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Guest
Guest
for jazz musicians, the most important thing to do is:
1- read all mark levine's books
2- memorize all the licks that you can get hold of, in all tonalities and modes, and play them as fast as you can.
then, play it all together, like it was a musical diahrrea, non stop. i once saw this saxophone player live that all he did in two hours and a half of concert (2h30m!!!) was to play licks as fast as he could, up and down, down and up. it doesn't even matter that it all sounded the same. and he only played 3 songs in that time!
theory is very important. but one must know that the technique serves the music, and not the otherway. after learning something, you can only master it after you forget everything that you learned.
what i like the most about music is that it doesn't have a physical medium (except for air molecules). you can write it and record it, but you can never touch it or taste it, you can only listen to it, and it only makes sense as time is going by. there was once an architect that said "architecture is frozen music". as you listen, for instance, to a bach's work, or some of frank zappa's, you can almost feel it, those magnificent architecture, being big churches, tall skyscrapers, or even landscapes: physical or etheral. it really touches my inner self, deep, deep down inside, when i let go and let the music take hold. and the same thing happens as we make music, there is a simbiotism between what we feel and what kind of melodies/harmonies/rythm we create - it's a two way relation.
those musicians that we are talking about - they work only in one way. they play as they have been taught, because for them, that is music - play like john coltrane, or kurt cobain, or give a maria callas crystalline high B. the important thing is to know important people, and have plenty of gigs, so you can be seen and heard. the more contacts you have, the better musician you are. very rarely there are exceptions (but of course there are).
music are lost moments in which we retain in a very unique language. the fact that we can make sense of sounds with a given frequency absolutely knocks me out. and the thing is that we can listen to a song, and know what is the author if you never heard it before, just by his accent. for example, i can listen to a miles song and know it is him, just by the sound of his trumpet. or a machaut's work and know it is his. i think it is truly wonderful, and sometimes saddens me to see many musicians trying to tell me that music is X and that's it.
1- read all mark levine's books
2- memorize all the licks that you can get hold of, in all tonalities and modes, and play them as fast as you can.
then, play it all together, like it was a musical diahrrea, non stop. i once saw this saxophone player live that all he did in two hours and a half of concert (2h30m!!!) was to play licks as fast as he could, up and down, down and up. it doesn't even matter that it all sounded the same. and he only played 3 songs in that time!
theory is very important. but one must know that the technique serves the music, and not the otherway. after learning something, you can only master it after you forget everything that you learned.
what i like the most about music is that it doesn't have a physical medium (except for air molecules). you can write it and record it, but you can never touch it or taste it, you can only listen to it, and it only makes sense as time is going by. there was once an architect that said "architecture is frozen music". as you listen, for instance, to a bach's work, or some of frank zappa's, you can almost feel it, those magnificent architecture, being big churches, tall skyscrapers, or even landscapes: physical or etheral. it really touches my inner self, deep, deep down inside, when i let go and let the music take hold. and the same thing happens as we make music, there is a simbiotism between what we feel and what kind of melodies/harmonies/rythm we create - it's a two way relation.
those musicians that we are talking about - they work only in one way. they play as they have been taught, because for them, that is music - play like john coltrane, or kurt cobain, or give a maria callas crystalline high B. the important thing is to know important people, and have plenty of gigs, so you can be seen and heard. the more contacts you have, the better musician you are. very rarely there are exceptions (but of course there are).
music are lost moments in which we retain in a very unique language. the fact that we can make sense of sounds with a given frequency absolutely knocks me out. and the thing is that we can listen to a song, and know what is the author if you never heard it before, just by his accent. for example, i can listen to a miles song and know it is him, just by the sound of his trumpet. or a machaut's work and know it is his. i think it is truly wonderful, and sometimes saddens me to see many musicians trying to tell me that music is X and that's it.
