Well, Grooveline flew into DC and Virginia this
weekend to do some Horn Clinics or Master
Classes which ever one you prefer. I guess it's
are way of giving back to communities and
other up and coming musicians. We have come a
long way since we started the horn section in
1994. I remember moving from Denton, Tx and
moving to San Marcos and moving in with Carlos
who was in college at Texas State University. I
think at the time we were dissatisfied with our
music career and came up with the idea of
starting a horn section. We came up with a lot of
goals one of which was to play with all the
biggest names in the music industry and record
with every one as well.
In achieving some of these goals,
we started out playing with an R&B cover band
named Grooveline which is where we came up
with our horn section name. We thought it was
only fitting that since the first band that we ever
played with as a horn section and gave us a
chance that we name the section that. I
remember the place we played at was an all black
club named "Catfish Station". That scared the hell
out of me and Carlos because we thought we
were going to get our ass kicked. Well, if that
wasn't farther from the truth. After all the playful
initiation (ha!), we were one of the guys and
everyone made us feel so comfortable. It's crazy
what you think a situation is going to be like
whether you are paranoid about something or
someone or worrying about acceptance in a
certain situation and it turns out great. All that
worrying for nothing. One person doing
something stupid doesn't represent a whole race.
People are people and everyone is different. That
is what I took with me.
Well, we played five nights a week
at this club on the famous Sixth Street in Austin,
Tx driving back and forth every night from San
Marcos for little money. We got to play together,
phrase together write together and basically got
all our chops together (practice). Well, eventually
we started playing with bigger and bigger artist
by sitting in all the time for no money usually but
just trying to get better. There was a lot of
sacrifice involved. It's not about the money. Let
me repeat that. It's not about the money. If your
not ready for that then this is not for you. I mean
it!!!!
We have been fortunate enough to play with
a variety of different musicians and different
styles of music. Even though we are not where
we want to be yet , there are still a lot of other
goals that we haven't reached yet. But as far as
we have gotten, now kids and musicians want to
know how to get where we are at. So we figured
giving back by giving clinics was a great way to
answer questions on how to do this. We did a
couple of Clinics this week. We weren't sure how
it was going to go but it went really great. The
first one we did was in Maryland @ Washington
Music Center. Well, besides the Nuclear Rally and
all the other protests and all the traffic on 95 it
went pretty good. For this being the first one, it
was a great for getting our feet wet. We got to
play a little bit, and talked about horn section
playing and recording horns which is like second
nature to us. All the things that we take for
granted is the things people want to know. To us
it seems as though everyone already knows this.
As far as recording, it seems as though people
were really interested in how we come up with
ideas and how we record horns and of course
how do we get to play with certain artist. So,
thank you to everyone at Washington Music
Center for making our first clinic experience as a
horn section a great one.
Next we went to Mechanicsville, VA. where
we had met a great friend and Music Store owner
and musician out on tour with Jason named Rick
Alvey. He actually sat in and played a couple of
gigs with us. I could tell by the look on his face
and his nervousness at the gigs sitting in that he
had fulfilled a long time dream. It is the greatest
rush one can ever experience. There is
something about playing in front of of people
that makes life worth living and keeps you
striving for more.
So we end up showing up to Mechanicsville
and we see a lot of old friends. There is lot of
Jason's family there along with a lot of Ricks
friends and a bunch of kids. Always good to see
family. What a treat. So the age groups where all
over the board with the youngest being a seven
year old little girl. From what they told us she
was a great guitar player and singer and can play
piano. The funniest thing that happen at this
clinic was when Carlos was answering this
technical question about recording which lasted
a good 15 minutes and then this little girl asked
if we had played with Taylor Swift. I wouldn't say
funny, but cute.
We played a lot more at this one. It
seems as though the kids wanted to see us play
as much as possible and who you have played
with. The older people wanted to know all about
the recording process in which we were happy to
answer or shall I say Carlos was happy to answer.
I think we did about 2 hours a clinic. It went by
really fast. I guess you can say this was a great
success. We can't believe how much fun we had
and how easy it came to us.
Thank you to everyone who came
out to Mechanicsville Music and supporting us.
We will be back. So be looking out for
Grooveline Horn Clinics in your area or if you
want us to give a clinic at your school or
University you can reach us at our website:
thegroovelinehorns.com. Just drop us a line. We
will be adding more to these clinics as we do
more and more demonstrating other skills. We
are working on making it better. See you guys
soon.
Fernie
Grooveline Horns
|
