Tuesday off

What a great day! I woke up and already laid out a plan to work on some new music as well as rehash some old pieces. I looked at some Piazzolla from his Five Pieces for Guitar, I didn’t get to the Barrios, but I did go over some Villa-Lobos, Una Limosna, and some flamenco pieces. Flamenco is great for rhythm! Afterwards I got a chance to relax in Downtown Palo Alto. First, I had a slice of pizza at pizza my heart and then finished the afternoon at Pete’s coffee. There I was studying my Vietnamese… I need to work on my vocabulary. I think I will try to tie practicing music with memorizing my vocab! Finally, I continued to read through Mesut Ozgen’s dissertation on guitar biomechanics. I believe he is an M.D. and has a doctorate in guitar. The day ended with Yoga with my excellent instructor, Chris G, at 24 Hour Fitness.


Satriani ripped off again? This time by Nicki Minaj

I was listening to Pandora radio and I thought I heard the introduction of Joe Satriani’s Always With You Always With Me. Instead, it was Nicki Minai’s Right Through Me. I hope Satch was getting something out of this!! Here’s a video of Minai’s song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FJO6b8GL3M and here’s Satch’s tune: Hey the intro is a


Holidays and Weddings

I recently had the pleasure of performing for a friend’s wedding in Marshall, MO. I played some of my rep and closing with “Sound of Bells” before the wedding party came into the church. The action of live music made me appreciate my profession in a historical context. In any age period, music and the


Just moved!

Just a quick message to let everyone know that I’ve recently (as of September) moved to Santa Clara / Sunnyvale! It takes me only 15 minutes to drive to Cupertino and I can reach more students in the Los Altos/Cupertino area. One of the things I do miss are all the students I had in


Michael Foley’s Art Reception at Cafe Trieste, San Jose

I am an advocate for the arts and I also believe that musicians should be supporting others in the arts field. Michael Foley is an artist that I befriended while playing at Kaleid Art Gallery. He works extremely hard, putting numerous hours into his works, and truly has a receptive personality to ideas. I really


Thanh is playing downtown San Jose every Tuesday

Kaleid Art Gallery, http://www.kaleidgallery.com, has been courteous and allowed me to share my music with visitors to the art gallery for the past year. I will try to continuously be there at 2 PM every Tuesday. Also, speaking with Victoria, the proprietor of Satori, a tea-bar, she said it would be okay for me to


Kaleid Art Gallery

I had a great time playing over at Kaleid Art Gallery in Downtown San Jose. http://www.kaleidgallery.com/ I ran into Gianfranco and Lacey both artists and friends. I’ll be there next Tuesday. Ciao!


Yoshi’s for Scheherazade Stone and Brian Gore

Just came back from Brian Gore and Scheherazade Stone for Sing Strings and they put on a great show! It was at Yoshi’s in Oakland. The venue had an intimate atmosphere (even where I sat in the back) the music was clear. I loved seeing the finger work Brian used and enjoyed the sultry vocals.


Big Basin Hike

Wow! What a hike and what great scenery. This Sunday was spent not on guitar, but on 6 hours worth of hiking on Big Basin trails! Lots of beautiful waterfalls, Redwoods, guess games (20 questions to guess what object someone is thinking), great company, and some great food afterwards. The Lees sandwich for lunch was


7/23/2010 Garlic and Music

What a great day! Gilroy, CA is the garlic capital of the country and annually there is a festival that celebrates garlic. I forgot about the festival until I found out that Rick Vandivier, a friend, was playing with his band, Primary Colors, at the festival. It wasn’t a long drive from San Jose to