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Have you ever had one of those dreams that was both the most incredible and the most horrific dream you could imagine?

That happened to me last night!

I didn't eat anything spicy before I went to bed, not sure why I had this crazy dream

But I digress...

So, there I am in the dressing room at Madison Square Garden talking to Sting and Andy Summers about getting the gig in The Police - which is only one of THE GREATEST BANDS EVER!!!!!

I don't know where Stewart was, probably filming something.




So anyway, I'm thinking we're there to rehearse for the show. It turns out, we're there for a quick sound check. Thank god they were playing Every Breath You Take and Roxanne, songs every guitar player my age knows.

I know you're asking about right now why do the Police need another guitar player, they have Andy Summers. Well, Andy switched to keys and they needed a guitar player to fill his spot. That's all I know. And I'm putting that together because Andy was playing the keys during soundcheck with a special guest (read on....)

I faked my way through the sound check, which was very cool because Stevie Wonder and David Robinson (aka The Admiral) were both on stage with us. Stevie was on keys of course, not sure what David was doing except being very tall.

So, after the sound check, my mind was racing....

"How did I get this gig when I haven't learned the tunes?"

"How can I sneak out of here without being seen?"

"Will I be able to change my name and live a normal life after this?"

"Hey, I said brown M&M's only!"

At this point, I go up to Andy and ask him if he could possibly run through the songs we were going to do that night so that I could, ahem, write out a set list.

Also, would he mind telling me what key each song was in and the chord progressions (yes - I guess I thought I could learn their back catalog in the 2 hours before the show)

He finally started catching on when I asked which effects he used on the songs, when to switch and if I could read the manual on his custom pedal board to learn more about the effect chain.

He pulled me aside and gave me a stern lecture on why they hired me for the gig, I can't let them down, Sting's crazy and he'll kill you if he knows you're not ready, etc., etc., etc.

This is where I woke up in a cold sweat - but still thinking how awesome that dream was.

So, what can we take from this dream?

Besides not eating snickerdoodles right before bed ....

When it is time for any performance - be it a gig, recital or even playing your lesson material for your instructor - you should put the time and effort into getting the material under your fingers and in your ear before the big day.

By putting the work in before hand, you have two likely scenarios. Both of which are good.

First, you will nail the material and have a great time playing.

Second, you may not nail it ... there may be a mistake here and there... but you will have given it your best effort and know that you did the best you could.

Either way, you will do just fine.

Just don't be like me and have to run from Sting because I couldn't play every song from Zenyatta Mondatta!







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