Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 17 Feb 2011 1:47 pm |
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A little work avoidance today. It was fun to create Part 2. Now, back to work!
WES MONTGOMERY –INTERVIEW, 1960S – ON PRACTICING
I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.
JERRY BYRD – SGF –SEPT. 2003 – ON DESIRE VS ABILITY
I’ve stated this several times in articles- DESIRE is the important thing. Desire will keep you going – ability is the result of desire. Ability is improving and continuing to improve as you use the desire to make improvement. In other words the harder you work the luckier you get. If you don’t have the desire to keep you fired up and going then your days are numbered.
Ability comes from desire because you are going to learn something every time you pick it up (guitar). The trouble is when a lot of people “practice” they play stuff they already know and have been playing. You’re not going to learn anything that way. You’ve got to try something new. Don’t be content with what you are already doing. Whatever you are trying to do that is not happening keep trying until it does happen - figure it out. Take it step by step – ask why doesn’t it work, like a reverse slant for instance. What am I doing wrong? .... “I’ll take a student that has 90% desire and 10% talent or ability … you take the student that has 90% talent and 10% desire and I’ll beat you to death with my student. Because mine is going to succeed and yours has given up and quit.
JOHN MCGANN – SGF - NOV 2003 – KNOWING THE MELODY
The reasons I suggest knowing the melody, at least as a point of departure:
1) It's the thing that seperates the hundreds of three chord tunes, whether it's country, bluegrass, oldtime, whatever...
2) Knowing scales and chord tones is essential, but many students just learn them and then paint-by-the-numbers, with no sense of melodic or rhythmic phrasing, development, or musical composition- it can be hot lick spewage very fast if not reigned in by some sense of taste, form, and storytelling-type development. As a student and teacher myself, I experienced it in my own playing and that of the hundreds of students I've worked with. I totally consider myself a student and always will.
3) By learning melodies in any style, you get a sense of the vocabulary specific to that style- for example, what you play on a country tune largely isn't going to make it on a jazz tune- each has their own unique "thang" that should be honored, and the only way to get that thang is to get in there and learn the tunes.
A good example is when a hotshot country player comes in to a bluegrass session and just takes the hot-licks-over-changes approach- it can be very cool in a way, but after the first couple of tunes, there's probably gonna be a lot of repeated ideas that don't relate to the musical vehicles...to me the most exciting playing in that style comes from playing "off" the melody and improvising within the melodic framework, like a great Texas fiddle player like Benny Thomasson, mark O'Connor, Byron Berline etc. would do.
Unless you were "struck by lightning" and born a musical genius (it ain't me, babe), learning other's melodies/interpretations/improvisations is essential to developing your own voice within any given style.
BUDDY EMMONS – SGF – OCT 2003 – ON VIBRATO
For slow songs, I lift the fingers off the strings in back of the bar and use a subtle roll that varies depending on the tempo or feel of the song. I’ve found that when I move the bar from side to side, or place the fingers on the strings in back of the bar, the overtones I like to hear integrated into the sound either diminish or disappear completely. I like to hear a vibrato integrated into the sound only when needed and not treated as a constant you feel is necessary. In time, you relax and your inner feelings dictate the type of vibrato best suited for what you’re playing. In the mean time, if it hurts when you do it a certain way, don’t do it that way.
JIM HALL – JAZZ.COM INTERVIEW – 2008 – ON MAKING MUSIC
John Lewis had this School for jazz at the end of summer for three weeks up in Lenox Massachusetts. At the end of one three week session he was talking to the graduates and a couple of guys asked if there were any gigs out there? John said: “Wait, wait, you got it backwards”
What he was saying was that music gives you so much already. What the hell else do you want? This is your reward right here just being involved. And it is really just stunning what you can get out of music. It’s unique; it’s yours and its something to be cherished. Making a living is an added bonus occasionally, but I think you already have quite a bit if you can play.
BUDDY EMMONS – SGF – MARCH 2002 – ON FINGERPICKS
Assuming the band of the pick fits comfortably around the finger, there are two angles in the pick blade that can give you an uncomfortable feeling while playing. If the angle is too straight, it will drag against the string, and when bent too far, the blade surface has little string resistance and slides off the string too easily. Either angle can affect your timing. Somewhere in between is the angle that allows the blade surface to slide comfortably off the string, but creates just enough resistance to offer a slight snap in the feel without the drag.
CINDY CASHDOLLAR – PUREHOMEMUSIC BLOG 2009 - HOW TO WORK WITH SINGER/SONGWRITERS
It makes it interesting. You have to just use your ear, and just kind of weave in and out. And it becomes really interesting to try to support, musically, what they're playing, as well as vocally, but not get in their way. Because you never, as a sideman, want to get in anybody's way.
ITZHAK PERLMAN - VIOLINIST.COM – 2007 – HOW TO PRACTICE
I recommend not over-practicing. After five hours, the brain loses its capacity to absorb anything. Don't practice blindly. You have to have a reason to practice, something particular to accomplish. Put as much music into your practicing as possible, so it’s not all technical work. Technique must make a connection with the music you are making.
BUDD ISAACS – UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEW – 2007 - COUNTRY PEDAL STEEL ORIGINS
I figured out this kind of tuning by listening to Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys. There were three fiddles where one would stay the same note and the others would change around it. I was trying to get that sound and I finally figured it out.
BILL FRISELL – ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM 2009 – THE POWER OF MELODY
When I first started getting into jazz, I studied what was going on with the music theoretically and would look at things more in a mathematical way. I would look at the chords and learn what the chord tones were, what the scales were. But somewhere along the way, I tried to understand all the inner workings of the melody. If the melody isn't there, then it really doesn't mean anything. It's also where it gets harder to explain. With every song, I'm trying to internalize the melody so strong that that's the backbone for everything that I am playing no matter how abstract it becomes. Sometimes I'll just play the melody over and over again and try to vary it slightly. It's really coming from that, like trying to make the melody the thing that's generating all the variations rather than some kind of theoretical mathematical approach.
SPEEDY WEST – INTERVIEW – GRITS RADIO BLOG – CIRCA 1979 – INSPIRATION FROM CARTOONS
I heard Woody Woodpecker – or I may have been sittin’ in a movie, I can’t remember – but the idea come for this (sings Woody Woodpecker theme) Doodly Dah Ho, Doodly Da Ho. That Woody Woodpecker thing? I thought, “There ought to be a way I can write an instrumental around that”. It took off from there and that’s how I got the idea for Woody Woodpecker’s ride in This Ain’t The Blues.
JERRY DOUGLAS – CHEIFNODA.COM – OVERCOMING MUSICAL PLATEAUS
I started playing a long time ago and you would fall into thinking
that there's nothing more to learn after a while. The truth is that you are only at a rest stop and there's a long way to go. So you ought to keep in mind that there's no end in learning. A number of folks stop playing once they reach a certain stage and they feel the limit. You must overcome this and then you can reach a higher level. I've been playing for [over] thirty years and I still feel like I'm stuck and getting nowhere. It often changes when I play with others and I get some new ideas or when I get inspired. So my advice is not to give up and
stick with it.
CHARLIE PARKER – CMGWW.COM - 1940’S – MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
"
PAUL FRANKLIN – SGF – 2003 – ON SPEED & TECHNIQUE
This speed question always comes up when I teach. The students play wonderful ballads and then they ask about learning technique so they can play fast. I tell them "you're already playing with great technique". I give them a three chord progression and ask them to "play fast through these changes". I quickly see their frustration as they screw it up. I then ask, "What were they thinking while soloing?" They always say "I'm confused" or "I'm not sure about what to play"? I then point out to them that their lack of knowledge is their obstacle not the lack of technique.
Its a rare thing to find any player that can not move his/her fingers at a fast pace. Speed does NOT come through a blocking technique although the excuse of technique is often what you hear from the not so fast players. Speed does come from an individual’s retainable and quickly accessible knowledge of the fretboard.
For instance; I can play fast, but if I start playing through changes with scales that I am not as familiar with I will screw it up. This happens because my memory doesn't work as fast as my fingers are able to move. When this happens it tells me I need more study...NOT technique. Playing fast is all about balance between my memory and the various tempos of songs. I can still remember struggling to hit whole notes on songs like Faded love when I was learning how to play. I overcame that through redundant practicing. A fast improviser doesn't have time to think about where the correct notes of chords are and how things are played while they play fast songs. A lack of knowledge causes the missed strings not the lack of technique. Technique is only the means to play notes clean and precise. Technique is not the shortcut or an excuse for becoming a fast player. Don't be afraid to start learning the instrument with whatever technique you feel the most comfortable with. Every technique is sufficient.
JERRY BYRD – SGF – 2004 – MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT YOU’VE GOT
Some wanted to know if I tweaked the pick-ups in my old Rickenbacher. I don’t know what they are talking about. I NEVER messed with the pick-ups at all. What is not realized is that I was playing day-to-day. I put whatever kind of strings I had-not having to go buy them. If I had the guitar with the first three strings all 16 gauge and most likely I did that at times because I used what I had on hand and probably didn’t have a 15 gauge string. It may not have sounded as good but I used them anyway. We just made do with what we had on hand at times. |
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