12/20/14. Good day for earning! I love teaching....Bogmen show.

Today was a long, long, long day. Earned well so I'm happy about that. Taught some of my regulars in the beginning. Taught about the rest stroke on bass. Really cool to hear one go from clunky to smooth and I always try to let my students feel free to express when something isn't working. There is always a solution. Sometimes doing something "the wrong way" leads to your own personal style. Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt did nothing right, neither do I. But that doesn't mean they couldn't play. My brother and my best friend are both right handed but both play bass left handed cause that's simply what seemed logical to them. They both are the finest players I know! I'd rather have them on my team than someone hung up on doing something "right".

One of my students had me figure out an Interpol song. Really tricky at first but we both found how the riff worked with some effort. That's another thing I dig about teaching. I guess you can say I'm out of the scene, and quite happy about that. But these kids, they keep me hip to what is going on. Some of it I don't dig, some like this song I really enjoyed. Makes the world a bit more open.

Tonight I did a guitar tech gig for The Bogmen. Fantastic band. Yay positive music! They sold out 2 nights at the Bowery Ballroom. Again, inspiration for doing my thing better. There is nothing like being a band for so many years. Billy Campion has been a huge inspiration for me. I've had the good fortune of laying down some horn and guitar tracks on his some of his new works and I always come away feeling uplifted.

J