Today I’m in south central Washington. I think the plan is to go taste some wines at some local places, go see some of the local colors downtown, then maybe chill a bit. Reverend Jane Newall at the Rainbow MCC has been very gracious — we had a wonderful discussion last night about so many things, and again it’s proving to me that the guitar continues to be a window of opportunity for learning. She also happens to be a fellow Yalie.
As for the outreach last night, I must be honest, it was a difficult experience. I didn’t mind the small turnout — neither of us realized when we booked the event that the third and final presidential debate would be happening at the same time. But I’ve played for small crowds before and can work in an intimate environment. The listeners seemed passive and spoke very little. I tried everything in my repertoire and used everything from my experience to try to promote interactive listening, but somehow there was no response to my energy. A few seemed familiar with the music, the guitar, and even Spanish music and composers, so it must have been something else. The ones that didn’t really speak said they liked the music, just that they weren’t “analytical”. But even then, I’ve gotten too-cool-for-school high schoolers to perk up and share a few words.
Last night did give me an opportunity to re-emphasize my belief that classical music wasn’t superior — just a different kind of music expressing familiar human thoughts, emotions, and events. That idea seemed to work. In any case, I’m in this outreach thing for the challenges, not the walks in the park. Whatever I was supposed to learn by coming to Yakima and playing for the group that I did, I can only hope that I’ll gradually figure out soon. Maybe the wine will help, maybe talking to the locals might shed some light too.
(Thanks so much to Eliot Fisk and my lovely friend Nadia for sharing their thoughts. )
