| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: What is happening to me? | |
| Brotherdavies -- 04/13/2007, 01:36:45 -- #34495 | |
| A change over the last 12 months. No longer do I want to play a tune just to recreate a familiar melody. Now I take a standard, and only those standards that fascinate me, and explore it, play with it until something special happens. Then I am satisfied and I can leave the tune alone. I may lose myself for 30 minutes in one song, detached from reality, threading together notes that sound melodic and sometimes exotic. I am bored simply playing tunes. I need to become absorbed in the music, release some feelings, communicate things I can not put into words, create something beautiful. I am obsessed. Thinking about music at work, on the train, in my car, in the garden. Listening to music has become as essential as eating food – I need it to nourish me. What is happening to me? Bro' | |
| 7 -- 04/13/2007, 01:55:45 -- #34495 | |
| There are many other interesting things in life besides music. Women, friends, food, travel and much more. It is easy to become obsessed with any of them. I am obsessed with many of them, but I still try to maintain a balance. Whether or not I always succeed is anyone's guess. | |
| dalty52 -- 04/13/2007, 04:18:34 -- #34495 | |
| "Thinking about music at work, on the train, in my car, in the garden. Listening to music has become as essential as eating food – I need it to nourish me." Sweet..... | |
| Whacky -- 04/13/2007, 07:20:06 -- #34495 | |
| Hey Bro - you just described me growing up. I never paid attention in school. I quit doing homework from 4th grade on. All I could think about was music, pitches, melodies, chords, progressions, emotions, etc....I could not wait to get home to try out everything I figured out while I was at school. I think to do anything well, you have to be somewhat obsessive about it. I say - go ahead, man - you're doing great! | |
| tangman06 -- 04/13/2007, 09:42:46 -- #34495 | |
| this is interesting to me because i have experienced a similar transformation since i started playing jazz 6 months ago. now i practice for at least 5 hours a day, read theory books during class, my grades have gone down, i find a little less excitement when hangin out with friends, and i have become really good at jazz piano. Dr. Whack you said you "quit doing homework from 4th grade on." I'm curious...did this turn out beneficial to you? I feel as if I am going to be successful in the field of music, but my parents are convinced that i should be putting more time into homework. What is your opinion on this? | |
| CynBad -- 04/13/2007, 09:45:21 -- #34495 | |
| jazz guy, enjoy it while you can -- the luxury of being able to play 5 hours per day. | |
| DoubleZ -- 04/13/2007, 10:22:41 -- #34495 | |
| "Hey Bro - you just described me growing up. I never paid attention in school. I quit doing homework from 4th grade on. All I could think about was music, pitches, melodies, chords, progressions, emotions, etc..." Yeah man, you should see my AP US History notebook. I gave up filling it up with lined paper; it's all staff paper now. All I do during class is write progressions, heads, and then solos on them. I figure it will come in a lot more handy than 18th century America... | |
| Whacky -- 04/13/2007, 10:49:54 -- #34495 | |
| I could talk for hours (a lot better than I type) about traditional education. In the long run it did work out for me, but I think I was also lucky. I knew at a very young age that music was what I wanted to do for a living. I always had trouble paying attention in class (ADD??) Although I've always had a thirst for learning and I am fascinated by learning and teaching, I resented having to bring school work home after spending 6 or 7 hours there already...I (and most of us) needed time to explore other things... The downfall? Of course my transcripts are horrible. I learned I could get promoted on Cs and Ds without doing any work at all. I am now very interested in some of the things I dissed in my formative years. However now some of those things seem more relevant to my existence than they did when I was a youngster...back then only music was relevant to me. I hesitate to "brag" about my rebellion because I would never want to inspire a person in that direction. I do believe though that if you focus on a goal (and obsess about it a bit) you will most likely achieve it. Maybe there's a "leave school at school" website somewhere? | |
| ziggysane -- 04/13/2007, 11:52:39 -- #34495 | |
| In the last 2 or 3 years I have some of my most fun musical moments have occured when I come to the end of a tune and just "jam" on it for 10 to 20 minutes. It usually starts as a normal outro improv on the song's progression (I.e an A minor-F Major vamp from Bob Dylan's Hurricane) and just devolves into free improvisation from there. | |
| Scot -- 04/14/2007, 11:11:27 -- #34495 | |
| This happens when you stop worrying about HOW to play the music. The freedom and relaxation that comes when you can play what you hear without anything holding you back lets you really get into a tune or a sound or a rhythm and fully explore it. Could be in your living room or on stage. I recall when this happened to me and how it opened my musical world. The great thing is this- each time you reach one of these pinnacles and discover something that is just too cool, all it does is put you right back at the beginning of a journey and then later on down the road you'll discover something else just as enlightening. The idea is to keep pressing on, keep challenging yourself, keep taking those explorations further. The idea of popping through the bubble into the next universe is something that will continually come up as long as you are always pushing your own edge. This is what art is all about! Music especially so. | |
| Brotherdavies -- 04/16/2007, 00:55:14 -- #34495 | |
| Thanks guys. Scot has described where I am at - and a combination of this site and Mark Levine has helped me to to this. e.g. the melodic minor modes give me a palette of notes that help me express certain feelings. Something a little scary is that what I am now playing is deep and personal! Are other people going to dig this ? Bro' | |
| Kai -- 04/16/2007, 02:13:25 -- #34495 | |
| I'm just beginning to do this more and I'm really enjoying playing more now. I think what kick-started me into this was having a professional wind player join our group sessions. I had to do something quickly about (1) playing faster and (2) coming up with a solo/improv on the fly and (3) improve sight reading. Ths was scary but I found that I stayed later than usual at these sessions and it made me identify what I needed to do and I think it is pushing me forward to another level. Long way to go yet tho :-0 | |
| marksdg -- 04/16/2007, 08:54:27 -- #34495 | |
| Dr. Whack, We homeschool our son for precisely this reason: schools do such an inept job at teaching students during the day that they have to load up kids with homework. My son doesn't spend more than 4 hours a day, 5 days a week doing anything that we have forced him to do. Any learning beyond that is up to him. | |
| Scot -- 04/16/2007, 13:30:55 -- #34495 | |
| Bro- it doesn't matter if other people are going to dig it! That's the beauty of art. If at a point of mastering your art form you dig what you're doing, that feeling goes to your listeners and generally they will as well. Just look at Keith Jarrett or Brad Mehldau. They both play deep and personal, and Jarrett is a freak on stage, but people love what they do. There are tons of examples. It's important to keep in mind that people WANT to hear you do what you do, they WANT to hear you play your deepest most personal stuff, and not only that, people WANT to hear you do what you love doing best. Once I figured that out, I started doing solo piano concerts that get responses that I've never dreamed of before. All I do is the same stuff I do in my living room- I stop being careful, stop trying to play for musicians, just do my stuff and for some reason people like it. | |
| Whacky -- 04/16/2007, 19:55:50 -- #34495 | |
| Amen Scot - for years I tried to fit different molds - now I don't know what my on shape is :) And marksdg I applaud you! Home schooling would have been the perfect thing for me. My wife and I didn't have enough confidence in ourselves to home school our kids. oh well...they're doing fine in spite of it all :) | |
| Brotherdavies -- 04/17/2007, 00:28:53 -- #34495 | |
| Thanks - that makes me want to play even more! I just bought the Jarrett at the Blue Note CD and Autumn Leaves grabbed me and really did something to me - I was carried along with the music - it sort of mesmerised me (dangerous - I was driving at the time). And coincidentaly I have recently started listening to Brad M. I have played his Moon River and Prelude to a Kiss over and over again. Cheers Bro' | |
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