I met a new friend at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. She's a brilliant costume designer and is keeping a blog about her adventures. She did a nice write up and about my band and my travels:
http://lacewingcostumes.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/the-hot-violinist/
Go show her some love!

Jordi Wave, thank you for the kind and thoughtful comment:

“From inside, this is the secret
It is clear that the music flows in you.”

I wanted to respond because I feel like I am on to a little secret of how to connect with music in a way that will help listeners to respond emotionally.  I actually didn't realize what I was doing until a recent experience in an acting class in which the topic was “Inner Imagery.”  Actors use this technique to help performances be honest and real by holding specific mental images.

So, here's the secret: When I play these songs, I think about stories and moments in my life and others that I've heard or could imagine.

An Armenian Harvest Dance, for example, could inspire me with the image of a tribal woman from 100 years ago working to prepare grain just brought in from the field.  I imagine a pain in her back and the colors and smells of spices on her shelf. Or maybe I would think of a personal experience that goes with the feel of the song.  No one in the audience has to know what you're thinking.  It creates a circle where the thoughts make the notes come out a bit differently, and the notes coming out in rhythm conjure new emotions or thoughts.

The most fun is to look out into the audience, and see a facial expression that reminds me of something I've felt before.  So then I focus on that experience. 

This way of responding to the audience personally feeds the moment and makes the performance feel fresh and different each time.  And helps immensely with nerves and stage fright.

I've played that Last of the Mohicans song literally thousands of times, and without this technique I'd probably have gone crazy. Do you guys do this when you play? Anyone care to share a song that brings up images for you?

I wanted to share some music from our recent performances in Ohio:

This is an original tune, written by me and Mark Varelas, in a Gypsy style. We used an exotic scale that was introduced to me as the Greek Hitzaz scale.  Here are the notes of the scale in A:

A, Bb, C#, D, E, F, G, A

The G can also be sharped while improvising, which sounds especially good while going up the scale.

Sorry the camera is kinda shakey.  I handed my flip cam to a fan in the crowd who couldn't seem to stop dancing.  Next time I'll pick someone who seems to like the music less 😉

The inspiration to yell “hela!”  came from a very old recording I heard that sounded like it was in an actual hash den in Turkey.  You could hear the background noise of the room. There was a sparse instrumental intro but when the singer yells “hela” a cacophony symphony of flutes, drums, plucked strings and violins comes in.  The next time I heard that word was it was being shouted in the distance of a Ren Faire campground.  I followed it to investigate and found the whole crew of the Greek gyro booth trying to push a truck out of the mud.

I've since been told that it means “come on!” or “bring it!”

Would you guys like sheet music for this?  If I have enough interest I will write it out.