philhemmo.com

Man a month since my last BLOG. Geez – time flies. It has been so busy at my shop and I have been really hardcore practicing.

Mozart’s Sister recorded 2 tunes (Drowning in Denial and Bitch Back Off). Both can be heard on our reverbnation page (www.reverbnation.com/mozartssister). The new album is now officially underway.

I have confirmed classical guitar concert dates. Sept 24, 2010 – St Philip’s in the Hills, 7:30. I am working hard to finish off the classical cd and hope to have it for sale by the beginning of April!!

As mentioned SW Guitar has been seriously crazy. We have had the priviledge of helping out so many wonderful people this last month! Many new guitars are coming so drop by and asy Hi!

Tomarrow is Sun and I am totally looking forward to a chill day.

More soon…

I wish.

It has been a little while sisnce I blogged. BuSy!!! Marathon recording session on Mon 11/23. I was very happy with the end product. Please take a listen. The Ponce and Torroba are on the player on my main page. The Torroba is done. I still have some edittin on the Ponce. I think the Chanson sounds really great.

Go to my facebook and vote for which pic should be the album cover (www.fracebok.com/guitarprof). They all look so nice. Jules Ramse is amazing. She has such a great eye and a great feel for the pics she shoots. I am lucky to have her as a friend!

I also put up a pic of my turtle Plato. He is a great little dude. We have had him for about a year. He was calcuim deficient for a while but is doing great now. I am very fond of him.

This coming monday is my anniversary. Dorothy and I will be married 18 years!! I am super lucky!

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much. I hope all of us can remember all the great things that happen every day.

Till later.

Busy day which starts off what I know will be a busy week!!!

Had a great photo shoot with my friend Jules Ramsey. Got some great shots for the new Cd. I should have some of them up on FB next week!

Next recording session is 1 week away and I am feeling pretty good. Ponce Sonata III and Torroba Suite Castillana. Should be fun. I will also get rough mixes online asap after the session.

Met 4 new artists this weekend. Great people with beautiful art. I am hopeful we can get some new art up and for sale at SW Guitar. I just think music related art surrounded by guitars would be gorgeous!

Several returning students back this week from summer trips. I so look forward to working with them. Since word of the new Cd has spread around so many new faces have asked me for lessons – truly humbling!

I ordered a new concert guitar – counting the days until Jan 2011!

Had an interesting day today. Made some new friends and connected with some old ones.

Had an interesting conversation with a new friend re development in Downtown Tucson. I have lived here most of my life (Tucson). I am just not sure they know what they are doing with this development. I am for change and improvement but to what ends? If you tear down the reasons people want to go downtown in the first place and replace those shops with new ones that can be found anywhere, are you revitalizing the downtown district?

I practiced a lot. I think I am getting the tempos close to where I want them for the next recording session. I have some wiggle room – 3 weeks. That is good.

I am trying to get some concert dates for 2010 confirmed. Looks like more info should be solid in a month or so.

Mozart’s Sister is playing a show on Fri. Some old friends will be there so that will be a blast. I hope you can make it as well.

I am now actively persuing artists to hang their works at the shop. I would love to see art work in the store. Good beautiful art surrounded by beautiful guitars!!!!!!

The last few days have been a bit hectic. Sorry for the lack of BloG.

So here goes – let’s catch up.

I was back in the studio doing some clean up work on a few tracks that I think sound real good. I was super inspired by a young Russian guitarist Irina Kulikova, whose Cd on the Naxos label FLOORED me. If you facebook – add her. She is amazingly nice and such a great player.

I am working out the details on some recitals for 2010. Looks like 1 here, 1 @ ASU, 1 in San Diego, and 1 in Albequerque or Santa Fe. I will keep you posted on dates as I confirm them.

The shop has been crazy busy as well. I keep getting calls from teachers from other stores who are not getting any new students. We have been averaging 4-5 new students per week. I am very proud of this fact. It shows the integrity of our teachers and the level that we offer.

I am meeting with some artists (visual) this week. I have decided it would be cool to hang art for sale at the shop. I am also starting to consider options for a Spring recital series.

That is all fo rnow – I hope these ramblings keep you up to date.

Today was odd. I am going to blame the weather.

The shop was busy with some new faces coming in and becoming part of our family. I practiced my butt off. Ponce Sonata III is sounding really good. I have to be careful not to let the tempo get to fast just for the sake of playing fast.

Had some great conversations with Anne and Julie Ramsey (who is the best photographer I know) and of course with Dorothy when we both got home.

I hope it rains. I know it is the desert but is has been too damn dry!

Tomarrow in the early a.m. I will be on campus to do some editting @ the recording studio.  Next session in 4 weeks.  I hope to have the Cd done before April!

Good day today. Lots of practice this past week. Stuff is coming together for sure. I hope to put up a few new videos by the end on the first week of Nov.

Helped my dad out today. I know most of us know computer and live, breath, and drink them. However, I do not understand why a big Co would assume that all of their customers are computer literate. He bought cruise tix and needed to online check in and registar passport/lugguge/etc… We got it done but they did not make it easy!

So – I am going to hang music related art in the shop (if anyone brings in any). I think it will be a great way to meet new people/artists and help the community as a whole.

All for now.

Phil out

Thurs can be a long day for me. Lots of nice students but lots. Today was great. I had a lot of time to practice and even did a live concert tonight on stickam.com/guitarprof.

Looks like we should receive a large Alhambra order late next week. That is always good. Great new guitars!!

I am once again thankful to have such great friends. Differant people with differant personalities that all mesh!!!

2 strippers came into the shop today. I was kind and helpful. I got the vibe that I was maybe one of the few who actually treated them like people. They were nice enough. I seriously could care less what someone does for a living or on their personal time as long as they are a good person. People are toooo judgemental.

There that might get a comment.

Well have a good night and I will blog again soooon!

So today was Tues. Had a great day. Made some leads on classical concerts for 2010 – info soooon. Made some new friends – check out Ask Alice out of LA. Great rock band. Looks like they might do a show with Mozart’s Sister in Dec.

I went live for a 40 min concert on my stickam.com acct. I am going to try and do this often. I will announce when i am live on my facebook.

Had some great conversations with friends at the shop today. I am lucky to know so many great people.

Local guitar builder Brian Dunn stopped by and let me play on a new instrument. Very nice – not the sound I am looking for. It is tough. My main guitar is a concert instrument by Robert Ruck. This is the equivilant of driving a corvette for daily driving. It is tough to find somthing that moves me more.

Well all for now. Comment your thoughts!

Phil

So for those of you who do not know, Mondays are my day off. The shop is closed and I usually have no big plans.

Problem is I get bored.

So I practiced a lot today. Lot’s of goodies and some more real good progress. 3rd Mvt of the Moreno-Torroba is starting to get a lot faster. I should be able to do Scott Tennent speed. Ana Vidovic speed is ScArY!!!!!

I went for a walk and finally fixed my music stand. It had broken and needed a little l bracket. I successfully drilled and screwed (not in a dirty way).

I made some contacts in San Diego for a concert hopefully next Fall. We shall see.

Anyhoooo that was my day. Did anyone do anything fun? No one comments – I am feeling a bit sad due to the lack of comments. SHould I say somthing shocking?