock and Roll is out and Justin B. is in!  Ack

Soul Vaccination

It had been over three years since my spouse Patti and I had revisited out home turf of Cali.

We had meant to come back much more often to visit friends and family.  Unfortunately financial, health and mechanical reasons kept us away for far longer than was comfortable.

The issue that forced the issue of us getting back was the wedding of my step-daughter Maddi.

The beautiful bride on a cool evening in Central California

The music  situation turned tricky for a bit, but I think it came out all right in the end.

The new cage...the payment is no fun, but it is nice to have.

Fortunately we had recently required a "new to us" car that reliably made the trip.  In fact even though I call it a mini-mini SUV, there was room in the back with the rear seats taken out for Patti and I to trade off sleeping and driving for a non-stop trip to Cali and back.

I was grateful that we were able to get to LA to visit Michael at Ferenci Music.

It was a very important part of the trip for me because I really needed my emotional batteries recharged.

There was an element of grim humor to our visit.  When I showed up at Ferenci's doorstep I was looking very beat up from our long stint on the road.  Julie, Michael's wife, thought I was a street person for a moment who had just wandered up to her door.  I have no doubt I looked like that.

Michael Ferenci Mastering a tune at Ferenci Music

For the next couple of weeks I have to figure out how to be a good middle school guitar and orchestra teacher.   Yeee Haaa.