Lesson of the Week: Nashville.

Those of you who keep up with my life, know that I have been playing in a band for the last month with an artist named Peti Banfe. I was asked to play guitar for a competition that he had the chance to participate in, the competition was to be in Nashville at a venue named “12th and Porter”, it was hosted by Word Records, and the winner had the chance to get a development record deal with the label, as well as to open for an established Word Records artists' concert following the competition.

Throughout the last month we have prepared for this event. For the competition, we were only allowed to play one song. For most of the month we deliberated on what song to play and we chose one of our songs called “Yahweh”. We practiced, and practiced and practiced. We were ready finally and we were off to Nashville. The drive was easy because we have an extremely nice van with a DVD player that makes driving seem more like entering a time machine. The way the time machine works is you put a DVD in, such as “The Office: Season 1”, and when the DVD turns off, your 3 hours into the future. It's a remarkable way to travel.

We arrived at our hotel, got some food, and got some sleep the night before the competition. I awoke and got breakfast with my parents who were there to enjoy their 31st anniversary in Nashville, as well as see us play. Then 11:00 am came, and we were off to the venue. We unloaded our equipment with our nerves intact. We were the 5th band to play out of about 18 bands. The first 4 bands played and my stomach began to burst with the butterflies of insecurity. I couldn't keep my knees from quivering, my breath from steadying, or my thoughts from running wild with nervous thoughts of what could go wrong. We were then announced that we were the band on deck.

We went towards the back of the venue to tune our instruments. As some of you know I have a bunch of guitar effects pedals, but what you may not know is that the more pedals you have, the more room for failure you have. I went to begin preparing my equipment with the butterflies destroying my insides like a swarm of locust in a field. My equipment was ready to go, my guitar tuned, but my nerves still ruining my insides. I began to play through the song in my head, and dry ran through the song to warm my fingers up. I probably played through the song twice all the way through, and finally I prayed. Not that we would win, I prayed that I would have fun, be able to play my best, and for my nerves to cool. Right then, I could breath again. The butterflies died, and I had more confidence than I have had in a while. The band before us finished and it was our turn to set up. I set up, everything was ready. Guitar tuned, pedals working, power on, amplifier equalized, I was ready.

The song we chose begins with Peti playing an ambient synthesizer sound, then the drums click the beat, and I get ready to hit the first chord in the song, a dissonant A minor. Just as my pick strikes the string SNAP my G-string breaks. The most vital string on my guitar for this particular song. Panic ensues within my head, but I come to the conclusion that I just have to deal with it. I play the verses and per-chorus as well as I can without my most vital string. The pre-chorus builds into a the chorus that cries out into an anthem. Just as I hit the chord to enter into this anthem, SNAP. My A-string breaks. Now I am in trouble. You see, 90% of this song uses those two strings, the G and the A string. This is a pivotal point. We only get to play one song, and my guitar cannot be salvaged. We brought a back-up guitar, but for only one song I didn't believe for a second that I would be in the predicament that I was in. So I run off stage and just start asking other bands for a guitar, any guitar, anything. Just as I am about to dig and find my back up guitar, one of the other bands hands me a guitar. I grab it, and sprint back to the stage, I jump up to the front of the stage, plug in the guitar without tuning it or adjusting anything. I got on stage just in time to hit on of the key parts of the song. The keyboard's strings lead the way into a huge guitar note that I was just able to hit. We go back into the final chorus and end the song.

I was able to recover from some of the worst luck ever, but I still felt like an embarrassing failure for about the few hours following our performance, especially when there was a band fronted by teenage girls who totally out played me. But the band was very forgiving of my misfortune. The band that did end up winning, named “Sons of Day”, had actually been on a label for three years, and were all brothers which means they have been playing for a very very long time. Compared to us who have been together about a month.

However the rest of the night was awesome. I got the chance to hang out in Nashville for the night and got to go all over the city with a good friend and a Nashville local, it was cool.

My final lesson for this week is two fold.

First, expectations will destroy you. When we think we know what, how, when, and why, something is going to happen, were going to fall flat on our face. Because let's be real, nothing ever goes to plan, as a Death Cab For Cutie songs states “Every plan, is a tiny prayer to father time”. We have to learn to set our expectations as loosely as possible, so that when our plans inevitably go haywire, we don't fall flat on our face. As some of you know, I have learned this lesson many times over, which is why I was able to recover from the performance a few hours after.

Second lesson, is the need for humility. We need to learn to be humble in all aspects of life. And when were not? I can guarantee you that there will be an event that you have to eat a giant piece of humble pie, and that pie tastes awful, but it's full of vitamins and essential minerals to survive...ok, ignore my terrible metaphor, but do you know what I mean? We all need to get up on stage with all sorts of expectations, break all of our guitar strings, and try to roll with the punches that we take on the chin in life everyday. That's what I learned in Nashville.

-Trav