Know your role... it's about respect

Hey everybody!

Greetings from a COLD Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

This weekend I went on an out-of-town trip to do a gig with a jazz trio that I work with (John Edwards on piano, Devon van Rooyen on drums, and me on bass). We have been preparing some new tunes lately - many of which are quite challenging... and FUN!!!

In the process of learning one of the new songs ('Django') we encountered a situation that deserves some reflection. Two of the four sections of this tune's solo form are pretty traditional 'swing' sections which require walking bass parts as accompaniment. At one point in my line I chose to hit a Bb on the first beat of a bar containing an Eb chord since it's the 5 of the chord and leads to the Ab chord in the next bar nicely. Whether you understand that or not, the issue is that it's not wrong, it was one of the many right notes I could have played as part of my line. When we got to the end of the solo John stopped and said: 'Andrew, would you mind playing the root (Eb) at the beginning of that bar? The note you chose threw me a little.' My response was: 'Sure. No problem.'

John has many years' experience in the jazz scene and has worked with many musicians. We were talking a little while after the jam, and he thanked me for my response in that situation. He said that he has worked with other musicians with whom the conversation would have gone more like this:

John: '(Musician X), would you mind playing the root (Eb) at the beginning of that bar? The note you chose threw me a little.'
Musician X: 'I played a Bb man. It's totally right. It's the 5th.'
John: 'I feel like I need to hear the Eb to express myself the way I want to in my solo.'
Musician X: 'Dude, it's not YOUR gig. I can play any note I want in my line. This is JAZZ. It belongs to everyone equally.'
John: (getting annoyed) 'Well this is called the John Edwards Trio...'

And from there the whole thing gets nasty.

Now, as much as it may be everybody's gig, and I agree that the music belongs to everyone, I do think that each musician has a role to play and those roles are very closely linked to our what should be concepts taken from how we live life. In the situation above my role is to support John's solo by providing what he wants as a foundation for expressing the ideas he is trying to express. I don't do it because I play bass so I HAVE TO be the support instrument. I do it because he is my friend and I respect him as a musician and want him to feel comfortable when he plays. I also do it because I know that when I solo he is going to try to support me as best as he can.

I have found that music that is played from this point of mutual respect is always great music... if I respect you I will listen when you speak, I will try to catch you if you 'fall', I'll share my ideas with you, I'll consider your preferences and my own, and I'll try my hardest to make you sound/look good to others.

How could life lived with this attitude not be great life?

BTW the gig was amazing! We played to a sold out venue in a beautiful setting, and a highly appreciative audience... and I played the Eb that John wanted to hear :)

Take care
Andrew

When you wish upon a star...

Hi! It's been ages.

So I heard someone say this earlier today: 'Spending all that time wishing I was different was preventing me from getting to what I was actually meant to be.'

WOW! What a thought! How often in music do we sit for ages listening to others and wish that we could play the way they do?

The listening and admiration are not problems - in fact they are part of every musician's process - but what usually happens is that we listen, wish, and then either get discouraged because of the gaping divide between their music and ours, or we simply forget about it and go on with our daily lives unchanged.

I think the central problem is that 'wishing' requires no action... No 'output' after the 'input'. Wishing allows one to take it all in and then walk away. The attitude that we need to adopt is one of WANTING. You see, a wish has a dream-like quality that puts it in the realm of the impossible, where all a want requires is a way of getting the object of our desire - and we all love getting stuff! This leads to a process of observation, followed by inspiration, followed by ACTION. So I observe something that I want, this inspires me, and the inspiration causes me to ACT to get it - to get one baby-step further across the great divide that separates me from what I want or where I want to be.

The process may be long and require effort, but isn't it worthwhile to know that instead of dreaming something you are actually moving toward it?

I think so!

So when you wish upon a star... it DOES make a difference who you are... because any dream your heart desires has to be ACTED-UPON if you really want to make it happen, and only certain people (usually the minority) actually do that.

PS... this is not just a music issue, it's a LIFE issue, and who you are in music is who you are in life.

Take care
Andrew

The journey to 'greatness' starts with this...

One of my favourite music educators (and bassists) Anthony Wellington wrote a post called 'The Mechanism of Working'.

It's a MUST-READ for ANYONE who ever wants to achieve anything substantial in ANY FIELD.

Take care

Andrew

Why do you keep doing it?

Where does your inspiration to 'keep going' come from? Why do you practice your instrument every day? What makes you love music?

The answers to these questions are different for everyone, and everyone NEEDS to answer them. If you do, you will never have a reason to be discouraged or negative for very long, because whenever you feel like that (and you will at some stage) you can go back to the things that make you happy and get your purpose back.

I have certain songs that just plain make me smile... and some that make me laugh with enjoyment. I listened to something today and couldn't help shouting out because the MUSIC was so happening that I had to acknowledge it, and my LOVE for music. I am still feeling energized by that one song... Four minutes of music has changed me for hours... It made me want to PLAY - like a little kid with his toys. Pure enjoyment and no effort or work involved.

That is why I keep doing it...  

What qualifies as 'PRACTICE'?

Yesterday I listened to a masterclass with the great Ron Carter (bassplayer with Miles Davis's 60's quintet). At one point he was asked what and how he practices... Yes, he does still practice daily, even after having played on over 2500 recordings and at the tender age of 75.

One of the things he said really made sense to me... it's super obvious, maybe so obvious that we sometimes overlook it... YOU HAVE ONLY PRACTISED IF YOU TOOK SOMETHING YOU COULDN'T DO PROPERLY AND YOU GOT IT RIGHT. This doesn't mean you have to perfect a really difficult piece at performance tempo every time you practice, but it does mean you should be able to describe what you ACHIEVED in your practice session, and not just talk in general terms about what you worked-on. For example, 'I practised improvisation for an hour and scales for 30 minutes' is not a valid description of practice. 'I worked on improvising on "Rhythm changes" to learn to deal with the chords on the B section and I found 5 new ways to get through the section and it took me an hour' is a good, measurable evaluation of the time you spent.

If you find yourself 'noodling' on your instrument during 'practice time' something is wrong with your approach. Practice is about ensuring constant and consistent progress. Great focus is required in order to ensure that your time is used in as beneficial a manner as is possible, because there are not enough hours in the day to mess around.

If you are truly dedicated to making a statement on your instrument then your time MUST be organised and geared towards positive change in your playing. If it is, then you are PRACTISING.    

Practising Part 3: Getting a plan

As discussed in the first part of this series, practising music is a PROCESS-oriented activity. This implies that one must dedicate a significant amount of time and effort consistently OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME in order to see real results (or progress).

One of the major issues that I have had trouble addressing throughout my musical journey has been that there are so many facets to music that I feel need to be practised in order to be a great musician that it becomes hard to practice any of them enough to feel like I am making a dent. The temptation is to focus fully on the weakest area of my playing (or the thing I need to have down for my next big event) until I have it sorted. This approach works well, because you do get that item down quickly. The problem is that EVERY OTHER AREA OF YOUR PLAYING SUFFERS while you do this.

In order to combat this imbalance in my practice-method I decided to come up with a list of all of the different things I need to work on consistently and then divide my minimum daily practice time between them.

My list has 12 elements on it (in no specific order):
1. Listening (to music that inspires me)
2. Meditating (to clear out the mental junk that accumulates)
3. Reading (a piece of music I have never seen before - NOT practising it, just reading it with my bass)
4. Piano (every musician should be functional on piano)
5. Jamming (having fun with music with no agenda)
6. Walking bassline construction
7. Chords and arpeggios
8. Learning melodies to standard tunes
9. Improvising (usually on a standard or a particular set of chords I'm pulling apart to understand)
10. Composing
11. Transcription (learning other peoples ideas BY EAR)
12. Technique/Mechanical maintenance

I give some of these things more time than others, but I have divided them in such a way that I know I'm getting to everything regularly enough to maintain balance in my musicianship.

YOUR HOMEWORK: Write your list of things to practice, then divide your minimum daily practice time by the number of items on your list, then get out your stopwatch and practice each item for the length of time allocated to it. If you find it too short then split the items over two days so you cover the whole list in 2 sessions.

One of the benefits of this way of practising is that it's almost impossible to get bored, because before you know it it's time to get onto the next item on the list. But although it feels like you're not doing much on each item over the course of a year you are spending significant amounts of time on each. For example, if you do each thing for 20 minutes every 2 days by the end of a year you have spent 3640-ish minutes on it... That's over 60 hours - more than enough to make big progress... So get going!

Take care
Andrew

Practising Part 2: Environmental factors

Today's post on practising is about something that one almost never considers when thinking about how to practice well, but it impacts on your efficiency and effectiveness perhaps more than anything else... it is the ENVIRONMENT in which you practice.

As soon as you begin to think about it it makes total sense. Being comfortable, focussed and organised would obviously make a huge difference to how well you use your time, and when time is short you can't afford to waste some of it because you are fighting against external distractions. The goal here is to create an uninterrupted 'flow' of productivity.

My approach to achieving a productive practice space is to make sure the place where I will practice is (fairly) tidy, quiet (this includes the 'no cellphone while practising' rule, and the 'don't talk to me when I'm practising' rule), the lighting-level is appropriate, and that everything I need for my particular tasks is at arm's reach so I don't have to scratch around in drawers to find the right material once I'm in my 'flow'. I also like to take something to drink into my room with me, especially if it's a hot day, as proper hydration is vital for maximum brain-function. Wearing comfortable clothing also helps greatly in feeling at ease.

I find that if I can get all of these things right before I begin my practice time is less frustrating as I am able to concentrate fully on what I am doing for the full time that I have scheduled - and that is really the goal of practising well.

Until next time, take care and practice well!

Andrew

Practising Part 1: Answering the most asked questions

In my experience talking about practising with people only becomes beneficial once they have had 2 questions answered. Until then, these questions (and the answers they think they will get) plague them to the point where they don't REALLY listen to what's being said. So I thought I'd get those out of the way first...

1. How much and how often should I practice?

In one line: As much and as often as you can... I realise that this is not the most satisfying answer, but it's the truth. I have a different set of responsibilities in life than you, and so I can't prescribe to you that x number of hours per day is what you should get in. What I can tell you with confidence is that if you REALLY LOVE MUSIC and you believe you need it in your life you will desire to get better at it every day and you will find a way to get to it - even if only for 5 minutes.

Remember that CONSISTENCY is a major key to getting better at any skill. That means that 10 minutes per day EVERY DAY is better than one 2 hour session once per week.

As a rule I try to play my instrument every day, as much as my schedule allows. Do I do it every day of the year? No. But I do it MOST days because I try to do it every day. That's real life.

2. What should I practice?

It's easy to become overwhelmed by all of the information and opinions out there on what to practice and the quickest way to get better. To simplify it for you, here's the truth: If you don't know the basics, then that's what you should be practising - knowing your notes, scales, chord-theory, basic technique, reading and rhythm studies. Once you have those down fairly well you need to start making decisions about where you are headed in music, as there is simply not enough time to become great at everything all at once. What is your goal? Do you want to be a studio pro? A live performer? A teacher? What do your favourite players do that you love? What music moves you deep down? The answers to these questions should guide your practice routine. If you decide you want to play jazz you need to find the process (from a good teacher) for learning that language. If you want to be a rock player start listening to rock and jamming along. Whatever the answers, find the process that will get you to where you think you are going, and then commit to it.

Ok. Now that those two issues are out of the way I can get more specific with my next post.

Parting tip: If you feel uninspired to practice just listen to your favourite musician play beautiful music for 5 minutes. It'll turn your attitude around.

Take care!
Andrew