May
15
2006

A Lesson With Laufenburg

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, May 15, 2006 - 08:30:37 am (Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 03:30:37 pm MST)
(Posted Under: Travel)
This morning, after desperate attempts to stay awake (all failed - on my behalf), we got up and made a move to get some shopping as, of course, we had no food. It was down to the Albertsons to stock up, which we did. The guy at the check out made reference to our healthy selection. Pizzas, chicken nugggets, fries, tortillas, soft drink, a slab of Budwizer, etc. Though Cath did get some carrots and celery, and tried to get a roasted chicken. [smile]

After that, we came back, and hung around until it was time for Katie's guitar lesson. I tagged along, and I was so glad that I did. At about 3 we started to drive up towards north Scottsdale, where Katie has her lessons. We waiting in the waiting room until Thomas came out and said hi. One of the first things he did was say "we've met before, right?". Honestly, I can't remember if we have, but it's possible that we did at the show he did with Marc last year. The Marc show where he called him up and told him to come down to Yucca and play a set with him, which turned out to be awesome. [smile] In anycase, I thought it was really cool that he possibly remembers me from last year.

So, we went into the lesson, and I took a look around at the rock posters on the wall until Thomas came back in. While doing so, Katie pointed out a row of Elvis "The Cat" Del Monte fliers that were on the wall right near where I was sitting and had failed to notice. Way cool! Definately cool ass. Most of the posters were general rock stuff (Led Zepplin, the Stones) except for those and a Never Been Thawed poster (a local movie, which Thomas was in).

Thomas came in, and said hi, and asked when I'd gotten in, and asked where abouts in Australia I was from, and whether it was deserty. He talked about one of his students that is also from Melbourne (who apparently used to have his lesson right before Katie), and talked about what we were going to do, and the fact that Katie wouldn't be around for the next couple of lessons. The Mexico / Peacemakers thing came up, to which Thomas' response was "you like those guys?" [smile] Ahh, the Tempe rivalry between bands. [wink] Katie brought up the fact that I wouldn't get to see the Pistoleros, and he went on about how bad the last show was. Katie said it wasn't that bad, to which Thomas replied "no, we sucked. That's what you get when you don't practise." [smile] It was somewhat comical how he refused to agree that the last show was okay.

After a little bit of talk, the lesson started, and immediately it was like I was no longer in the room. This was great, I wanted to just observe a normal lesson, and it was totally like that - it was like I was not in the room at all. Sweeeeet! [smile] It was not suprising, because I expected this of Thomas, from what I know of him, but I was quite impressed of him as a teacher. Thomas is somewhat of a serious guy (which really makes the Thomas & Mark pairing so interesting), and it really comes through in his lessons. In the half an hour lesson, Katie played for maybe 10 minutes. That is a sign of a good teachers. Thomas is all over theory, and pretty organised for a Tempe musician. The lesson was on minor penatonics, and just sitting there, I learnt some stuff. I haven't had lessons for about 13 years, I'm passed it, but I was thinking that if I lived here, I'd take lessons from Thomas. Not because his the guitarist of cool ass bands (The Pistoleros, Ghetto Cowgirl, Loretta, and one that is escaping me), but because he's a really good teacher.

I also got to witness the Laughenburg analogies - this one was the Grand Canyon and penatonic scales, which was obviously pretty cool! [smile]

At the end of the lesson we talked about more - Thomas made a crack about Katie not having cash, and me paying for the lesson, something about having me trained well or something. It was quite humerous. [smile] I only had 50's, and there was some momentary stress about whether he'd have change of a 50, wanting to be cool, but he did, so it was all good. He mentioned how cool saying "cheers" (for "thanks") was, so maybe that's an Australian thing. [smile] We talked some more about what we were going to do, and his Australian student, and how he'd love to move to Australia. I said I'd gladly swap locations with him. [smile] It's always funny to me, how people out here would rather be somewhere else. [smile]

So, he walked us out and wished us well on our trips and what not. I was actually wearing my Circus Mexicus t-shirt, and thought about how much contempt that Thomas probably had for me! [smile] hahaha. [smile] But yeah, I'm not sure if I've actually formally met Thomas before, but he's really a nice guy, and a great teacher. And I'm really glad that I decided to tag along to Katie's lesson.

We drove back through Old Town Scottsdale, which was enjoyable to me. Aside from last night I've never been there before. When we got back to the appartment Catherine was still out on her walk that she said she was going to take while we were gone. After a while I was going to call her, when she appeared at the front door. [smile] We were quite impressed with how far she'd walked, which explains why she was gone for so long ("you walked all the way to Apache?!?").

Beyond that we just chilled out in the apartment, and I tried, with miserable results to get my laptop to work.

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