Individual Artist Project

I am planning at least one public performance as a culmination of this grant project, in downtown Grand Rapids during the First Friday Art Walk in May 2024. Through state and local grant funding and support of private donors I have presented First Friday concerts on and off for years at the Grand Rapids VFW Post 1720 and other venues in the downtown, and I have built a solid following of supportive listeners. This grant project concert would be an opportunity to showcase my new solo repertoire in front of my home community before eventually taking it on the road to other venues around the state and region. The performance would contribute to the local creative community and provide a great opportunity for me to get feedback on my playing from an audience that is very familiar with my music and musical career. One of my priorities as a performing artist is bringing arts opportunities to rural places. Through the final performance of this grant project and through the possibilities for future performances created by my new solo chord melody repertoire, I am expanding my ability to engage with audiences and communities of all sizes. ; My primary goal is to learn enough songs in the chord melody style of playing that I can present an hour-long performance of this material. I also hope to have at least 6 of my original compositions adapted to this style and included in that repertoire. I will track the work I do on this project, including hours spent practicing, engaging in the online course, and writing/arranging songs. I will also be able to measure the final output in terms of the number of songs I am prepared to perform and the completion of a public performance. In the long term my goal is that this project will help strengthen my music career as it moves in a new direction toward more solo and small group performances. Most of that impact will be seen beyond the timeframe of this grant, but I will document any new performance opportunities that arise for my solo work. I am a professional musician living with a major mental illness. As part of my mental health recovery, I have become very disciplined in my routines. I already set aside time each day for practicing music. Through this grant I would increase my practice time and focus it on chord melody study for about 8 hours each week over the course of 5-6 months. I have a track record of successful self study, including the very start of my career when I taught myself to play guitar in the style of Django Reinhardt with a set of instructional VHS tapes. I practiced for 8 hours a day when I was a teenager, but I have kids now so setting aside 1-2 hours is more realistic. I also know where my skills are lacking, and I have set aside some grant funds to compensate my wife ? an arts administrator at MacRostie Art Center ? for her time helping me track my progress, organize the evaluation process, and complete the reporting requirements.; Because the majority of this project will be completed by myself in my home studio, evaluation of my progress toward my goals will rely a lot on my own documentation and reflection. I keep journals of my practice sessions and will keep notes of what I'm working on and how I feel the process is going. I'll also have feedback from the guitarist Martin Taylor to evaluate my progress as part of the online ArtistWorks course. Additionally, I have a community of people who support me on Patreon or follow me on social media, so I plan to share my efforts along the way on these platforms to gather some outside feedback and responses to my work learning chord melody style and adapting my songs to this format. I will also have an opportunity to get in person feedback during my final performance in May 2024 and will do so by collecting written and verbal responses during and following the concert.