Busy Week!

For some reason this week has been busier than my past weeks. I have a feeling that this schedule will continue this way for awhile as well. But I have still managed to get some new experience in every day. I'll post them this weekend.

Please be aware though that April is International Guitar Month!!!

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Saturday, I drove up to Sandy, Utah's South Towne Mall to attend a workshop on a new technique for teaching and performing "Vocal Improv." When I got to the site there was a man there on a small stage setting up a sound system, microphones, etc. He asked me if I sang. I told him I sang a little, but I'm more an instrumentalist. He asked if I played the guitar. I told him I did. He asked me to play his guitar on the stage so he could check his mics and the equalizer for the sound. So somehow I ended up sitting on the stage, at the mall, playing the guitar for a little over 1/2 an hour. Towards the end of this time, I began to play "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on the guitar. He was able to recognize this song through the chord changes and strumming technique I was doing. He asked if that was the song I was playing. Now at this time, he hadn't start turned on the microphones. He was still setting everything up. So I began to sing the song as I played. I began to laugh though as, at the beginning of singing the song, he turned on the microphones. This helped him as he wanted to check the sound on the microphones for the guitar and voice. It was just really weird for me to hear my voice be REALLY loud at the mall. In addition, I was able to attract a pretty small crowd standing around the stage listening to me sing this simple song. Luckily after singing through the song twice, he had been able to get the sound equalized.

Later that evening I had the privilege of taking my grandma out to dinner. I had not been able to do this for several months. It was so much fun just being able to talk to her again. She has some great stories and adventures from her life.