Music Lessons

I’ve had some interesting teaching moments recently. I had one student tell me he wanted to work more on Jazz phrasing and that what we were working on (technique) was so he could play in tune.

I explained that being in tune is a consequence of playing correctly. If we put down and pick up our fingers correctly and at exactly the right time, our intuition will not let us play out of tune. That’s a matter of faith, but it has been proven to me over and over again.

Intonation is about tone quality and blend. If you are playing with someone and your fingers aren’t together, it will sound out of tune regardless of the pitch. Now if we don’t have control of our fingers, and are slightly early or late all the time, this sends all kinds of confused messages to the brain. I doesn’t feel right. When what we’re playing doesn’t feel right to us, we can’t free our mind.

When we have complete control of our fingers, then we can learn how to make all the subtle adjustments necessary to phrase correctly. It’s easy from there. I’m not saying there aren’t others ways to get there, but to me it makes the most sense.

This is all very old teaching that came to me through my Teacher Phil Sobel and from his teacher Henry Lindeman, who developed his method by studying virtuoso violinist Jasha Heifetz, who studied with Leopold Hauer, Russian Master violin teacher.

Anyway, I find it very difficult to put the cart before the horse or to let my students do it either. However I do give them some easy jazz victories to pique their interest. It still need to be fun.
Have a nice day😎

Someone, I think it was Dizzy, said you should only do this if you absolutely have to. Talking about playing jazz for a living. I agree it’s a tough road to hoe. I’ve been lucky enough to have extended periods of my life when I was able to make a living playing only jazz, but if one wanted to have any kind of home life in LA, the Jazz only rule didn’t suffice. At least for me. I missed the golden age of house bands and staff orchestras. I couldn’t make a living wage staying home unless I was willing to do everything. I also honestly wasn’t as good as the guys who were in town doing it at the time. I didn’t have the experience or the skill set necessary to compete. So I took whatever came my way, played keys a lot. There was more work for mediocre keyboard players then mediocre sax players. In my off time I practiced and jammed and listened a lot to the people who were doing what I wanted to do. I don’t regret that period of time at all. I spent a whole year doing nothing but blues gigs on keys and sax. Learning what not to play. Learning that you must study the idiom if you want to fit in. There are so many idiomatic inflections and linear ideas we develop as horn players. If we try to fit the jazz ones into the straight blues, or rock, idiom, it doesn’t fit. If you are smart enough you can bring all the knowledge of all the idioms you’ve studied, for me: jazz, classical, rock, funk, fusion, rhythm and blues, Brazilian jazz and its various grooves, et al. , and bring them into all the idioms you may be asked to play in without disrespecting the idiom. (A good rock player can spot a jazz purist a mile away). Michael Brecker was this kind of player. I’ve always endeavored to be as well. I’ve always found it a fun and interesting challenge. Now I’m getting older, and mostly back into jazz, but can still hang. I’m glad of that.
Thanks,

GM

Noise:
The world is full of all kinds of noise. Not just the kind you can hear. Fear, Anxiety, Anger, all create psychological, or spiritual if you will, noise. I Remember talking to Dave Weckl in the van one day after he had given a clinic/master class, and he said something that really stuck with me. He said “most beginning drummers make a lot of noise. One of the first things I try to teach them is to not make any sound that is not music”. He said a lot of them don’t make it past the first fill. Saxophone players do the same thing only our noise is less obvious as to what it is. Advanced musicians of any kind playing jazz especially can have the same issue. In my opinion and experience, the mind causes a lot of noise. One little mistake and off to the races! Nervousness, insecurities, judgement, of self or what someone else may or may not be thinking. It’s crazy! The listener may not know what it is but he or she can definitely feel it! When we had Dave’s acoustic band with Tom Kennedy, Makoto Ozone, and Myself, there was only joy, humor, excitement, honesty. We were all happy for each other being there. It was a noise free environment. The only comments I ever got were about how much fun that must be. I want that now. Whenever and whoever I play with. Not easy. But oh so worth it!

Do kids get together and jam like we used to? We used to jam somewhere almost every night. Practice all day jam all night. I didn’t go to college. That was my education, but a lot of friends who were in college were jamming with us. Every party I went to had a live band playing. If we didn’t jam we listened to music on real speakers in groups of people together. Then we’d talk about what we had heard and probably play it again and again. Maybe figure something of it out on the piano and start playing it. I always had my ax around close by. Maybe some of this goes on but I think a lot of social listening is gone. Music is either for dancing or ambience. Most kids I see are listening in headphones. Some in groups. Are they listening to the same thing? It seems so isolating to me. Especially to those who want to take music seriously. We also used to talk about the mechanics and technical aspects of music and debate about what sounds better and who is getting the best sound and why. The way engineers and producers do about the whole picture, we used to do about our individual instruments. How can you do that if your not experiencing the music together. I think that’s why live jazz is and will continue to come back. People want to experience music together, at least in my community, and I think elsewhere too. But if they are not doing it, kids should jam more! Call your friends up and get together and play. More fun than computer games or dumb TV shows. Just my opinion.

I’ve been thinking of compiling a list of “tidbits ” of knowledge I’ve accumulated over the past few years of teaching and trying to pass on what Phil Sobel was trying to teach me.

Example A:
If one makes mistake in music, either a wrong note or rhythm, or is early or late, etc., the mistake is a symptom of the problem. Not the problem itself. Usually if I’m screwing something up, I look before that, and see how I’m playing leading up to it. There may be a lick, or passage where I’m playing all the right notes and rhythms, but I’m not relaxed enough to tackle what comes after. Its like if a race car driver crashes into the wall, the crash was not the mistake. (Assuming of course someone else didn’t make him crash). He set himself up incorrectly for the turn or whatever, and as a result of that mistake, he crashed. Same thing.

Example B:
In the case of a beginner or even intermediate level, if you give them material to read appropriate for their level, missed notes are almost always not reading mistakes. They are finger mistakes. They see an A and finger a G. The wrong note comes out and they can’t understand why. When I get students to feel their fingers and I mean really do it – put attention to the feeling in their fingers above everything else in level of importance, most if not all of their reading mistakes go away. Most can’t do it for long at first. It has to be reinforced a lot. Another important thing that putting attention on the fingers does, is it shuts off your mind and engages your brain more. In Jazz especially, I need my Brain. Mind is for thinking. Thinking and playing Jazz don’t mix too well for me, but I REALLY need my brain.

Just for starters.