Thanh's Blog

Tuesday off

thanhsguitar — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:26:35 +0000

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

thanhsguitar — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:27:12 +0000

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 lot like Satriani’s Always With You Always With Me… Hope he got some credit…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4fPv450OYM

Holidays and Weddings

thanhsguitar — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:47:38 +0000

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 arts in general were an important part of the celebration. The occasion could be an opera for carnival or new music pieces for a wedding as a gift. At the reception, one of the bride’s dance students performed a dance piece dedicated to the bride and groom. This is a tradition that possibly could be forgotten if it were not for the romanticism of music in a wedding.

Playing a CD will never substitute live musicians nor embrace the feeling and atmosphere created by live musicians.

Just moved!

thanhsguitar — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:05:30 +0000

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 San Jose and Milpitas. They were really dedicated students and I wish them the best on their endeavors. I hope they don’t put that axe down!

Also, the Vietnamese community is far smaller here than in San Jose even though it’s only 20 minutes away!

Cheers! Thanh

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

thanhsguitar — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:52:55 +0000

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 enjoy talking to Michael and in addition to the arts, he’s just an interesting person!

If you get a chance, please stop by Cafe Trieste to look at his works upstairs or his website at http://www.onibatsu.com/

I need to commission him for some work when I work on an album!

Thanh is playing downtown San Jose every Tuesday

thanhsguitar — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:47:26 +0000

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 play there as well. I’ll play at Satori at 4 PM on Tuesdays so please come out to support the art, tea, and music! Satori is located 37 N San Pedro Street behind Peggy Sues. Just go into the parking lot and you’ll see the tea house.

If you can’t get enough of classical guitar, you can see me play at both places on the same day or catch a set at one of the places. The art is by local artists and the tea company has a huge selection! It’s absolutely fantastic and very classy.

Kaleid Art Gallery

thanhsguitar — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:25:52 +0000

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

thanhsguitar — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:29:52 +0000

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. The band played well and had some cool solos. Great job! I can’t wait until I wear out this CD!! Brian’s solo works were far out and I really loved their cover of Kings of Leon, “Use Someboday”… was that a cover as well? I guess a lot of pop sounds the same… awesome job!

http://guitaristbriangore.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/guitarandvoice/

Big Basin Hike

thanhsguitar — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:36:45 +0000

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 tasty and fueled me for the rest of the journey. We then ate some Bun Bo Hue for dinner when we got back to San Jose. I’ll post some pictures later. My feet are a little achy as my sneakers were not up to the challenge and I probably shouldn’t have worn jeans! Oh well, learning experience.

Great day

7/23/2010 Garlic and Music

thanhsguitar — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:54:46 +0000

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 Gilroy but the temperature was much hotter! I’m glad wore shorts and a tee-shirt and that I didn’t forget my glasses. Rick plays a mean guitar! The crowd loved it and Nate Pruit is quite the entertainer on the vocals. He even improvised a 2 minute solo at the end of one of the tunes.

The food there was bountiful and I ate even more garlic. Before I went home, my stomach ached from the deep fried garlic, garlic ice cream, garlic sweet potato fries, garlic mushrooms, and the wine tasting. I also heard even more music! Music goes great with garlic! My stomach still ached while I was teaching when I got back, and luckily my student likes garlic!