May 2013: The biggest news this month is that I can now report I’ve officially evolved into a biped. That’s right, I can now offer my serves as a sitting OR standing guitarist!

Of course, I have a long history of playing guitar while standing. For years I played in bands as an electric guitarist, but when I got serious about learning classical guitar technique and becoming a soloist a chair (and my footstool) became essential accessories.

For dinner parties, weddings and many of the events I play, sitting is definitely the more appropriate option. Once in a while I would get a request for a “strolling guitarist", and I would just politely say that wasn’t something I did.

But in the occasion to play an event where I knew I wouldn’t be using an amplifier, held in a very small space, I thought it was time to really give it a shot…and it turns out, not only could I do it without diminishing too much of the quality of my playing, but I found it to be quite fun!

After further explorations, I’ve learned what pieces I can and can’t play standing up. Some tunes are just too tricky to play without the leverage and proper angles I get from sitting, but the good news is that I can definitely handle a 2-hour cocktail party standing up, maybe even adding a subtle dance move here or there.

So if you are looking to hire me for a cocktail party, this is definitely an option! For a high-energy cocktail party, this will be great for me, as sometimes I get a bit lost in the room seated. I’ll also have my neck strap with me, so it’s always something that can be decided at the last moment.

You’ll also likely see me some Friday afternoons practicing my standing technique on the lakeshore! And I plan on doing a bit of busking on Sundays at the Logan Square Farmers Market when I can.

In other news, this month is chock full of great private events - and I hope to have news of some more public appearances soon.

In my April news, I mentioned playing for a marriage proposal. This being the 21st century, I can now share the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjRRPIkPaVc&feature=share

Enjoy the Spring!

April 2013 - Happy Spring! The season starts to pick up (finally!), with my first wedding of the year on April 5 in Tinley Park.

I’ll also be playing for my first “marriage proposal” this month - that’s all I’m saying about that, I hope the bride to be isn’t enough of a detective to find me here!

But I did want to mention that here as that is the kind of thing I love about what I do - providing live musical ambience to fantastic moments in amazing spaces. I love it when people have creative ideas about using musicians for special moments, and whenever I get an unusual opportunity like this I try to make an extra effort to make their decision worth it.

Likewise, I’ll also help christen the opening of a new Chicago floral shop, Forget Me Knodt on April 18. Come on out if you’re near Uptown!

Nothing official yet, but good things are brewing with Los Alquimistas. We’ve been busy expanding the repertoire, expanding into some new sounds. I hope to have exciting breaking news soon on that front!

Enjoy the warm weather! Go Sox!

March 2013 - Ahhhhh, the off season! This is the time of the year where all my promotional work is done (new demos, website updated), but I’m still another month or two away from really having to crack down on wedding music requests. Which means now is the time to brush up on the dustier corners of my repertoire, and even learn some new music.

One of the great benefits to learning my craft the way I did (apprenticing with a master, as opposed to going to a music school), is that I was bequeathed a gigantic repertoire. I can remember early in my studies with Sr. Chacon, when I had maybe 30-40 pieces memorized, he said I should have around 70. And sure enough, when I got to around 70 a couple years later, I found that I was essentially hitting the capacity of my memory. New information coming in, usually meant a degradation of the older memory files.

It is my ethic to always play from memory. With the exception of Holiday music (and I’m getting better there too), you’ll never see me perform in public with sheet music. Everything I have learned, from long written scores to folk styles passed orally, I play from memory. And when I really have something, in the best conditions, I can put myself in a purely emotional state while I’m playing. Every piece performed with my own internal narrative unfolding.

So these days I get to take my time, go through the old notes. Learn how I’ve maybe gotten a little lazy here or there, or inadvertently changed the piece.

And, most importantly, now is the time where I can dedicate myself to new music. Currently, I’ve set myself the goal of learning the entire Serie Americana by Hector Ayala, source of one of my favorite pieces to play (Guarania). It is 7 movements in all, each representing a South American national style. Last year I added Gato y Malambo (Argentina), and I’ve just finished Choro (Brazil). When I have the whole thing done (maybe this year?), perhaps I’ll have my first official solo guitar recital.

For fun, I’m also going deep on some Colombian cumbia too, creating a solo guitar arrangement for the classic Danza de los Mirlos, as well as the Carlos Vives mega-hit La Gota Fria - expect those to liven up cocktail parties this Summer!

February 2013: Welcome to my newly updated site! v.2013

I need to give major props to my wonderful friends and brilliant design folks, Letterform, who I have now worked with for something like 7 years. I receive many great compliments on this site, and I am forever grateful for all the incredible work they have done for me.

http://letterform.net

As you see from the previous months’ news updates, with the 2013 update, I have overhauled much of the content here: all brand new recordings in my Solo Guitar Demo, and my Wedding Music Demo. And there are a number of new videos (as well as photos) on the Photo/Video page.

I’ve also added more of the writing that I’ve done for various projects, including a new short essay on choosing perfect wedding ceremony music for any prospective brides that may be visiting here. You can enjoy a quick scan of all the music and writing projects that I’m involved with on the newly minted My Work page (still in final stages up updating as of this writing, I should mention).

Getting together everything for the update utterly consumed the last two months of my life, I now look forward to a couple months of diving into new music and hopefully pushing forward my abilities on the six strings.

One big show early in the month: on Tuesday Feb 5 my trio Los Alquimistas will be making our debut at the fantastic northside music club Martyrs’. You’ll be hearing a lot from this group this year…

January 2013 - Happy New Year! I hope you had a great Holiday Season!

The new year for means its ready to overhaul all my demo recordings and promotional materials. In the past month I’ve already recorded 23 tracks, with about 5 more to go at the time of this writing. This site will be updated with all the new stuff by the end of the month, but you can hear all the new sounds on my SoundCloud page:

2013 Solo/Latin Guitar Demo:
https://soundcloud.com/neildixonsmith/sets/solo-guitar-demo-2013

2013 Wedding Music Demo:
https://soundcloud.com/neildixonsmith/sets/2013-solo-guitar-wedding-music

In addition to the new demo tracks, expect a lot of great new photography, new video and new collections of writing.

The big show this month will feature my trio Los Alquimistas, making our Logan Square debut at Cole’s on Saturday January 12. Come on by if you’re in the neighborhood!

Speaking of Logan Square, I’ve also just taken over programming music for the indoor Sunday Farmer’s Market, which happens at the Congress Theater. If you know of any musicians who live in the neighborhood and might be interested in this unique performance opportunity, have them drop me a line.

More coming very soon…I wish you all the best in 2013!