Sydney Guitar Festival and the Value of Live Concerts
It was a cold rainy night, but I forced myself to go out to the Mike Dawes Sydney guitar concert. It was worth it. Dawes is one of the world’s best acoustic guitarists, and he did not disappoint.
We should realise it’s worth going to live shows, because sometimes you forget and just want to stay home. Why do we get lazy? Well, it does take some effort to go to a show. You have to buy a ticket, plan the night, dress up, drive to the venue and find a park, or brave the public transport system. Then you have to do it again afterwards to get home.
Apart from that, these days it’s never been easier to be a recluse because you can get most things online. With YouTube, Netflix, and so on, you can get all the viewing you want. You can buy books from Amazon, and do your food shopping online too. Apart from the pesky matter of earning a living, one might stay home most of the time…
But Don’t Do That – Get Out of the House!
Still, the value of going to a real concert is clear whenever I go to one. You make a closer connection with the artist, there’s more atmosphere, and seeing the rest of the audience is a reminder music is a shared activity that brings people together.
That’s why I’m going to the Sydney Guitar Festival in June. It’s a total of seven concerts held over three days at Ascham school in Edgecliff. I bought a festival pass which allows me to go all seven, but I’ll probably only attend three or four. No doubt it’ll be a reminder of what an honour it is to be connected to this great instrument, the guitar, and the whole art form of guitar music.
One of the concerts I’ll attend is Edith Pageaud, a classical guitarist. Her performance in Sydney last year was excellent. Of course, it would be possible to take the lazy option of staying home and watching one of her concerts on YouTube, but to go to an actual show of live music is uplifting and can inspire you to practice more!
I might also go to the Melbourne guitar quartet on the Sunday, and then the finale concert. Apparently there are also some workshops and a master class.
Sydney Guitar Festival
I would encourage my guitar students to attend some of these sessions at the Sydney Guitar Festival, and also other concerts into the future. Doing so gives inspiration and a connection to the wider community of people who play and listen to the guitar.
You can check it out here https://events.humanitix.com/concerts-australia-guitar-festival-sydney
Now, going back to Mike Dawes (who’s not part of this festival, just to be clear) here he is playing the Van Halen classic, ‘Jump.’ Ironically, this was one of Edward Van Halen’s first keyboard songs. When it came out in 1984, it was thought controversial for the world’s best rock guitarist to play keyboards, but the song became their biggest hit. Anyway, Mike Dawes has brought things full circle and transcribed the whole song for solo guitar. I’m sure Eddie would have approved!
If you would like to become part of Sydney guitar yourself, feel free to contact me for a lesson.