Les Paul’s First Guitar: People Hear with Their Eyes
Did you hear the Science Friday podcast about Les Paul this week? Incredible!
Science Friday discussed Les Paul’s invention of the electric guitar.
When Les Paul invented his first prototype of the electric guitar, it was a straight log, which didn’t resemble a guitar much. He debuted it at a gig, and no one payed attention.
So Les Paul revised his invention. He cut out pieces of an Epiphone acoustic and added wings to his “log.” He then debuted his revision at the same club.
People applauded, they were astounded, they asked questions after the band’s set!
Les Paul concluded that “people hear with their eyes.”
That statement should guide ever speaker, creator, artist, and musician during their projects.
Keep your audiences’ eyes in mind–even if it’s a lyric, a word, a chord, a sound that you want them to remember.
I don’t mean that we need to be Miley Cyrus twerking on stage to get noticed, but we do need to create a visual that supports the theme, the message, the artistic invention. When Les Paul made a new guitar, it still needed to resemble a guitar for his audience to “get it.”
We are moved by what we see, not only what we hear.
How often do you hear the advice, “You must stay positive to reach your goals!”?
Well, I’ll beat the dead horse: Staying positive is essential to success.
But I’d also like to admit that it’s difficult to stay positive, especially since we live in a troubled world.
I also must remind myself that the world has always been troubled. I assume it was difficult to stay positive during the Elizabethan era, a time that had survived the plague, brutal wars, famine… (Why else would Shakespeare have obsessed over the themes of death in his writing?)
Here’s where it’s different for the modern world to stay positive, maybe even more difficult:
The Elizabethan poets, writers and artists lived in a trouble world, but they didn’t have the continual negative messages and news stories circling their eyes and ears on radios, TVs, computers, and cellphones. Words didn’t travel quickly, and while the overall uneasiness of a dangerous world was always around them, the daily news of the world probably felt different. Distant.
Now, we are bombarded with small and large doses of negativity every day, maybe every minute, and often it a story that disempowers us: A story about an overwhelming crisis in another country; a story about our broken political system that is a snake eating its own tail; a story about high unemployment numbers; and higher costs of living; a fading middle class; another mass gun shooting; etc. etc etc….
So yes, it’s essential to stay positive about what you are doing; but also know you are not alone in facing the difficulty of staying positive. If it was so easy to stay optimistic, we wouldn’t have to be reminded so often.
So stay positive; and if it’s any comfort, know you are not alone in the struggle to do so.
I got to share a FaceTime call with Lois while I was on tour. That helped me stay positive during difficult days away from home!
Lois, our Boxer-Pit mix rescue, is two-years-old today!
(Nat’s blog about Lois’s silliness.)
And she has gotten so big!
Lois is two!
I was nervous to play in Nashville on tour, like almost pee-myself-anxiety.
When you think of Nashville, you think of country music, right?
People ask me what type of music I do and I just say, “I’m a James Taylor sound on a lot of coffee…”
To say the least, I was nervous to share my music in Nashville.
But I discovered that being different was a good thing: Jenny, the bartender at the National Underground was requesting Death Cab covers and bought a CD; the musicians I met at songwriter showcases said hello and commented about the jazzy chords in my folky pop; a few Mike Vial CDs are floating around Tennessee now.
I left Nashville feeling thankful to be accepted, even if I’m different.
I guess that’s a feeling we should all share, no matter what we do. You can’t be anyone else but yourself. Embrace it.
Isaac Hayden at Songwriter's Night at Kimbro's.
Hanging with my friend Ron at National Underground!
Tour Tip: Chewing on a Slice vs Getting a Taste
During my current, four week tour, I tried out a new strategy for my scheduling: Instead of rushing from gig to gig in new cities each day, I planned a few days off around a city to spend extra time exploring the scene.
Specifically, during my four week tour, I planned four nights in Chicago, and three nights in Nashville, even though I only had one gig booked in each city.
I’ve discovered that the rewarding part of the traveling to Chicago and Nashville was found on my days off rather than during the actual gigs. (The gigs were fun, too).
In a way, I’m still “working” on my days off, but it’s cool stuff: visiting concerts, meeting musicians, playing open mics, having coffee with other creatives. I’ve met so many people on my days off.
Last night, was another highlight: I went to the National Underground’s open mic, and I met Layne Oliver, a young country songwriter who moved to Nashville from Georgia this year. It was a blast to talk to him about his perspective of the scene from his experiences while we were bar hopping up and down Broadway.
Layne and I also met a group of Europeans songwriters that played at the open mic the National Underground. One “hello, I liked your song,” lead to us bar hopping to 1 or 2 AM, sharing beers at Tootsie’s and the Stage on Broadway, with Matt and Dan, German songwriters in a band called Skinny Jeans, and an entire group of Europeans they met while staying at the Nashville Hostel. It was a late night of singing along to ZZ Top covers, talking about our music goals and songwriting, hearing about Europe’s music scene and traveling…It was nuts.
Today, my alarm clock was menacing at 8:15 AM, but I got to meet Nashville freelance writer Chuck Schultz for coffee, and one minute into our conversation had me awake for the day! (The coffee helped, too.)
I’m might be still only passing through, but I feel like I’m getting to chew on a slice of the scene rather than only getting a taste.
My Michigan friends Ron and Erin surprised me at my gig in Nashville!
