It freaked me out a little when I got that e-mail–one of the first things they asked me when I wanted to see what the deal was is, “how come on the solo you didn’t show your face?” In other words, one of the guys was insinuating that it wasn’t me playing it…..ludicrous. That’s why I asked him to take a seat and played it right in front of him like you see on video, telling him that the way we filmed the solo was actually my son’s idea. I kind of felt the “air” leave the room, so to say, when I did show them that it was me. Right before leaving, I told my accuser–whose name I won’t mention here–I said to him “And FYI, the man who has been teaching me how to play did say on my solo for the video that a few of my notes, here-and-there, we off rhythm by just a little bit….after all I was tired from a long day at the clinic; but I’m working on it” 😉
Being a student player, I would never have thought a Music Academy would say/think something like that, so I’m glad you brought that point out about it can depend. From my perspective, I would think they would be encouraging and maybe even provide a few pointers to me. Crazy experience but, nonetheless, an important learning curve for me.

Yeah, that’s the way I see it too…..but we don’t have to be an advanced player to look at what was being played on video and even remotely think that it was fake. You can see just as clear as anything that I am playing those notes. The USB mic I use is fairly simple and I don’t have elaborate recording equipment for blog uploads….the Selmer Tenor I use is much more bright and edgy than what it sounds like on video too. In time soon to come, I’ll be looking for Johnny’s help to get started with home recording as I don’t have any kind of recording equipment right now that will let me experiment with things like reverb, echo, etc and will do a much better job of recording v.s. the simple USB mic; but for blog uploads it’s fine for now.