From the late Barry Harris: “Are the hands doing something they’re used to doing, or is the mind leading the hands? Because the hands are like monsters— and they have a separate entity— and they […]
Category: playing
Very occasional quote of the day: the instrument itself
“If you get too involved in the playing of the instrument itself, you forget that the whole purpose of what you’re doing is to add to the music. There’s more to music than having control […]
Very occasional quote of the day: practicing vs. playing
Most important thing on this site: DL: How important is it to play, and how important is it to practice on your own? SM: It’s more important to play. I’ve always felt that playing is […]
Notes on the first playing gig in some time
I had my first actual jazz club gig since COVID the other night, thought I’d share some playing notes about it. This is the type of thing we talk about here. The rhythm section was […]
What are we doing
Been having a minor existential crisis in the last week or so— I played my first session in over a year last week, was feeling really unpracticed and generally out of touch with music… and […]
Very occasional quote of the day: master from the beginning
I’m just thinking about a VOQOTD from 2017 today— from the painter Robert Henri: “An art student must be a master from the beginning; that is, he must be master of such as he has. […]
Non-mistake mistakes
“Honor Your Mistake as a Hidden Intention.” – Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies “It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.” […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Roy on time
“Mingus use to say the damndest thing about me years ago. He’d say, ‘Well, Roy Haynes. You don’t always play the beat, you suggest the beat!’ I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. […]
EZ stock beats for all music
This is a page I’m using with some younger students this week— a variety of stock beats that can be used in most playing situations. We get so involved with technical improvement, it’s easy for […]
Playing weird tunes
You go through stages of learning jazz repertoire. In high school I would play Charlie Parker tunes on the snare drum— just the melody rhythm. Then I learned about some standard forms, like 12-bar blues […]
Microtiming jive
Microtiming is a term that gives me hives every time I hear musicians use it. To me it suggests misaligned priorities, a disappearance up one’s own rear end, and the resulting degraded musical abilities. The […]